If there is one thing Nigerians are good at, it is lamenting. Nigerians lament over any and everything even when they should be organising, rather than agonising. As one of my friends would say, Nigerians are perpetually reading from the book of lamentations.
Nigeria has had the misfortune of bad leadership over time and there has been clamour for a change in the statusquo, especially among the youth.
On all the social media platforms, you’ll find Nigerians, especially young people who practically live there, complaining about the leadership and how it has failed the people.
Bearing in mind that there are no polling booths on social media, it therefore would be expected that all those who want change would go all out and do that which is expected of them to make this happen.
It is for this reason that I was surprised to learn recently that there are over 20 million unclaimed permanent voters cards (PVC) in offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) across the country.
To put it in perspective, over 20 million people went out to register to get their PVCs but never went back to claim them. The said number of unclaimed PVCs is about a quarter of the total number of registered voters in the country.
This is unacceptable.
According to INEC’s Deputy Director (Voter Education), Mary Nkem, the unclaimed PVCs are not the only challenge. Another challenge is the low turn out of people for registration in the continuous voter exercise which started since June 2021.
It is ironic that people say they want change yet they do not want to do that which will bring about the change they seek. Are they not aware that only going out to vote on election day will bring about that change and that only the PVC empowers them to be able to vote?
The instrumentality of the ballot box is the only way to bring about change and not the amount of lamentation on social media.
While some people have experienced difficulty in getting their PVCs after registration, these ones are in the minority and it is simply carelessness for one to register, money is spent to produce the card and they do not go back for it.
While past experiences may have made the people lose faith in the electoral process, for me, the argument that votes do not count hence there is no need to vote as a leader will still be foisted on the people, not one that emerged through popular will is not good enough because unlike in the past, when balllot box snatching and stuffing was the order of the day, votes do count these days and politicians are beginning to realise this, hence the preponderance of vote buying in elections. This in itself is clear and present danger as candidates with deep pockets and not the best emerge.
One would expect that with less than one year to the general election, issues that have to do with the election will dominate public discourse but sadly, this is not the case especially among the youth.
Voter apathy and low voter turnout have remained a huge challenge for elections in the country.
Records from INEC show that there has been a steady decline in voter turnout over six election cycles.
In 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan polled 22,495,187 to win the election. In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari polled 15,424,921 to defeat Jonathan and in 2019, Buhari polled 15,191,847 votes.
There is clear evidence that the number of unclaimed PVCs is just about the number of votes recorded in elections. Considering the population of the country, with 50% being youths, this is dismal. One thing the owners of these PVCs may not realise is that not collecting them will perpetuate the statusquo that they seek to change.
It is appalling that INEC which should lead the charge has joined in the lamentations but it cannot be exonerated from the problem.
It is failure of leadership on the part of INEC that the country continues to witness low participation of citizens in electoral processes. It is the duty of INEC to carry out voter education to engender knowledge of electoral processes but it would seem that the commission is not doing enough, in spite budgetary allocation for this and the support it gets from development partners. Similarly, civil society organisations who should proritise voter sensitisation to increase citizen participation seem to be more interested in other aspects of the electoral process.
Government agencies such as the National Orientation Agency. (NOA) who’s duty is to sensitive citizens on their civic duties has also been found wanting in this area and need to step up the game.
That’s not all. The situation is further compounded by political parties, the main beneficiaries of elections, who have shown complete nonchalance towards the issue of awareness creation on democratic processes and voter education. To be clear, 20 million potential votes are in drawers in INEC’s offices and it is the responsibility of the political parties to canvass for those votes by sensitising the people be armed with their PVCs. It remains to be seen, which of the political parties will make a dash for those votes.
Another challenge which may be responsible for the problem as identified by INEC is poor knowledge of the electoral process by citizens. Considering that a good number of the voting population is illiterate, conscious efforts must be made to ensure that all technological innovations are properly communicated to the people in a way that they will understand.
Messages must be properly distilled and translated in the languages of the people to get them to understand what is new and how they can be a part of the process. Some of these innovations include the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, the Electoral Act 2022, the INEC Elections Results Viewing Portal (IReV), the INEC Voter Enrollment Device (IVED), the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), electronic transmission of results and all other processes aimed at credible elections in the country.
INEC therefore, needs to do more in collaboration with other governmental and non-governmental organisations including traditional and religious bodies, and civil society organisations, among others, to sensitive the people on the importance of having their PVCs in their hands as it is a prerequisite for voting out bad leaders and electing good ones. They should also be sensitised that apart from preventing them from exercising their civic duties, uncollected PVCs amount to a waste of money and millions of naira are put into producing them.
INEC and other stakeholders in the democratic process also need to take the message to social media where they youths are and try to sell the message to them through influencers.
The youth must also realise that they hold the ace and take advantage of their huge numbers to effect the change they desire. It does not begin and end with ranting on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, neither does it have anything to do with number of likes, shares and retweets, which will not translate to ballots in the box.
