The Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) is critical to the success of the general elections. But, criticisms have continued to trail its shoddy distribution by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The general feeling among Nigerians is that the exercise has been bungled by the commission. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI examines the implications of the flawed process for the polls.
UNLIKE previous elections, Nigerians appear to be enthusiastic this time around about collecting their Permanent Voter Card (PVC), to enable them to discharge their civic responsibilities during the general elections. But, their enthusiasms seem to have been dampened by the hiccups associated with the collection of the cards from the points where they did their registrations within their localities and later at INEC’s local government offices. The exercise involved voters cross-checking their names in the displayed Voters’ Register and collecting permanent voters cards in exchange for the old ones.
Confusion trails
distribution
There is confusion about the distribution of the cards and this is creating doubts about the preparedness of the commission to conduct free and fair elections.
Some of the aggrieved eligible voters have expressed disgust over the shoddy manner the distribution is being carried out, saying they have done everything possible, but have not been able to get their cards. A legal practitioner and a resident of Surulere, Lagos, Mr. Tekema Wakama, said it is sad that he and many of his neigbhours would not be able to vote due to no fault of theirs. Wakama said although he had complied with directives, by registering again at Surulere Local Government, he has not been able to get his PVC.
He added: “When they said the PVCs are out, Surulere’s own didn’t come out. It’s among the local government areas in Lagos State that was delayed. We have challenges here, but I pray that INEC should be able to do what is right, so that people would be able to vote for candidates of their choice.” Similarly, an automobile mechanic Malik Ogunde complained about not being able to obtain his PVC, saying INEC did not organize the distribution of the cards well.
But, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, does not agree that INEC has not done a good job. He said heaps of uncollected cards have been deposited at the commission’s local government offices and that there is no reason why anybody should not be able to collect his or her PVC. He noted that the collection of PVCs continues till the end of January and that everyone should be able to collect their cards. Idowu who spoke with The Nation via telephone on Tuesday said the commission placed the December 31, 2014 deadline on continues registration because it is publishing the voters’ register, as required by law, on January 13.
He said: “Yes, the three days initially allotted for collection of the cards was short, but since then, collection of PVCs has been ongoing since the collection exercise was flagged off in phases across the country. We have been calling on the public to make use of the opportunity by going to their local governments to collect their cards; the cards are there. In Ekiti and Osun, where governorship elections were held last year, the implication is that collection of voters’ card has been ongoing in those states since March 2014. There is no reason why anybody should not collect his or her card.”
Enthusiasm waning
Nevertheless, indications are that some eligible voters who felt disappointed because they could not collect their cards from the polling units when the distribution of the PVCs was flagged off have lost interest in the matter. For instance, Mr. Nwachukwu Okeleke, a security officer attached to one of the old generation banks, said there is no guarantee that other problems would not crop up when he decides to travel to Ifo town, his local government headquarters. Okeleke, who resides in Iju-Ajuwon, a border town in Ogun State, said all the persons who registered at his polling unit in Iju-Ajuwon could not collect their cards throughout the period the distribution lasted.
He said: “I didn’t see INEC officials at the centre. I was not the only one. I live at Ajuwon and I went to the centre where I registered, but there was no INEC staff giving out cards to anybody. I trekked to other polling centres within the area, but nobody was giving PVC. I later learnt from neigbhours that the registration for the entire area was cancelled. It is terrible. It is true that INEC has asked us to visit our local government headquarters in Ifo, but there is no guarantee that other problems would not crop up when I get there.”
Like Okeleke, many residents of Iju-Ajuwon who are required to do fresh registration do not see why they should leave their jobs and businesses and travel to Ifo to begin a fresh process of securing their voting cards. Many of those who went to Ifo after the end of the distribution exercise in their locality were not able to collect their cards. They were directed by INEC officials to come back at a later date. But, most of them never returned. Mrs. Joke Adebayo, a trader in Ajuwon, is one of such persons. “How do you expect me to leave my business and go back to Ifo, when it is not guaranteed that I would get my PVC at the end of the day,” she said. Ifo is the headquarters of Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State and it is one of the biggest local councils in the state.
No less a personality than Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State had equally refused to go through another registration process, when he was confronted with an embarrassing situation, November 28, 2014, on getting to Ward G3 Unit E002 in Surulere, Lagos, where he and his wife Abimbola registered. The governor and his wife, as well as other Nigerians who registered at the polling unit, were informed that there were no cards for them because there was loss of data captured during the registration prior to the 2011 polls. The loss of the data was attributed to the crash of the commission’s computing system.
A week later, INEC’s top officials, including the former Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Adekunle Ogunmola, visited the governor’s office to plead with him to rescind his decision because, as a leader, it may have serious implications on the polity. Fashola had argued that not having a disaster recovery system in a national assignment as important as the one it is handling amounted to irresponsibility on the part of INEC. The governor agreed and indeed asked Lagosians in similar situation to see it as a national duty to follow the process to the end.
Polling unit transfer
cumbersome
Other Nigerians who may not be able to vote because they could not collect their PVCs are those who have relocated from where they registered in 2011 to new abodes. For instance, an estimated 1.5 million Nigerians displaced by the insurgency in the Northeast may not be able to vote in the forthcoming elections. It is not clear indeed whether elections will take place at all the states under emergency rule; in spite of assurances by the INEC that it is committed to organizing elections in all parts of the country. INEC spokesman Nick Dazzang was quoted as saying that the commission has started distributing permanent voting cards to displaced people, many of whom are living in camps. But, he added that discrepancies in the Electoral Act may not allow them to vote, unless this is “reconciled” before the general elections.
The President of the Nigeria Voters’ Assembly, Mr. Mashood Erubami said INEC is not ready to entertain the idea of transferring from one place of registration to another and as such has been ignoring persons requesting for such transfer. He said this is because the measures put in place for such transfer is not as easy and simplistic as INEC officials are making people to believe.
Low awareness campaign
There seem to be a confusion as to where people can pick up their PVCs. As a result, the initial euphoria has given way to skepticism. There are reports of PVCs belonging to persons in one polling unit being located in other polling units. A Lagos resident Olusegun Adegoke who was also unable to collect his card during the exercise in the state scored INEC low in area of awareness campaign. “The information was not well circulated; the awareness was low. I did not hear about it at all. I was on my way to work when I saw a crowd. I decided to find out what was happening and discovered that a board had been put up with incomplete names,” he observed.
Erubami agrees with Adegoke. He said INEC ought to have come up with stronger measures and adequate publicity in alliance with political parties and civil societies, to ensure that citizens were adequately mobilized for the distribution of the cards seamlessly. He added that the shoddy handling of the PVC production and distribution by INEC is a wrong signal about the commission’s readiness to conduct the forthcoming general elections fairly.
Since INEC has reiterated that any voter without the PVC will not be allowed to vote in the forthcoming general elections, Erubami said the implication is that millions of eligible voters who are yet to obtain the card would be disenfranchised. “As things are now, a lot of Nigerians will be disenfranchised, as it was in Ekiti and Osun states,” he said. The civil society activist noted that INEC’s idea of assigning a single staff to most of the collecting points falls short of what is required to handle the deluge of citizens turning up for the exercise.
Apathy justified
The Southeast Secretary-General of the human rights watchdog, Campaign for Democracy (CD), Dr. Jerry Chukwuokolo, believes the apathy being displayed by some Nigerians who are reluctant to go and collect their PVCs at local government offices of INEC is not out of place. His words: “They said people should go to INEC offices in their respective local councils, but when you get there it is another matter; you may not find anybody around to attend to you.”
The human rights activist said in an ideal situation one could attribute what happened during the initial stage of the distribution of PVCs to logistic problems on the part of INEC. ‘But, as it is, nobody sees it that way, because of previous experiences,” he added. Chukwuokolo attributes the fear being raised in many quarters concerning this development to the do-or-die attitude of Nigerian politicians. He said: “From what is playing out on the political scene, every group is trying to outmanoeuvre the other for unjustifiable reasons. In that sense, people feel that politicians are working on INEC, to achieve their own ends.”
The Enugu-based Chukwuokolo is of the view that the Prof. Attahiru Jega-led INEC was given a free hand by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, compared to Prof Maurice Iwu under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He also believes that INEC has improved considerably under Jega. He added however: “But Jega, to my own understanding, is not giving his workers the leverage to work, in the sense that he does not give them the remunerations or allowances they need to operate. Most times, he gives preferences to consultants, who are now more or less siphoning the money he should have used to take of his workers. Yet, after all said and done, the workers would still be the ones to execute the job. So, that leaves them at the mercy of politicians, who may induce the workers to do their own bidding.”
Allegation of connivance
After cataloging the problems that trailed the exercise across the states, the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu expressed disappointment over the development, saying the situation might have been deliberately contrived by INEC to rig the elections in favour of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). He equally queried the eligibility of INEC to conduct a free and fair election going by the shoddy manner it conducted the distribution of PVCs to eligible voters. Tinubu said INEC had four good years to prepare for the coming general elections and there are laws, particularly constitutional and electoral act requiring certain actions to be taken.
Similar tales of woe were echoed by frustrated Nigerians who were initially eager to get their cards across the country. But, Idowu believes the commission has addressed the initial problems encountered by Nigerians in their bid to secure the card. He said INEC has taken care of those who did not find their names in the register initially, with the continuous voter registration (CVR). He added that the situation might have arisen because the fingerprints of such persons were probably not fully captured during the 2011 registration exercise.
The CVR is primarily targeted at persons who turned 18 years since 2011. But, it also presents a fresh opportunity for those who were 18 years at the time yet did not present themselves for registration, as well as persons who were registered in 2011 and were issued the Temporary Voter Card (TVC), but who for whatever reason did not find their names on the register.
The registration process includes collection of the applicant’s bio-data, facial portrait and fingerprints (all fingers). INEC had spent N34.4 billion on the procurement of Direct Data Capture (DDC) machines which were deployed for the nationwide voter registration exercise in January 2011. After the registrations, Nigerians who participated were issued Temporary Voter Cards, which was used for the 2011 general elections. The PVC is an improvement on the temporary cards that were used in 2011 because it contains the biometric data of voters. This is to enable the cards to be read electronically with card readers that will be deployed for the forthcoming general election.
