By Emmanuel Oloniruha/Angela Atabo
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has deployed over 50 voter registration machines and 150 staff for an “Open Air Permanent Voter Card (PVC) Registration” in Abuja.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for FCT, Yahaya Bello, disclosed this in a news conference at Old Parade Ground, Abuja, venue of the registration.
Bello said that the deployment of the high number of machines and staff members was to ensure that INEC met the needs of FCT residents who came out en masse to register via the registration programme.
He said the European Union funded the Open Air Permanent Voter Registration with a music show tagged “Youth Vote Count 2.0 Mega Concert” to encourage more youths to register for PVC.
The celebrity-studded show and registration which began on Monday, June 20, is expected to end on Saturday, June 25. “When EU came up with this very laudable and very nice idea, INEC mobilised to partner with them very seriously. In supporting this, INEC has come up to support this initiative by deploying more than 50 INEC Voter Enrolment Devices (IVED). INEC has also deployed more than 150 staff to ensure that the programme goes on smoothly.”
He said that while the continuous voter registration (CVR) for permanent voter cards had been going on for over a year, the EU was partnering with INEC to ensure that more persons came out for registration. He, however, said that the registration at the INEC offices in the six Abuja area councils still continued till June 30 when the programme would end.
EU Programme Manager, Political Governance and Democracy Section, Olawumi Laolu, said the essence of EU partnership with INEC was to get the youths involved in elections of leaders in the country. Laolu said the essence of the partnership programme fully funded by the EU was to get more Nigeria Youths involved in the electoral process by registering through the ongoing CVR and voting on election day.
“Over the last couple of years, we have tried to answer a very important question and that’s how do we get young people to be more involved in the political process? How do we get them to be engaged; not just by getting their voter cards but to have a sustained engagement from young people in Nigeria? And the answer to that is very obvious. If you look at the detailed data from INEC you see that we have high levels of young people in terms of our population, but that does not necessarily translate to the engagement in the political process. And we have said how do we address this very huge challenge? That question was what we tried to answer when we came up with a campaign called the Youth Vote Count Campaign back in 2018. The entire objective of the campaign is just to connect young people with centres of power to get them to be a little bit more proactive in the governance process and to begin to shift culture and perception of young people.”
She recalled that the EU partnership started with INEC in 2018 where music concerts were organised at universities across the country and almost 25,000 young people were registered across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
Laolu said that moving towards the 2023 elections, there was the need to encourage more Nigerian youths to register via the Youth Vote Count 2.0 Mega Concert. In his remarks, INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mr Ayodele Aluko commended Abuja residents for coming out en masse to register through the open air registration programme.
Aluko said the commission thought people’s turnout for the event in the first two days would be low but it turned out to be overwhelming and encouraging. “For us in INEC we are seeing this as a positive development. Many people are interested in voting,” Aluko said. He urged more Nigerians to come out and register for PVC and those who had collected their card to keep it safe to participate in 2023 and future elections.
Also speaking at the event, INEC’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, urged youths to get registered and use their large numbers to realise the Nigeria of their dreams. “As at 2019 we had 84 million registered voters, 51 per cent of that were youths. Now we started again, and from the figures we have the youths between 18 and 39 years had the highest percentage. So, they have that opportunity to change things the way they want. Don’t just be on social media postulating on Twitter, or sending messages on Facebook. You need to get your PVC and vote for the candidate of your choice. If you do that, the Nigeria of our dreams that we all want will come to fruition,” Oyekanmi said.
For his part, the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, said that the partners were committed to providing more youths with the platform to register and vote in future elections. He said that Nigeria could not continue to have a high number of youths who would not participate in elections.
“For us, the partners on the vote count, we’re very concerned with the level of youths turnout for electoral activities.
From the data from INEC, the youth turnout for the 2019 elections was less than 30 per cent. In the presidential election, it was 28 per cent. In the governorship election, it was 29 per cent. Now, the youth population on the voters register was about 51.1 per cent in 2019. But as you can see, from the images from the videos across the country, there is interest on the part of young people to register and to vote in the next election. For the partners, our contribution to this is providing them that platform and that opportunity to get on the register.”
Itodo said that when the programme was held last two weeks in Lagos, about 11,000 people registered in the five days programme. He expressed hope that the number would be more in Abuja. He said Yiaga Africa had already appealed to INEC to extend the deadline for CVR for more Nigerians to register. “Extending the registration will make room for more young people to register.
He explained that Saturday, there would be a concert where celebrities committed to the Nigeria democratic project would not just entertain youths but also mobilise them to participate in the election. He said the open registration would continue until noon on Friday, before the concert starts. (NAN)
