The Executive Secretary, National Assembly Library, Mr Henry Nwawuba, has urged Nigerians to participate in 2027 general elections, describing voter participation as key to national building.
Nwawuba, a former member of the House of Representatives, made the call on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Nwawuba also urged the civil society organisations, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and other electoral stakeholders to prioritise civic duty and active voter participation as the country prepares for the general elections.
“My call is that everybody should come out and vote. It’s your civic responsibility. Nation building is a joint task. It’s not for the executive or for the parliamentarians. It’s all of us.
“The biggest office in Nigeria is the office of the citizen. But do citizens realize that they have the power? I think for us, what we need to also do as leaders is civic education. Let the people know.
“But honestly, my call and my charge to Nigerians is to come out on election day and cast their votes,’’ he said.
Nwawuba expressed concern over the level of voter apathy in the country, saying it remains one of the major challenges confronting the nation’s electoral process.
“Right now, for the election, I don’t see so much violence. My worry is that of voter apathy and turnout. For people to believe that their votes count, we need to do a lot more in mobilising people to come out,’’ he said.
Nwawuba also called for the unity of the opposition parties in 2027 as a strategic to effectively challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the general elections.
According to him, the opposition parties would have given the ruling party more challenge if the likes of Atiku Abubakar, Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso, Peter Obi, and others had forged a unified front.
“If I were still in the opposition, my strategy would be to come together. Imagine a scenario where Kwankwaso, Obi, Atiku, and others were able to align.
“It would form a formidable force against our party. But fortunately for us, they have not been able to harmonise their ideologies,” he said.
The former lawmaker described politics as a game of strategy, citing the legislative background and administrative depth of the current administration.
“For the first time in Nigeria, you have a president that is from the parliament, a vice president from the parliament, a first lady, chief of staff, secretary to the government, and so many ministers who are all former parliamentarians.
“These are leaders who understand governance from the grassroots because parliamentarians are the tier of government that relates most closely with the people. They relate more with the grassroots,’’ he said.
Nwawuba, who also spoke on the GKS’ 2026 Freedom Day Celebration, as a member, described the birth of Jesus Christ as an earth-shattering event that brought freedom and also reshaped the global calendar into Before Christ (BC) and After Christ (AD).
He cautioned against the rise of motivational preaching and material focusing, at the expense of spiritual truth.
He urged religious bodies to remain steadfast, preach the unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ, and continue serving as moral beacons for the nation.
“A lot of churches today have missed the point. There’s a lot of what they call ‘prosperity pastoring,’ where motivational speakers bring a feel-good factor into the church and leave the truth behind.
“If you feed the children of God stones instead of bread, you are capable of destroying more lives than an armed robber who had a successful career for 100 years, because you can lead a lot of people astray,” Nwawuba said. (NAN)
