He challenged the citizenry to register their anger for the current system through exercising their franchise rather than engaging in street protests.
In a statement, yesterday, Olurode said the greatest enemy of democratisation remains voter apathy.
He explained that the indifference culminates in disenchantment and withdrawal from the entire electoral process.
This, according to the Professor of Sociology, is one of the factors accounting for consistent poor voter turnout during elections.
He observed that participation in general elections hovers below the 50 per cent mark.
Olurode said the logic of those, who unconsciously promote voter apathy, is to hurt uncaring state actors and those who represent them at all levels, by staying away from the electoral process, and if possible, from the political exercise.
He added: “If we think deeply, oppressors prefer to have a minority taking decisions during voting and entire gamut of electoral process. Unfortunately, it is only when we come out in large numbers as members of the oppressed class that we can secure alterations in power equation.
“In our country today, there are enough justifications for wanting to stay away from elections. In private and public discussions, I have noticed indicators of voter withdrawal syndrome creeping in.
“High cost of fuel, poor administration of naira swap, indifference by significant state actors and by banks for the past couple of months, it has been wholesale frustration. The ruling elite are engaging a fraction of it in an intra-elite war. There seems to have been a major disagreement among members of the ruling elite. Elite consensus seems impossible. A multiple of fiascos and ‘bad belle’ (apology to former President Obasanjo).”
Olurode concluded that street protests are not the required response to governance challenges.
“We need concerted efforts to right socio-economic and political wrongs of the past decades. We must not stay away from the poll, but remain glued to our polling units. To do otherwise is to endorse the status quo,” he added.
