The political arena is currently heating up in preparation for the February 2023 general elections in Nigeria. According to the umpire in the election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to be qualified to vote or be voted for in the said elections, one must be armed with a voter card. It is, however, disheartening that recent revelations indicate that millions of Nigerians are yet to collect their permanent voter cards (PVCs), few days to the general elections.
It would be recalled that INEC had announced that the collection window for PVCs commenced on December 12, 2022 and would end on January 22 this year. The Commission fixed the dates for the collection of PVCs in all the 774 Local Government Offices of INEC throughout the Federation.
The Commission also resolved to devolve PVC collection to the eight thousand, eight hundred and nine Registration Areas/Wards from Friday, 6th to Sunday 15th January, 2023. According to INEC, those who are unable to collect their PVCs at the Local Government Offices of the Commission can do so at the Registration Areas/Electoral Wards.
INEC says that after January 15, 2023, the exercise will revert to the Local Government Offices of the Commission until January 22, 2023 and that all eligible and valid registrants can collect their PVCs from 9.00am to 3.00pm daily, including Saturdays and Sundays.
INEC equally directed all its Resident Electoral Commissioners and Electoral Officers (EOs) to convene a meeting with the critical stakeholders in their States and Local Government Areas, including traditional and religious leaders, civil society groups, community-based organizations and the media to brief them on the modalities for the collection of the PVCs in order to sensitize the public and ensure seamless exercise.
It is therefore hoped that those Nigerians who have taken time to register would realize that, of all the things they have to do, collection of the PVC is one of the most important duties. Thus, Nigerians should go out to collect their PVCs to enable them to vote and select those who will govern them. The country belongs to every Nigerian and collecting our PVCs is the duty we must take seriously.
We do not want what happened in the last general elections to repeat. During the 2019 general elections, INEC said it had about 82.3 million registered voters. However, only 28.6 million voted in the polls accounting for less than thirty-five percent turnout. This is a dangerous precedent, which might smack off mischief by unpatriotic politicians, if allowed to continue.
The fact that few weeks to the 2023 election, millions of PVCs have not been collected leaves much to be desired.
Nigerians, especially those who registered as voters or applied for transfer or replacement of their cards from January to July 2022, must go now and collect their PVCs. The collection process is simple and hitch-free. Everyone is encouraged to go and collect their card now. Those who newly registered in 2022 or applied for a transfer and replacement of their cards started in December 2022, while collection for old PVCs started long time ago and continues till January 22. Now is the time to get your PVC. The earlier, the better. It is better now because there are no queues yet.
There is no doubt that our votes will count this time; so come out now to get your PVC to ensure that your vote counts. Thankfully, INEC had put in place measures to make the collection smooth and stress-free.
Traditional, religious, education, market, keke, bus and political leaders should sensitize their followers on the need to go and collect their PVCs. You can change the economic, education, political and social situation in the country through your vote. And you cannot vote if you do not have PVC.
Do not wait till the last day on January 22 before going to collect your Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
Go now!
HON. DR TIMOTHY IFEDIORANMA/
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