WHAT NEXT AFTER CONTINUOUS VOTER REGISTRATION?
At last, the two-week extension set aside by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for eligible citizens to participate in the continuous voter registration (CVR) is over. But calls for extension of the exercise continue in different parts of the federation.
Sadly, as the INEC declared after the deadline, there will be no further extension of the exercise until after the 2023 general election. The commission argued that such would affect the lay-down procedures for the smooth conduct of the 2023 general election.
Specifically, INEC National Commissioner, Voter Education and Information, Mr. Festus Okoye, while speaking in Awka, Anambra State, said the next assignment for the electoral umpire “is to clean up the voter register and display for claims and objections.”
However, despite the fact that over 12 million Nigerians were registered since the exercise took off after the conduct of 2019 general elections, many Nigerians are still calling for more time to have their names on the voter register.
In some of the registration centres in Lagos on Sunday, July 31 when the exercise ended, for instance, eligible voters who stormed some of the centres were unable to partake in the exercise, a situation that stoked disappointment and mild protest in different parts of the state.
Their calls for the CVR extension may not be genuine due to the last minute rush syndrome that Nigerians are known for. In Awka, also, Okoye said that the voter register will soon be displayed in 8,809 registration centres within the 774 Local Government Areas in the federation.
He explained the imperative of displaying voters’ records. According to him, the display will allow registrants to check correct spellings of their names, identify multiple registrants while those who have died or ghost registrants are removed.
As the continuous voter registration finally wound down, the INEC raised the alarm over the sudden appearance of a fake portal for registration and advised the people to ignore it. A question begging for an answer is: what are the motivating factors for Nigerians trooping to take part in the CVR when our elections always record low turnout at the end of the process?
A fresh case at hand is the just concluded gubernatorial election in Osun State. On July 16, over 800,000 voters took part in the exercise that had about two million eligible voters duly registered in the state.
At the moment, INEC is still appealing to Nigerians who registered over the years, but have not collected their permanent voter cards (PVCs) to pick them up. The commission revealed that no fewer than 20 million PVCs “are begging for collection with Lagos having the highest of over one million.”
The turnout of events in the last governorship election in Osun State has clearly shown that vote counts against the belief of some Nigerians who are always adamant and uninterested in the electoral process.
Nigerians are now challenging the INEC to prosecute those arrested for vote buying and selling during the last governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States, held respectively on June 18 and July 16. This, they believe, will check political parties, their candidates and allies whose duty is to compromise our electoral process.
This approach to our electoral process, however, must change in the forthcoming elections in 2023. Already, according to the INEC, 96.2 million eligible voters will decide who succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari. Nigerians must take the opportunity to turn out in good numbers to elect a credible president that will take the nation out of insecurity, fiscal crisis, extreme poverty and all forms of socio-economic and political malaise undermining its future.
Taiwo Olapade, Lagos
