2019: How ready is the electorate?

Checks by BDSUNDAY revealed that although many Nigerians verbalise their frustration over inclement economic weather in the country and the general quality of life, which they claim has gone south in the last three years, and their determination to participate in the electoral process this time around to enthrone a democracy with human face, it appears that many are yet to get themselves ready for the election.

In the last few months, there has been sustained sensitisation of Nigerians in various ways and at various forums on the need for them to actively participate in the next election by getting their permanent voter cards (PVCs), which is a sine qua non.

But despite these efforts, nearly 8 million PVCs are still lying uncollected at INEC offices across the country.

In March, John Ibenu, a bishop and chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kogi State chapter, decried the apparent lack of commitment by Nigerians to collect about 8 million PVCs in centres across the country.

He, however, called on INEC to step up sensitisation campaign on the need for people to collect their PVCs ahead of the 2019 elections.

“We read in the dailies that about 8 million PVCs have not been collected, largely 70 to 80 percent of which are from the Middle Belt down to the South South,” Ibenu said when he and his team paid a courtesy visit to INEC office in Lokoja.

“I remember that in the last elections, Borno State, where the Boko Haram insurgency was prevalent, the rate of collection of PVC was 89 percent. We want you to do that magic for us; the magic that the insurgency did not stop them from collecting their voter cards,” he said.

Some pundits, however, said the four-year period of election has a way of discouraging people from participating and is also affecting INEC in its efforts to live up to expectations. They said that a situation where elections are held at just one particular time in four years makes it cumbersome and stretches the human and material resources.

Donald Duke, a former governor of Cross River State and presidential aspirant, in a recent interview with BusinessDay, said waiting for four years before a general election was not the best for Nigeria. He faulted a situation where everybody is expected to mass out for a general election every four years, pointing out that the method being adopted is cumbersome and puts a strain on resources.

The numbers

Only 121,097 PVCs out of about 8.3 million uncollected PVCs across the country in 2016 had been collected as at March 22, 2018, according to statistics released by INEC. This leaves a total of 7.9 million PVCs uncollected.

Eight of the 36 states of the country account for more than half (56 percent) of the 7.9 million uncollected PVCs as at March 2018, with five of these eight states being in the South-West states of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo and Osun. The other three states are Edo, Imo and Rivers.

A state-by-state breakdown of the figures showed that Lagos State, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, leads in terms of uncollected PVCs, with about 1.40 million PVCs lying uncollected at the various INEC offices in the state, as against 1.42 million PVCs as at 2016.

Oyo State comes second, with 647,586 uncollected PVCs as at March, relative to 663,053 uncollected PVCs as at 2016.

In Edo and Ogun States, a total of 449,001 and 426,890, respectively, were yet to be collected as at March.

Anambra, Kogi, Ebonyi and Bayelsa States had recorded improvement in terms of PVC collection rates, with 51 percent, 14.2 percent, 14 percent, and 12 percent rates, respectively, according to calculations by BusinessDay.

On the reverse side, states with poor collection rates include Zamfara (0.1 percent), Taraba (0.4 percent), Niger (0.6 percent), Sokoto (0.7 percent), and Kaduna (0.8 percent).

The PVC collection rate was measured as the proportion of total collected PVCs in 2017 and first quarter 2018 to the uncollected PVCs as at 2016.

Hitches remain

Before now, there had been widespread complaints from Nigerians, as well as groups, over difficulties encountered in the process of PVC collection as well as INEC’s handling of the ongoing continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise.

Some Nigerians who spoke with BDSUNDAY confessed that they were yet to get their PVCs. They, however, blamed it on the difficulty encountered as their previous efforts to collect their PVCs have not yielded any fruit.

BDSUNDAY visits to some centres across the country threw up issues such as inadequate personnel and machines resulting in long queues and delay, unfriendly attitude displayed by some INEC officials, while some officials were accused of capitalising on the process to do shoddy business by colluding with some agents to extort money from members of the public.

INEC had responded by assuring that it was tackling the challenges that had plagued the exercise in several states across the country. Despite these assurances, however, the hitches remain.

In an interview with a national daily in May after a tour of the eight local government areas in Ogun East Senatorial District of Ogun State, Adekunle Osibogun, a lawyer and convener, Young Progressive Nigerian Initiative (YPNI), said red-tapism was largely responsible for the low rate of PVC collection in the South-West states compared to states in the North.

“I haven’t surveyed the northern part of Nigeria to know the reason for the high PVC collection rate there, but I can speak about the low PVC collection rate in the southern part of Nigeria. I will attribute the primary reason for the low PVC collection rates to bureaucracy and red-tape. We have citizens who wake up as early as 5 am to go and queue at INEC offices, spend the whole day there and may still be unable to pick up their PVCs. Now, that is discouraging,” Osibogun said

“For us to encourage ourselves to pick up our PVCs, which is a civic duty as we all know, it is important that we make the process a lot easier and more seamless. Without a shadow of a doubt, there is a need for more registration machines,” he said.

He gave INEC a 50 percent pass mark for its efforts so far, especially for its strategy on PVC collection nationwide, adding, however, that the commission can do more.

“INEC can do more, especially in the South-West region because the level of PVCs collected in the South-West as a whole compared to the growing population of the South-West is very low. It is, therefore, urgent that INEC now pays special attention to the registration and collection of PVCs in the South-West to ensure the general elections in the South-West region are a true reflection of the hopes and aspirations of the people.”

In Lagos, our findings show that despite the rotation of the registration centres among the wards in most of the local government areas, the long queues have not disappeared at local government headquarters and several public schools which have been designated for the exercise.

A school proprietress in Surulere area of Lagos, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she had tried several times to get her PVC but has not been lucky enough.

“Before the 2015 election, I went to where we registered around where my school is located (Ilasamaja); they continued saying come today, come tomorrow. At the end of the day, I could not collect my PVC and my husband too did not collect. This time they said they were registering people again, we made several attempts, but as I speak with you now, we are still without the PVC and we really want to vote this time around,” she said.

Reminded that the continuous voter registration is still ongoing, the proprietress said: “I think the INEC itself is not sincere with the process down South here. I hear that in the North they give the Emirs these PVCs to distribute to their people, but here in the South, they make the process very difficult to discourage people. It may not be exactly what we think but that is what it seems. Some of us want to participate in this election but the way I am seeing it, we may be shut out.”

A resident of Alimosho Local Government Area, who spoke on the exercise, said most of the residents had to be on the queues from 4am to take numbers. This, according to her, has discouraged several people. She charged INEC to revert to the former method where registration was done in the polling unit in the various wards.

“Most of us come here to register from 4am; that is when we take numbers, but if you come here by 10am to register, you may not get the chance because of the large crowd,” she said.

“The problem is that INEC doesn’t have enough staff here, as you can see. Let them bring more machines, that is why people don’t want to come because you can’t leave your work and come and stay here all day,” she added.

Some Nigerians also pointed out that there seems to be an information gap between those who are yet to collect their PVCs and INEC itself, arguing that despite the so-called sensitization, most Nigerians are unaware of the whole electoral process vis-à-vis when and where to pick up their PVCs.

They suggested that INEC should step up its game by capturing phone numbers and email addresses of registered voters so as to notify them when their PVC is ready and where to pick it up.

We’re on top of the situation – INEC

Reacting to the complaints, Rotimi Oyekanmi, chief press secretary to INEC chairman, told BDSUNDAY over the telephone that the commission had deployed more machines and personnel to various states across the country, and that it was also partnering with religious organisations to increase sensitisation about the exercise.

Oyekanmi said INEC had registered more than 9 million voters since the exercise began in April last year, stressing that the commission could not continue with the former method of carrying out registration in polling units because of the shortage of funds.

“We are on top of the situation. Across the states we have deployed more machines and personnel for the exercise. If you notice, we have several awareness programmes ongoing in the country, and because we realised that we are able to reach people through churches and mosques because of their influence, we are using them and we are able to reach more people,” Oyekanmi said.

“It is not possible to go to the local government areas because of shortage of funds and personnel. In some states we have established mobile centres, but Nigerians are not interested; they prefer to collect the PVCs just for other personal purposes. For now, the commission can’t go to the 774 LGAs because of funds,” he said.

On the allegations of sharp practices by INEC personnel at some registration centres, an official of the commission in Ikeja, Lagos, said he had no knowledge of such sharp practices. He added INEC had deployed more logistics to the three centres in the local government area, which are public schools.

“It is not true what they are telling you. Go to the three centres in Ikeja, we have provided more logistics. We have a standby generator. We are not asking anybody to wake up and come and take number by 4am; we start registration here by 10am,” said the INEC staff, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

‘Area boys’ upbeat about the election

Although campaign has been on against the use of thugs by politicians this time around, BDSUNDAY gathered that the street urchins are looking forward to reaping hugely from the 2019 polls.

“Thugs have become part and parcel of the electoral system in Nigeria and there is nothing anybody can do about it. I think our system is encouraging it,” a Lagos-based politician, who would not like his name in print, said. 

“When you have an army of able-bodied young men roaming the streets without jobs, they easily fall prey to people who can hire them for illicit services. The existentialism theory must take its course. People must survive either by hook or crook,” he said.

He said sometimes it is not as if politicians deliberately want to use such thugs for ulterior motives but for protection against opponents.

“You know in politics, as in all battles, you must expect anything and everything. So, as we are preparing for free and fair elections, some people are out there seeing only money to make in the process,” he said.