By Lateef Adegbite
President Muammadu Buhari, and Mahmood Yakubu, a Professor and National Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, appear to have raised the consciousness of Nigerians to participate in the 2023, general elections. This is evident as Nigerians are now making desperate efforts to collect their Permanent Voters Card, PVCs, in their various registration centres, across the country.
Prof. Yakubu, the INEC, helmsman, who had decried ‘’the misleading information making the rounds in several quarters and the possibility of voting without a PVC’’, was said to have told those cares to listen about the position of the Law on such matters was very clear, that ‘’no one without a PVC will be allowed to vote in the 2023, general elections’’.
The INEC, boss and his team, may have become more serious in the conduct of the 2023, elections because of the repeated assurance of the Katsina state born Nigerian President to the international community that his Administration is going ‘’to leave a legacy of free, fair and transparent elections in Nigeria and the entire West African region ’’.
On the local scene, he had made Nigerians to understand that their vote will count, in the 2023, general elections and subsequent elections in the country, meaning that the era of manipulating election results is over. The President could beat his chest of going ‘’to conduct a free and fair elections to elect the country’s next President and Lawmakers at the Federal level as well as the governors and other category of Lawmakers at the state level with the signing into Law of the 2022, Electoral bill that had been passed by the National Assembly and which had been test- run in the last Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections and applauded.
The Electoral Act was said to have mandated INEC to use the Bimodal Accreditation Voting System, BAVS, in the conduct of the two elections and also ensured the electronic transmission of results,that was said to have eliminated electoral malpractices.
Recall that between 199 and now, there was voter apathy in the country because of the people’s believe that their votes never count as the power brokers both at the state and Federal levels, already knew the party and the Candidates that will win the elections. But the INEC, National Chairman, repeated reassurance that ‘’ if they get their PVCs, and vote in the coming elections, ‘’it will count’’ may have forced the non –voters to have a rethink against the upcoming 2023, general elections.
For the 2023, general elections, the INEC boss, had said that over 93.5 million Nigerians are eligible to participate in the elections. He had said also that 12.29 million Nigerians, mostly the youths, had successfully completed their registrations as new voters in the just concluded Continuous Voter Registration, CVR.
Hamzat Lawal, a political activist and founder of Code and Follow the Money, may have hit the nail on the head, when he said that ‘’there will be less voter apathy in the 2023, general elections due to the increased voters education by INEC and the sensitization Campaign by the Civil society for people to come out in mass exercise their franchise during the upcoming 2023, general elections instead of being apolitical , only to be complaining a after the elections.
From Lagos, PortHarcourt, Ibadam, Kadun, Kaduna, Katsina to Calabar, the story is the same: there is now less apathy in voters’ participation in the upcoming 2023, general elections.
Appearing on Channels Television recently, the political activist had said that many non-voters and the new registrants in the recent registration exercise across the 36 states of the Federation and Abuja, the FCT, are so eager ‘’to vote in the elections’’. The Commission was said to have to have rolled out measures ‘’to tackle the vote buying at the polling units on the Election Day next year by the politicians.
The Electoral umpire, was said to have identified four areas of worry to Nigerian voters as far as the 2023, general elections was concerned, ‘’as security, Campaign finance, technology, and the PVCs’’, reassuring Nigerians that their votes will count ultimately on the election day’’. He was emphatic that ‘’the BVAS, has come to state’’, meaning that politicians trying to circumvent the systems in order to have their way in the 2023, elections, will fail.
Given that the era of rigging elections in Nigeria body politic is over as the PVCs, now count, may have informed why Prof. Yakubu, the INEC, helmsman had assured residents of Ogun state, whose PVCs, were said to have been destroyed by hoodlums, who had attacked its facility at Abeokuta, the state Capita,l that it will be replaced before the 2023, general elections to enable them perform their civic responsibility of voting on the election day.
He had made it clear to the residents that ‘’nobody will be disenfranchised as a result of the fire incidents the Commission office complex in the state.65,699, unclaimed PVCs, were said to have been destroyed by hoodlums who had attacked the INEC, office, in the south western state. This is in addition to several other electoral materials.
The recent attack of the Eboyi state INEC office, may have forced the INEC, helmsman to speak out. He had said that the attack on its facilities in 21 states of the Federation had resulted in ‘’the destruction of a total of 1,992 ballot boxes, 399 voting cubicles and 22 electric –powered generators as well as thousands of PVCs’’, warning ‘’these attacks must stop’’.
Despite the attack on its facilities in various parts of the country, the INEC boss, who appears unruffled has reassured Nigerians that the Commission will still ‘’recover from such attacks as the lost and damaged items will be replaced before the February 25, and March, 2023, general elections’’to avoid giving room to those opposed to the use of the BVASA, to say that that the Commission was not prepared for the elections.
The excitement of the non-voters, and the new registrant voters, to participate in the 2023, elections, may have encouraged Usman Alkali Baba, the Inspector general of Police, IGP, to order all the state Police Command, Commissioners , ‘’ to promptly activate the inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES’’, towards engaging all stakeholders ‘’to evolve strategies for mitigating threats to the 2023 general elections process in their various states’’.
The IGP, was said to have also ordered all the state police Commissioners , ‘’to promptly activate the inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES, towards engaging all stakeholders ‘’to evolve strategies for mitigating threats to the 2023 general elections process in their various states’’.
Many believe that voters apathy in elections in Nigeria may have changed for good this time around to prevent the emergence of unpopular Candidates at the state and Federal levels, that will still put the country in the present economic mess, where the North American country of the United States, US dollar, exchanges between N743.00 to N745.00, turning the country to a Banana Republic.
The insistence ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, that the Opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, was responsible for the country’s economic mess and endless Fuel scarcity being experienced during its 16 year –old rule, may have informed Nigerian voters are determined to make the difference in the 2023, general elections to forestall such complains.
The Independent Petroleum Products Marketers, of Nigeria, IPMAN, had said that they currently receive the products, which are imported in theUS, dollars, sourced, from the parallel market by the tank farm owners at N185.00, N210.00, has made the sale of a litre of petrol at the government fixed price of N175.0, unprofitable and still remain in the business. The increased products price had translated to increased cost of transportation and hardship in the country as Nigerians cry out.
The IGP, may have known that the politicians will fight back, to make a mockery of the INEC’s BVAS, that he has warned that ‘’political violence, hate speech, threats, political intolerance, misinformation and political extremism which are threats to the country’s Democracy and National security’’ will not be tolerated, in the 2023, general elections.
The recent assassination of one Mrs. Victoria Chintex, the women Leader, of the Labour Party, LP, in the north western state of Kaduna, which had been under the siege of the Bandits Group, over the last seven years, on Monday, November 28, 2022, speaks volume.
Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra state and the LP, Presidential Candidate for the 2023, general elections had described the assassination of party women Leader in Kaduna state as ‘’huge loss to the family, party and the country in general.
It was not surprising why he has vowed ‘’to prioritize the war against insecurity as his first task in office if elected the next Nigerian President to take over from Buhari after the 2023, general elections’’. Obi, who was said to have broken down when the news filtered out on Tuesday, November 29, 2022, about the party women Leader, in Kaduna state, had warned Nigerians of different political persuasions ‘’not allow the waste of human lives in Nigeria under any guise to becloud their sense of reasoning’’, an indications that her may have been politically motivated as the assailants , who were said to have also shot the husband had traced him to the hospital where e he was treatment, threatening to kill him for supporting the LP.
