AWKA — With five days to the end of the Continuous Voters Registration – CVR, by the Independent National Electoral Commission – INEC, there are genuine concerns that many people might be left out of the process considering the number of people still going to get registered for their PVCs. This means that some people might not be registered till the end of the exercise on Sunday, 31st July.
Hence, Uzuegbuna Okagbue has urged INEC to develop a system and ensure that all those who are interested in getting registered and appearing at any registration centre nationwide, are registered, irrespective of the deadline.
“There are the letters of the law and there is the spirit of the law. In this particular instance, the spirit of the law wants INEC to go on with its timetable, but also not cut off the people who want to register for PVC. What I am looking at is a situation where INEC takes records of people who have come out to register in their different centres and then develops an approach to register all of them, without any exception. What this then means is that after Sunday, INEC will no longer initiate any new registration till further notice. But those who have already indicated interest to register before or on Sunday, will all be registered.” Okagbue said.
In different parts of the country, the numbers of registrants have far outweighed the INEC manpower or so it appears, leaving many people to struggle with getting registered for days and weeks and still not able to register. “While we are urging the people to get involved, it is important that INEC helps to keep the ongoing consciousness flying very high, by doing a proper mop-up of prospective voters, such that anyone who has gone to register for his or her PVC is eventually registered, deadline or not”, Uzu Okagbue said.
On the part of Nigerians, the people must sustain their quest for an active role in their democracy, Okagbue said. He went on to argue that Nigerians of voting age must pay the prize by first of all getting their PVCs to be able to vote the right people into office.
“Many Nigerians are not happy as we speak, but the truth is that their unhappiness will have zero impact on who becomes what in the next political dispensation if they do not act within the dictates of our democracy. Clearly, social media engagement is good and important, but having your PVC and going to your polling unit to vote is critical.” Okagbue said.
He is a Technical Assistant to Governor Willie Obiano’s Special Adviser on Legislative Matters, whoonce was a Special Adviser to a former Deputy Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly. Ebuka is a second class upper division graduate of Political Science from University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria and holds a Masters Degree in Political Science with specialization in Government and Development Studies, from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Nigeria
