Nigeria, June 2 -- At last common sense has prevailed. How can compulsion, coercion and democracy be compatible? How can a presiding officer of the National Assembly, the bastion of democracy, conceive the thought of raising a bill on compulsory voting in a democracy?

Not even during military rule was an idea as absurd as this muted. Does this not speak to the calibre of people who occupy the so-called democratically elected offices?

Last week, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, withdrew the bill that aimed to make voting mandatory for all eligible Nigerians.

The bill, which he co-sponsored with Daniel Asama Ago, was meant to change the Electoral Act 2022 to encourage more people to vote and strengthen democracy....