If you think that your just one vote cannot make much of a difference, consider some of the closest elections in U.S. history. In 2000, Al Gore narrowly lost the Electoral College vote to George W. Bush. The election came down to a recount in Florida, where Bush had won the popular vote by such a small margin that it triggered an automatic recount and a Supreme Court case (Bush v. Gore). In the end, Bush won Florida by 0.009 percent of the votes cast in the state, or 537 votes. Had 600 more pro-Gore voters gone to the polls in Florida that November, there may have been an entirely different president from 2000–2008. That is the power of your vote. One single vote can make a difference between victory of the candidate you support or his defeat! In a democracy, your vote is your super power!
In Nigeria in September 2018, the Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Gboyega Oyetola, the winner of the 2018 Osun governorship election. Mr Oyetola was returned as governor-elect at the end of a supplementary election which held in seven polling units across four local governments. The APC candidate won six of the seven units amidst allegations of harassment and other forms of malpractice. At the end of the tally of votes, the APC candidate scored a total of 255,505 votes while the PDP candidate scored a total of 255,023 votes. Although Mr Adeleke had led his APC rival with 353 votes at the end of the first round of ballots, the table turned the other way after the supplementary votes. The APC candidate had overtaken and beaten the PDP candidate with a mere margin of 482 votes. Oyetola at the time emerged governor with a margin of only 482 votes. These aforementioned examples showed that every vote counts and matters in a democracy.
It is therefore surprising to many of us, that given the importance of elections, millions of permanent voter cards (PVCs) are yet uncollected across the country. It is reported that about 6.7 million Nigerians are yet to collect their permanent voter cards, just a few short weeks to the general election. Despite this sad development, INEC had announced that the collection window for PVCs will commence December 12,2022 and end on January 22. The INEC National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, disclosed in a statement that with effect from January 6 -15, 2023 the collection of the PVCs will be devolved to the ward level after which collection would be moved to the local government areas.
With the enthusiasm that millions of Nigerians showed during the voter registration exercise, it was obvious that many people want to participate in the coming elections and everything must be done by the state to ensure that they get their PVCs. President Muhammadu Buhari who had promised the international community that he would ensure free and fair in Nigeria at his last outing at the United Nations General Assembly should declare emergency on collection of PVCs, while registered voters should see it as a patriotic duty to collect their PVCs and come out to vote candidates of their choice on election days.
A worrisome development is the allegation that INEC officials are frustrating the collection of PVCs. A human rights group, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has alleged that some staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission are frustrating collection of permanent voter’s cards (PVCs) in some parts of the South-East. Comrade Vincent Ezekwueme, Chairman of Anambra chapter of the group said his organisation had received and is still receiving torrents of complaints from registrants that suffered tremendously to register and still find it very difficult “if not impossible“ to collect their
PVCs. He claimed that the situation is terrible in some particular states such as Anambra judging from field reports CLO has received from across the country! He and other well-meaning Nigerians are urging INEC to set up a machinery for monitoring of staff involved in the exercise.
Across the country, many citizens, who trooped to their wards to collect their permanent voter cards, PVCs, have expressed fears that they may not be able to vote during next month’s presidential election and other polls. Getting PVCs has become a tug of war as such they are not sure that they will be able to get the cards within the window allowed by INEC. Many citizens claim that they have been going to the local governments for days without success. In Lagos, a resident said he registered at Ago, while the collection centre was at Oshodi local government, and wondered how many people will be willing to go that far to collect their PVCs? He said he went two times and couldn’t collect his PVC.
It has also been reported that the crowd was always huge at the collection centres, while the INEC officials were not organised. Many Nigerians out of frustration are already alleging that the INEC appears to be intentionally disfranchising people. INEC must rise to the occasion and find efficient ways of making the PVCs available to voters. Why should Nigerians suffer to get almost everything including things that are taken for granted in other climes?
The huge crowds across the country for PVCs collection is a clear indication of failure of INEC in one of its core mandates. If care is not taken, it will also be counted among the failures of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. No stone should be left untouched in the effort to redress the situation. Popular participation is at the core of democracy. There cannot be participation in the democratic process when the people are disenfranchised.
After over 20 years of uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria, INEC ought to have developed seamless way of voter registration and collection of voter’s cards. This is not rocket science. For those who don’t know, voting at elections is the oil with which democracy is eaten! To be able to eat that meat called democracy, your PVC is not only your teeth, it is also your tongue. So, as a patriot, make all efforts necessary to get yours!
Obviously, INEC is understandably overstretched but that should be no excuse for any patriot to abandon his PVC.
MAY NIGERIA REBOUND
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