2023: Prospective voters rush for PVC registration
By Echonews
…Recount experiences at registration centers
In preparation for the general elections in 2023, residents in various communities across Lagos State and the nation as a whole have started rushing to get registered for their permanent voter’s cards (PVC).
When INEC resumed the Continued Voter Registration (CVR) exercise on 28th June 2021, it announced that the exercise would be on through June 2022.
The commission announced that the process could be initiated online via its registration portal or completely done at any of its offices across the 774 local government secretariats in the country.
At the end of the first quarter of the exercise, INEC announced that the number of fresh online pre-registrants were 3,165,189 as 1,457,766 applicants applied for either voter transfer, replacement of PVC or updated their voter information records.
It further stated that the completed registrations were a bit less than 1.1 million voters with youths between the ages of 18 and 34 constituting the majority with 771,770 (77.33%).
Despite the record, there has been an upsurge in the number of people flooding the offices of the National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The data released by the INEC indicated that 5,173,335 new registrations were recorded in the third quarter of the current Continuous Voter Registration taking place nationwide.
Though the increase in voters trying to get registered for PVC indicates political awareness and readiness to participate in the election in the coming year, the upsurge seems overwhelming for INEC to handle within its few centers.
Notably, the endless cues and moments of being “under the sun or in the rain” are one of the many hurdles faced by Nigerians trying to get their PVCs.
The commission noted that an increase in the number of prospective registrants has put a significant strain on its ability and resources.
In order to be able to handle the increasing number of prospective registrants in the ongoing exercise, the commission decentralized the registration centers, creating more centers in the local government areas across Lagos State.
To some extent, the decentralized centers have helped in reducing the large number of registrants daily converging on a single center in the whole of a Local Government.
For instance, initially, there was only one center for the whole of Oshodi-Isolo LG including Isolo and Ejigbo LCDA so residents of Isolo and Ejigbo had to travel down to Oshodi before they could be registered.
But later, the INEC created other centers in Isolo and Ejigbo so that people could go to the nearest center to them to be registered.
While creating the centers, the Commission in Lagos State promised the populace that it had put in place sufficient security and equipment to register all eligible voters.
However, there are rising concerns about the gruesome process and length of time that it takes many aspiring voters to get registered for their PVCs.
Some of the prospective registrants who spoke to ECHONEWS recounted their experiences at the centers across the state.
“So I’d planned to leave early and I went there around nine, thinking that by 9 o’clock, you know, I’ll just write my name and everything because I’ve already registered online.
“Getting there, they had 3 lists of physical, online, and change of details. So I wrote my name under the physical list to start over, and I was number 271 on the list. And from my eye survey, the people on the ground were not up to the number on the list, but for some reason, I heard people saying that if they stopped somewhere, they continued the next day.
“The INEC officials on ground were dilly dallying and more interested in threatening us, telling us they would not attend to us if we did not move back,” Sulaimon Asoobowa said.
He stated further: ” Despite all that, I remained there. It started raining and I could not take it anymore. I was drenched and went home. Since then, I’m yet to get my PVC, but hopefully, when I go back on Friday, I hope luck comes my way. “
Another resident told how she went to the INEC office at Festac and there was no one to ask questions.
“Most of us that came were stranded for information. I went on a Monday, and I was told that they were following a list from Friday. I met others outside who told me that to gain access, some people had been bribing the INEC officials for a year to let them in.”
She explained further that she hung around the premises hoping for the best even though none of the INEC staff members was passing across substantial information.
In her wait, she recounted: “I met an old acquaintance who said he’d been there since 7.a.m and was not certain how the INEC staff were working since they were not saying anything. I exchanged numbers with a woman and a man who brought his three daughters to register and were not aware of the online registration platform, which I shared with them. I was discouraged and have not gone back because if they are following a list from Friday, then when will it get to my turn? ”
Keeping tabs on the possible outcome and the possibility of getting her PVC, Joy said she called the woman she exchanged numbers with, who said she had gone back three times afterward and the situation seemed almost impossible.
Part of the challenges she noted was speculation that if one was an Igbo person, there was some sort of attempt to get them frustrated to dissuade the chance of voting for the Igbo presidential candidate.
Despite some of these unfriendly events, some relentless citizens still marched on, while some were on the brink of giving up.
The International Centre for Investigative Report notes based on their findings that getting a PVC has gotten difficult, according to several of the potential voters who spoke with the ICIR at the Ojo INEC office in Igbede, Lagos.
The rising complaints cannot be ignored as many of them complained that despite arriving early at the INEC office, they were ignored, forcing them to leave angry.
At the various registration centers in Ikotun, Oshodi, Isolo, Ejigbo, Ojokoro, Ipaja and other parts of Lagos State, ECHONEWS observed a great number of people struggling to be registered.
One of the prospective registrants, who gave her name as Adesola Adepegba spoke on the INEC officials were frustrating the process at her location at Ikotun, consciously stalling the efforts of Nigerians.
“So I would say there’s actually a conscious effort to frustrate citizens from getting their PVC. Because, why did you ask us to do online registration if we will still have to go through unnecessary stress? And the people behind it are those people working at the INEC office, particularly because they just want to attend to people that they know, people that have already paid them. Okay, so my registration date was June 14th at 1 p.m.
“When I registered online, they said we could print out registration forms, like the front page, or show them when we got there. But what is the essence of printing them out when we can just show them? I arrived at the location at 11:30 am, an hour and thirty minutes before my appointment.
“I met people who had their appointment dates three days before me and they had not been attended to. A few of them, whom I was actually talking to, said they had been there since 6 am, 7 am, some 8 am, and they had all done the online registration and it was still so hard for them to get their PVCs.
“Some who had canceled their plans to be there were so frustrated. The attitude of the INEC staff registering voters was bad because they literally ignored anyone who called them to find out how to get registered. “
She said she left the center at Ikotun by 5 pm and unlike others before her, she managed to get her PVC, but that was not without struggle.
Olakunle Lawal, a pharmacist, also faults the government, saying, “It’s the FG and INEC.” The NIN saga taught Nigerians to take government declarations seriously. Thousands need this PVC, yet it is a lugubrious process here in Lagos, especially to achieve. The government should give more funding and INEC should create more centres for registration, processing, and collection.
“There are too many bottlenecks in the process, so it isn’t a warm experience getting a PVC. “
Noting the challenges in the PVC registration and the larger number of people yet to be registered and with the 2023 election still months away and many voters still missing their PVCs, the National Assembly has directed the INEC to postpone the June 30th deadline for the registration.
As the deadline draws closer, Nigerians are increasingly getting agitated and fear of not being able to play their part in determining their leaders.
To yield to the agitation for the postponement of the deadline, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured Nigerians that the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) would not end on June 30, 2022 as earlier announced.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this on Saturday during the Youth Vote Count Mega Concert 2.0 organized by the commission in partnership with Yiaga Africa and funded by the European Union at the old Parade Ground, Abuja.
Yakubu, who was silent on the duration of the extension, said the commission would decide on the timeframe and communicate the outcome to Nigerians.
