With the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) coming to an end on July 31, many Nigerians have complained about their inability to register to get their Permanent Voter Cards due to logistic hiccups, which marred the exercise in several registration centres across the country.
Some eligible voters, who spoke to BusinessDay, lamented that the development had disenfranchised them, spoiling their chances of voting in next year’s general elections.
The CVR, which started June 2021, was initially scheduled to end on June 30, 2022, but pressure and litigation by stakeholders forced the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the deadline to July 31.
In the last few months, there has been a sudden large turnout of prospective registrants, resulting from increased publicity and mobilisation by INEC and stakeholders across the country and beyond.
However, despite the surge, logistic hiccups, especially capturing machines, slowed down registration of new prospective registrants across the country.
On the deadline day of July 31, across the country, thousands of eligible voters were seen in various INEC offices trying to gain entrance into the premises to do their registration.
But in most instances, shortage of manpower and shortage of capturing machines hampered the smooth running of the exercise.
BusinessDay findings revealed that the machines supplied to many Local Government Areas were grossly inadequate.
It was observed that in Agege LGA in Lagos State, only six capturing machines were given to them. There was visible tension among the prospective voters as they waited endlessly in the queues; many of them had arrived as early as 5am.
In several centres in Lagos State, it was noticed that the bottlenecks that characterised the exercise from the beginning persisted till the closing day, leaving prospective voters frustrated.
“I could not register; I made several visits to the INEC office in my area, so many times, the crowd there was too much. I was told to come by 4am to write my name,” Lucy Okafor, 27, an eligible voter, said.
Meanwhile, stakeholders have condemned the manner the registration exercise was handled in several parts of the country by INEC.
They said it was unfair for Nigerians to bear the consequence of INEC’s inefficiency, blaming the commission for failing to upgrade its facilities and employing the requisite staff, even when the task ahead was enormous.
Lanre Adegunro, the Lagos State chairman of the Accord Party, said the exercise should have been allowed to continue, at least till the end of August in view of the bottlenecks encountered by Nigerians across the country during registration.
Adegunro said with the expiration of the new deadline, at least more than 20 million youths would be disenfranchised from the 2023 general elections.
He said: “Even before the first deadline, it was obvious that there was a serious logistics problem across the centres. They said they brought more machines to the centres, but I did not see improvement.
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“You can even see here in Lagos, if not for that Yiaga Africa and European Union organised special registration centres set-up in TBS for a week, we may not have had the figures they are saying Lagos have now. We made little progress with the online registration, but I think manually, it was just a replica of the challenges we have had all these years.”
Sanni Yabagi, national chairman of the Action Democratic Party and chairman of the Inter-party Advisory Committee, said although the disentrancement of eligible voters was sad, INEC had to end the CVR exercise so that it could prepare for the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
He said: “As far as the deadline is concerned, it is an unpleasant experience that eligible Nigerians would be disenfranchised; we are not happy.
“But there is a timeline for some of these things. INEC will conduct an election in a few months. You would agree that these PVCs would be produced; if they don’t do things at some time, they would not be able to produce them.”
Yabagi added that the commission ended the CVR on time to allow it to produce the PVCs of those who registered early, adding that failure to do that could create bigger problems for the country ahead of next year’s election.
“If it would lead to disenfranchisement of the whole country and INEC is unable to conduct the 2023 general elections, there is no point extending the date again. Such would lead to a constitutional crisis; it would not lead our democracy anywhere,” he added.
BusinessDay’s visit to INEC’s head office in Kwara State on Sunday revealed that many people, especially youth, had yet to register for PVCs.
They also complained about the slow pace of registration, discrimination, bribery of N1,000 and poor network that slowed down the process.
“The situation is not impressive at all. Nigeria itself is not working well, so it applies to all forms of our lives. Bribery and corruption are everywhere. People are paying N1,000 to security personnel. I appeal to those in authority to please extend the deadline,” said Micheal Adeniran, one of the people yet to register in Kwara.
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