A minimum of 6.7 million Nigerians have gathered their permanent voter cards, or PVCs, with only eight weeks until the general election.
Data acquired from the Independent National Electoral Commission’s state offices on Tuesday showed that 6.7 million PVCs were kept in safes at INEC offices in 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
According to the INEC, the PVC collection period will last from December 12, 2022 to January 22, 2023.
Festus Okoye, the INEC National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, said in a statement that the ward level will be in charge of collecting PVCs from January 6–15, 2023, and then the local government areas will take over.
During the 2019 general elections, the INEC reported that there were approximately 82.3 million registered voters, but only 28.6 million actually cast ballots.This led to the re-election of President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret.), who received 15 million votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar, who received 11.2 million.
Less than 2 million people cast ballots in the Lagos governorship election, which was won by Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC. He received 739,445 votes, defeating PDP candidate Jimi Agbaje, who received 206,141.
1,693,963 PVCs were still uncollected as of December 29, according to data from the Lagos state INEC headquarters. This information was revealed in a file with the title “INEC Lagos PVCs Reports.”
According to the report, “Old PVCs received from headquarters totaled 6,570,291; old PVCs gathered through December 29, 2022, were 5,653,330.” 916,961 old PVCs in total are still uncollected; 940,200 new PVCs are received from headquarters; and 163,198 new PVCs have been collected as of December 29, 2022.
Total PVCs received from headquarters as of December 29, 2022, were 7,510,491; total PVCs collected as of that date were 5,816,528; and total PVCs uncollected as of that date were 1,693,963.
About 14,000 people receive their voter cards each day in Lagos State, according to INEC Director of Voter Education Mrs. Adenike Tadeshe. She also noted that the commission will shortly begin distributing PVCs to the wards.
“I won’t claim we have a tonne of PVCs that haven’t been collected,” she added. Looking at the numbers, as of December 29, 2022, we had distributed 5,816,528 PVCs; there are now just 1,693,963 left. We want to note that as we distribute 14,000 PVCs daily in Lagos State, the number will continue to drop.
The cards will now be brought closer to the people for collection because, by January 15 and 16, we will be taking them to all 245 of Lagos State’s wards and then to the local government areas.
Findings show that as of December 24, the FCT had 460,643 PVCs that had not yet been collected.
The Abuja Municipal Area Council has the most PVCs that haven’t been picked up in the Federal Capital Territory, according to a document from INEC.
As of December 29 in Edo State, 661,783 voter cards had not been collected.
As of December 15, the states of Ondo and Ekiti had 300,000 and 205,127 cards, respectively.
PVC in Osun
By the end of November, eligible voters in Osun State and Plateau had still not collected 437,454 PVCs and 49,000 voter cards, respectively.
As of December 20, there were 231 900 voters in Gombe state who had not yet selected their ballots. Similar to this, as of December 8, 132,623 PVCs in Anambra were still uncollected.
Data from Niger state revealed that 150,988 PVCs had not yet been collected as of November 27, 2022, while the INEC office in Adamawa state reported having more than 200,000 PVCs lying around as of November 18, 2022.
INEC’s head of voter education in Cross River, Tonia Nwobi, said that as of December 16, the commission was still in charge of 409,604 PVCs.
The breakdown was provided by the speaker, who said, “They include 90, 511 PVCs uncollected from 2019, 8,752 uncollected PVCs from the new registration of 2021/2022, 61,939 uncollected PVCs from the 2021/2022 transfer, and 248,402 unclaimed PVCs received on December 2, 2022.”
Oyo, with 700,000 voter cards, Kwara, 120,602, Borno, 80,117, Ogun, 400,000, Edo, 661,783, Kogi, 160,966, and Imo, 300,000, are other states with a large number of voter cards.
Usolor Mark, the resident electoral commissioner for the state of Rivers, declined to say how many ballots were still unclaimed, but he did say that the commission was working with local communities to collect PVCs from women, young people, people with disabilities, and the elderly.
He responded, “We were expecting that people may have travelled home and they are not collecting, but lo and behold, they are collecting their PVCs from the various local government area offices of INEC in Rivers State,” when asked about the level of PVC collection in the state.
Timidi Wariowie, the head of Edo state’s voter education and publicity, clarified that the 661,783 PVCs that were available included both the old and new cards that had not yet been picked up as of December 31.
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He said that while 251,951 were new voter cards, 409,832 were old, uncollected PVCs.
The former uncollected PVCs numbered 425,239, but only 15,407 had been collected, leaving 409,832 outstanding. Furthermore, despite the fact that 289,931 new PVCs had been received, only 37,980 had been collected, leaving a balance of $251,95, he added.
Wariowei also said that on January 1, 460 PVCs were found in all of the state’s local government units.
He clarified that PVC collection takes place at INEC offices throughout the state’s 18 local government areas from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day (including weekends and public holidays), barring holidays.
PDP’s worry
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ibrahim Abdullahi, commented on the lack of interest in the PVC collection and characterised it as a dangerous precedent that reeked of mischief by the APC dictatorship.
“It is further evidence that we are moving in the direction of a risky precedent,” he said. Over 7 million PVCs have still not been collected with fewer than six weeks until the election, which leaves much to be desired.
I believe the government hasn’t gone far enough to urge people to get their PVCs, despite the fact that it is their duty to inform the populace. In certain aspects, though, I smell trouble. The government may use these voter cards for legitimate purposes or to hide their tracks.
Debo Ologunagba, the PDP’s national publicity secretary, claimed that the party has been urging Nigerians to get voter registration cards.
According to Felix Morka, the APC’s national publicity secretary, the party anticipates that registered voters will return to the PVC collection centres to pick up their ballots.
The vast number of unclaimed voter cards worried him.
“I understand that people are very busy, but we hope as a party that those Nigerians who have taken the time to register will realise that of all the things they have to do, this is one of the most important obligations: to go out and vote and choose those who will rule them,” said Morka. Every Nigerian has a duty to the country, which we hope they will all fulfil and take seriously.
The APC’s spokesman said that the government has been encouraging people to sign up to vote (PVCs) no matter which party they plan to vote for.
They must go because, without it, they cannot even cast a ballot, which would indicate that they are denying themselves the right to vote, the speaker continued.
However, Morka argued that because the number of voters who failed to pick up their PVCs was lower than the number of voters who did, the credibility of the elections could not be questioned.
He uttered, “
The point is not that those who have not collected their PVCs will call the election’s legitimacy into question.
“The key is that each of us must go to the polls to cast our votes.” For us, voting in the election is more important than any possible defence that might be offered.
Many of them would have gathered the cards before the election, according to Tex Okechukwu, the All Progressives Grand Alliance’s publicity secretary. All across the country, awareness is being raised. Both our party and other parties are really raising awareness about PVC collection.
The head of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun, asked for an investigation to find out why so many PVCs had not been claimed.
He went on to say that only an investigation would reveal the true cause, and that some parties may be suppressing gatherings in areas outside their strongholds.
Why should we be worried, Osuntokun wondered?Uncollected PVCs will always be present. However, it is bad for democracy. It is crucial that we look into the cause of this. It’s possible that certain parties are purposefully erecting obstacles to the gathering in places where they are vulnerable. We should look at this.
Ladipo Johnson, the spokeswoman for the Presidential Campaign Committee of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, stressed that the council would only be concerned if the unclaimed PVCs were the consequence of “systemic blocking.”
“We would be concerned if those attempting to collect are unable to do so; if it appears that there is a systemic barrier, but if Nigerians are delaying things, we will only encourage them to collect their PVCs,” he said.
However, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the INEC chairman’s spokesperson, insisted that the Commission was making every effort to encourage registered voters to obtain their PVCs.
“We have continuously started voter education and awareness campaigns to encourage people to cast their ballots,” Oyekanmi said.
“Each state office of the Commission also takes many slots in radio and television stations notable in their respective domains to amplify voter education, in addition to advertorials and routine dissemination of customised messaging via our social media accounts.”
“We work with religious authorities that disseminate voter education information to their audiences in synagogues and mosques.” We use the power of traditional rulers to connect with their citizens on a level that is unattainable through any other means.
INEC initiatives
We also use cultural occasions like the Calabar Carnival to connect with voters. Due to the impact that market women and leaders also hold, we frequently travel by foot to big markets in other states.
“We are appreciative of our many development partners, including the European Union, IFES, UNDP, and others, as well as the civil society organisations that support us in urging voters to pick up their PVCs,” the statement reads.
Oyekanmi stated that the number of unclaimed PVCs decreased daily as eligible voters picked up their cards; hence, she was unable to provide the overall number of unclaimed PVCs nationally.
For instance, the number of uncollected PVCs in Lagos as of December 29, 2022, will differ from that on December 31, 2022, because more people will have picked up their cards. When we cease collecting the cards all across the country, that is the only time we will have the ultimate number of uncollected PVCs. “At that time, the Commission will make a formal announcement regarding the overall number of uncollected cards,” he added.
Idayat Hassan, the director of the Centre for Democracy and Development, commented on the scenario and blamed the poor performance of the PVCs on what she dubbed “last-minute syndrome,” referring to the circumstance as recurrent and frequent.
It is a recurring decimal, Hassan said. People frequently put off or postpone getting their PVCs until the last minute when an election is coming up. You’ll see that maybe a week before the collection procedure ends, Nigerians will gather to go pick up their PVCs.
“Second, some proprietors of these PVCs, particularly the older ones, may be deceased, have moved, or be Nigerians who oppose democracy.” In order to urge registered voters to pick up their PVCs, we are encouraging the media and civil society organisations.
Yiaga Africa’s executive director, Samson Itodo, attributed the large number of unclaimed voter cards in the distance to a lack of collecting centres and low awareness.
Itodo noted, “The PVC collection place is far from the population, which is why people are not collecting their PVCs.” From January 6–15, 2023, however, INEC will decentralise PVC collections at the ward level. Because the ward level is closer to the people, we hope that they will take advantage of this chance.
