I have been living in Lagos since 2013. Why I settled for Lagos is that, as a real estate student then, I looked at the opportunities I could get. I had offers in Ibadan, but even as a very young person, I was not going to stay because I wanted a different experience.
My relationship with my community before the election was great and they all know me. Getting to talk with community residents helps me to familiarise myself more with my area. My interaction with people from different ethnic groups before the elections was great. My landlord is also an Igbo man. I have had great interactions with people from other tribes, and even at work.
It was during the 2023 election that I saw firsthand what hostility looks like. It was so bad that I got scared for my life.
During the presidential elections, they already marked some of our faces. The way we dressed, we were much cleaner than the way other people dressed. The way we had our conversations was not like we were shouting. It was calm. That kind of made it very easy for them to single us out as people voting for the Labour Party. And because the Labour Party won that polling unit, they already kind of had dinner for us and attacked us during the governorship election.
The most recorded violence happened during the governorship election, especially across Lagos state.
Old men were saying things like “Go back to Anambra”, and I was challenging them that I’m a Yoruba person. My surname is Bolarinwa. Then the man said, “Omo ale ni e (you are a bastard). Why will you be voting for an Igbo person…” I got plenty of slaps on my face.
One of the women in the area familiar with me was the one who rushed out and said, “Are you going to say you don’t know this guy any more? Why are you now beating him?” She was the one who saved me from those guys that day because it would have been much worse.
What I noticed first was that they did not allow us to cover our voting cubicle. Someone was breathing down your neck, saying, “If you have the effrontery, vote for another party different from the APC we asked you to vote for.” The pressure was there. We were all forced to vote for the APC at that polling booth.
The first sign of tension I observed was that there was unnecessary commotion. They were drinking sachet alcohol, screaming and had people at polling stations giving money to people, raising curses just to tell you that this is our spot.
I got to the polling unit to get accredited. Before we knew it, some people arrived as the owners of the place, indicating, “You must do whatever we ask you to do. Whoever we tell you to vote for, that’s who you must vote for, if you like your life.”
We felt there was nothing that would happen that would dissolve into violence, also considering most of us live in this vicinity. But that was not the case. That was the beginning of the problem. We were beaten.
The security agencies did not intervene. They sat down and crossed their legs. One thing I realised later was that there was nothing that was happening at that polling unit that was not done with the permission of the security agencies on the ground. It was funny because we were like, “Policemen, you should be able to talk about this,” but they don’t care about us. They were not effective. They were just there as a prop.
We cast our votes under very big duress. I have not experienced something like that before.
My message to Nigerians harassed or intimidated is that the fight is not yet over. As Nigerians, we are the last resort we have. Nobody is coming to save us. We need to know that we all have a role to play. 2023 has passed. 2027 is ahead of us, and we need to understand that this is a new season, a new time. We need to go out there again to cast our votes.
As narrated by: Iyanuoluwa Bolarinwa (Lagos, Nigeria).
This snippet is published as part of the series, Not Your Lagos.
Discover more from Chronycles
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Published by