Early on a Saturday, 3 February by-elections morning, a persistent handbell clanging all to no effect, rented the air around a waking Lagos community.

The bell call was a man’s signal to prospective voters that were within earshot. It was meant to herd them down to a polling unit within reach. But as the final head count showed, not a lot of people cared to go cast their votes in the Surulere 1 Federal Constituency.

Hence, the comment by Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria, tagging the low turn-out as unfortunate. It is his former seat in the House of Representatives that was to be filled by 46-year-old Fuad Kayode Laguda, a new candidate under the All Progressives Congress (APC) who is also a tax administrator.

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After casting his vote, Mr Gbajabiamila spoke to reporters about the peaceful conduct of the polls in his community, confirming that it had been much organised. That response was aided by the sheer lack of interest of the public and that had been anticipated.

So far so good, based on what I can see and what I have heard, says Mr Gbajabiamila, the election has been peaceful, well organised.

It is a by-election, so perhaps the turnout may not be as other elections where there are other interests at stake.

Two days before the by-election, the Lagos State Police Command had confirmed the restriction of activities within the catchment of a polling unit and it was to last between 12:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Anticipating a low turnout was a good guess by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives Gbajabiamila. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials after closing for the day did a count of unused ballot papers that measured up to over 900 yet the results portend an APC victory which then became the reality.

The new APC candidate, Laguda scored 11, 203 votes, ensuring his declaration as winner by INEC.

It is the monotonous hold on electoral posts that seems to have discouraged Lagosians from visiting the nearby polling centre in the Surulere district. A Nigerian army barricade was set up around there and it learnt first-hand about the disinterest.

According to an X platform tweet by the user, SizZzle, Nigerians don’t care again about voting and that is looking like it will go on indefinitely although there is still hope things might change if eligible voters start to feel like their efforts would count in an election.

The 2023 General Elections left a bitter taste in people’s mouths because they felt that many posts were rigged including the office of the President of Nigeria.

A tight election race saw Bola Tinubu of the APC emerge even though the young populace being the largest demographics in the country, wanted the Labour Party candidate Peter Obi to be their winner.

2023 has destroyed the little hope left [in] our electioneering. It will take something special for [a] 15m turnout in 2027 nationwide, tweets Bigwig Austin.

Sometimes, people simply didn’t feel like there was an election going on around them since they stayed locked indoors the way Lexyzdoo did. The user shared in his telling response that reads: My own is so election is going on currently in my country? And I’m not even aware.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.