YOUR FINGERPRINT IS YOUR MANDATE

By Bolaji O. Akinyemi

A Citizens Advisory for the 2027 General Election

2027 AND BEYOND
OWN THE PROCESS.
VOTE FOR VALUE.
DEFEND YOUR VOTE.
ACTIVATE PERFORMANCE DEMOCRACY.

A Citizen’s Handbook for Nigeria’s General Election

Citizen Bolaji Akinyemi

There was a time when I thought thumb printing belonged to people who could not write their names.

Growing up, my earliest understanding of thumb printing was that of an uneducated adult who needed to conduct a transaction at the bank but could not sign a signature. Where others signed, such a person thumb printed.

That understanding changed with experience.

In 1987, I opened my first active bank account, several other accounts will follow as the years roll by. For decades, I maintained the same signature across multiple accounts and Banks. But as the years passed, age made it increasingly difficult to reproduce the signature with the consistency required to authorise transactions. Today, the most comfortable and reliable way for me to authenticate a transaction is to use my fingerprint.

There is something profound about that.

My fingerprint does not merely identify me. It confirms me as me.

When I place my finger on a transaction, I am saying: This is me. I authorise this. This is my mandate.

Nothing is more uniquely mine than my fingerprint.

And this is the lesson every Nigerian voter must carry into the 2027 General Election.

YOUR FINGERPRINT IS NOT JUST YOUR IDENTITY

Your fingerprint is the uniqueness of who you are.

But your vote is the uniqueness of what you expect from government.

When you cast your ballot, you are not merely participating in an election. You are identifying yourself as a citizen and exercising the sovereign power entrusted to you by the Constitution.

Your ballot is your authorisation.

Your vote is your mandate.

The candidate you elect receives no personal favour from you. You are not doing that candidate a kindness. You are transferring a portion of your constitutional power to someone you have chosen to act on your behalf.

Think about that carefully.

When you vote for a President, Governor, Senator, Member of the House of Representatives or State House of Assembly, you are effectively saying:

“I trust you to exercise public power on my behalf.”

That is an enormous responsibility.

You are handing another human being the authority to make decisions that can affect your life, your family and generations yet unborn.

You are entrusting someone with decisions concerning your security, health, education, economy, infrastructure, employment, dignity and future.

That person will not merely govern the people who voted for him or her.

The consequences of your decision will reach even those who did not vote.

That is why your vote must never be treated casually. Same reason every citizen should dare to vote.

Political mandate is an access legitimately granted to others to take charge of your life and it’s affairs.

There is no reasonable reason any citizen, 18 year and above, eligible to vote shouldn’t be out on election day to excise his/her franchise.

DO NOT SELL WHAT YOU CANNOT BUY BACK

The greatest danger confronting the Nigerian voter is the reduction of the vote to a commodity.

A bag of rice.

A few thousand naira.

A gift.

Transport money.

A temporary political appointment.

A promise made during a campaign.

None of these can compensate for four years of bad governance.

You may collect ₦10,000 today, but you cannot buy back four years of lost opportunity and the spiral effect of it into years ahead.

You may collect food today, but you cannot eat yesterday’s abandoned infrastructure.

You may accept a gift from a politician, but you cannot gift away the future of your children and retrieve it when they grow up.

Do not sell a four-year mandate for a one-day benefit.

The politician who buys your vote is not generous. He is desperate to excise control without accountability!

He may simply be purchasing the authority to make decisions about your life without accountability to you.

WHO DESERVES YOUR FINGERPRINT?

Before placing your fingerprint on any mandate, ask:

What has this person done?

Not what has the person promised.

Not how much money has the person distributed.

Not how many crowds attended the rally.

Not how impressive the posters are.

Not how entertaining the campaign speeches sound.

Ask:

What has this person done with power before?

Where there is a record, examine the record.

Where there is experience, examine the experience.

Where there has been public service, demand evidence of performance.

Where there are promises, ask how those promises will be funded, implemented and measured.

This is the beginning of Performance Democracy.

FROM CAMPAIGN DEMOCRACY TO PERFORMANCE DEMOCRACY

For too long, Nigerian politics has placed enormous attention on the period before election day and insufficient attention on what happens after victory.

Campaign Democracy asks:

“Who can win?”

Performance Democracy asks:

“Who can deliver?”

Campaign Democracy measures political strength by rallies, slogans, endorsements, propaganda and financial muscle.

Performance Democracy measures leadership by results.

Did the roads improve?

Did schools improve?

Did healthcare improve?

Did insecurity decline?

Did jobs and economic opportunities expand?

Did government become more transparent?

Did citizens receive better value for public resources?

Did the quality of life improve?

Did government respect the dignity of the citizen?

These are the questions that should define the 2027 election.

YOUR VOTE MUST COME WITH EXPECTATIONS

Do not enter the polling booth empty-handed.

Carry your expectations with you.

Know what you want from government.

Know what your community needs.

Know what your state requires.

Know what Nigeria requires.

Then examine the candidates against those expectations.

Your vote should not be based merely on who belongs to your party, ethnic group, religious community, political camp or favourite movement.

Those identities may matter to our social and political lives, but they must never become a substitute for competence, character, capacity and performance.

Nigeria cannot afford to elect people simply because they are ours.

We must elect people because they can serve all of us.

AFTER THE ELECTION, DO NOT SURRENDER YOUR MANDATE

The greatest mistake a citizen can make is to believe that his or her responsibility ends at the polling booth.

It does not.

The ballot transfers a mandate.

It does not transfer your citizenship.

After election day, remain engaged.

Track the promises.

Ask questions.

Demand budgets.

Monitor projects.

Measure outcomes.

Challenge waste.

Commend good performance.

Reject impunity.

Participate in public conversations.

Hold elected officials accountable without waiting until another election.

The ballot gives you a voice. Citizenship gives you a continuing responsibility to use it.

This is the heart of Performance Democracy.

2027 MUST BE DIFFERENT

The 2027 General Election must become more than another contest for political power.

It must become a national examination of leadership.

Let every candidate come before the Nigerian people with a record, a programme, measurable commitments and a clear explanation of how those commitments will be delivered.

Let every voter ask:

What value will my vote produce?

Let every elected official understand:

My mandate belongs to the people.

And let every citizen remember:

Government exists to serve the people, not the other way around.

Your fingerprint is uniquely yours.

Your vote is uniquely yours.

Your expectations are uniquely yours.

Therefore, do not surrender them carelessly.

When you place your finger on the ballot, remember what you are doing.

You are not merely choosing a name.

You are authorising a steward.

You are transferring power.

You are entrusting someone with a portion of your life.

You are giving someone the authority to make decisions that may shape the destiny of your children and your children’s children.

So, before you vote, ask yourself one final question:

“Is this the person I am prepared to trust with my mandate?”

If the answer is no, do not give them your fingerprint.

If the answer is yes, vote with conviction.

And after voting, remain awake.

Because democracy does not end when the ballot is cast.

Democracy begins to prove its worth when the mandate is exercised.

2027 AND BEYOND

OWN THE PROCESS.
VOTE FOR VALUE.
DEFEND YOUR VOTE.
ACTIVATE PERFORMANCE DEMOCRACY.

Let 2027 be the year Nigerian citizens stop voting merely for politicians and begin voting deliberately for value, competence, accountability and measurable performance.

Let the citizen become the centre of democracy again.

Let the mandate return to its rightful owner.

The People.

This Citizens Advisory is part of 2027 AND BEYOND: OWN THE PROCESS.
VOTE FOR VALUE.
DEFEND YOUR VOTE.
ACTIVATE PERFORMANCE DEMOCRACY — A Citizen’s Handbook for Nigeria’s General Election, to be released as a gift to Nigerians in celebration of the 66th Anniversary of Nigeria’s Independence.

For Bulk order call:

Citizen Bolaji Akinyemi

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