Wearied by the postponement of the Presidential and National Assembly elections last Saturday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigerian voters are warming up to go to the polls tomorrow, hanging their hopes on the commission’s assurances.
INEC, which had cited logistics reasons for moving the election from the earlier scheduled date of February 16, had during the week assured Nigerians and the international community that it has tied all loose ends for the election on February 23 and that the new date is sacrosanct.
“We have received all the materials, they have been checked, audit people have been informed, party agents have gone there to check,” Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, told a cross-section of the diplomatic community and international election monitoring groups in Nigeria on its level of readiness for the elections.
Yakubu, who was represented by Mustapha Lecky, INEC national commissioner, assured that everything needed to ensure the conduct of the polls on February 23 had been put in place, adding that the commission had no reason to feel things would go wrong.
“We believe that as a prayerful nation the act of God has been assuaged and that things will go right; we have no reason to feel that anything will go wrong,” he said.
Festus Okoye, national commissioner and chairman, Information and Voter Education, INEC, said the commission’s commitment “is to conduct an election that the Nigerian people will be proud of”.
“I believe that with the support of the media, and with the support and collaboration of the security agencies and the Nigerian people, we can achieve this particular feat,” Okoye said.
As if to reassure Nigerians of its readiness, INEC on Thursday released data on collected permanent voter cards (PVCs) across country, showing that Lagos, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna and Rivers States recorded the highest number of collected PVCs.
Yakubu, who announced the data at the briefing of journalists and election observers in Abuja, said the uncollected PVCs had been moved to state branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria for safekeeping.
Out of a total of 72.8 million collected PVCs across the country, Lagos, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna and Rivers had 5.5 million, 4.7 million, 3.6 million, 3.2 million and 2.8 million, respectively.
Conversely, the states with the lowest number of collected PVCs are Ekiti, Bayelsa, Federal Capital Territory, Kwara, and Yobe States, which recorded 666,591, 769,509, 1.03 million, 1.1 million and 1.26 million, respectively.
A further breakdown of the numbers also shows that Lagos, Kano, Oyo, Ogun and Imo are the states with the highest number of uncollected PVCs, having recorded 1.04 million, 761,000, 757,755, 680,136 and 570,115, respectively, out of a total of 11.2 million.
Katsina, Taraba, Gombe, Kebbi and Zamarafa States recorded the lowest number of uncollected PVCs, with 42,242, 48,011, 59,170, 88,051 and 90,289, respectively.
For close to four years INEC had been hard at work, preparing to deliver free, fair and credible elections in a country where many people are pessimistic about such outcomes.
With prospective voters caught in-between two major parties and candidates in the 2019 presidential election, the postponement was a big blow to a population of largely poor people in a country that has been officially regarded as the “poverty headquarters of the world”.
In the last three-and-a-half years, quality of life in Nigeria has dropped, amid escalating unemployment. Although the Federal Government claims its policies, since its inauguration in 2015, have positively impacted the lives of citizens, many prospective voters believe the election this time around would offer them the opportunity to make informed assessment of government.
The presidential candidates of the two major political parties, Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), have been urging longsuffering Nigerians and their supporters to be patient with INEC, disregard the postponement, and come out to vote on February 23 and March 9.
About 70 other candidates are in the presidential race, but many believe the race is between Buhari and his main challenger, Atiku, who was a vice-president in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
Some of the issues that arose as a result of the postponement were the possibility of the INEC’s materials (which had been moved out) going into wrong hands; the possibility of those who had travelled to various parts of the country where they registered making the journey again, and the inconveniences encountered by Nigerians as a result of the development.
Angela Ahamefule, a psychologist, however, said the suddenness of the announcement last Saturday had itself created an atmosphere of uncertainty.
“No matter the level of assurances, the bungling of the exercise when all Nigerians were eagerly waiting for it spoke volumes of the incompetence of those at the helm of INEC,” Ahamefule said.
“You talk about wearied Nigerians. Indeed, Nigerians are wearied in all fronts. They lack everything that makes life liveable; they lack good government and they have always been neglected, and now when they had prepared to go to the polls, the postponement was announced. It is depressing, but what will be, will be,” she said.
She, however, urged Nigerians to avail themselves of the opportunity provided by the election to choose their leaders in line with their consciences.
ZEBULON AGOMUO, JAMES KWEN, INIOBONG IWOK & BUNMI BAILEY
