by Chinwe Okafor
The presidential elections which took place two weeks ago saw a huge turnout of electorates who wanted to make sure their votes counted and they were satisfied with the exercise as there was calm following the announcement of the winner, save for Orubebe and his gang.
The guber elections however, is looking a lot more like an extended environmental sanitation exercise.
The turnout is so poor and we fear for what the results of the votes would be like.
So what could be holding these citizens of various states from coming to cast their votes to put the appropriate winner in the seat?
We give you 10 reasons.
1. Cooking
Most people, like the Twitter user below, obviously are seizing the sit-at-home day to stock up on food in the house.
Hayyyyyy, they brought light o. They did! Off to grill my beef! Egusi will be done with AC today. No heat abeg.
— Bohemian chick (@Chicasa) April 11, 2015
2. DSTV
During the presidential elections, the cable service providers had a major interruption which left the entire nation with no choice but to leave their homes and head out to vote. This time however, the service has been restored and the couch and television set has trapped voters at home.
3. Rigging
The mindset of Nigerians foe a very long time has been of the fact that votes don’t count in the country. We hoped that the turnout at the presidential elections changed that perception but apparently not as many are still of the opinion that their votes, whether cast or not, would not matter especially in state elections.
4. Security
The election process is believed to be a violent one following previous events, however, the presidential elections saw a massive turnout of security officials ensuring that there wasn’t an occurrence of such. Today, there were few of them on the roads despite having patrolled the roads yesterday, causing heavy gridlock in the process.This led people to stay in their homes as they do not know what to expect.
5. Pending chores
Laundry. A Twitter user tweeted his shock upon sighting his dirty laundry in a pile. Most people are keeping up on pending chores around the house.
6. Football… and other sports
The streets are alive with residents playing football matches and other sporting activities instead of casting votes. Some say it is in anticipation of the Arsenal match holding later today after the elections, and because they cannot wait, they might as well indulge.
7. Catch up on sleep
What could beat that, really. Not even a vote, no?
8. TV shows
When best to catch up on your favorite TV shows than a mandatory sit-at-home day?
9. Loved ones
Because this doesn’t happen as often following an extremely busy schedule, any opportunity counts to sit at home and have a valuable time with your loved ones.
For me, I was looking out for my favourite TV show -“The Big Issue” on TVC but so sad, they collapsed all programme schedule for election coverage.