INEC's incompetence should never again deny Nigerians their rights to vote

When Samuel defied the early morning rainfall to hurry to the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Surulere, Lagos, before 9am on Friday, February 8, he met dozens of other Nigerians like him dripping wet from the rain or clutching their umbrellas.

Friday had initially been scheduled to be the final day for the collection of permanent voters' cards (PVC) ahead of the 2019 elections scheduled for February 16 and March 2.

At 8:45am, 15 minutes before the official commencement of the distribution of cards, there were already at least 100 Nigerians at the INEC office eager to collect the cards that would empower them to vote their candidates starting with the Presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, February 16.

When the distribution of the cards commenced on Friday, the rain didn't stop those at the centre from queuing to get their cards before the exercise would be suspended until after the elections.

Nigerians excitedly queued at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Surulere, Lagos State to collect their permanent voters' cards (PVC) despite the rain that threatened to discourage them early on Friday, February 8 Pulse Nigeria

When it was Samuel's turn to get his card, he got five magic words, "Your card is not ready."

Samuel had had to take half the day off from work to make it to the centre on Friday morning, and it was his third time attempting to get the card he first registered for on August 4, 2018.

Deflated about his disenfranchisement, Samuel made his way to his office across the city, only to hear an announcement by INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, that the collection deadline had been extended until Monday, February 11.

With the extension also covering Saturday and Sunday, Yakubu charged all INEC state offices to review the procedure for the collection of PVCs and dedicate all the staff of the Local Government offices to the collection process.

With renewed hope, Samuel went back to the centre on Sunday, February 10, only to be told those five magic words, again, followed by, "Come back after the elections."

Still willing to take one last shot, Samuel returned to INEC's Surulere office on Monday only to be told those five magic words he had come to detest, "Your card is not ready."

With Monday being the final day of collection, Samuel will not be able to vote in the 2019 general elections due to no fault of his own. And he's not alone.

A signboard of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in front of its office in Surulere, Lagos State. Samuel came here five different times only to be finally told on Monday his card won't be available until after the 2019 general elections Pulse Nigeria

21-year-old Abdul-Lateef, a student, had registered at the same INEC centre on August 1, 2018, but he was told his PVC was not ready yet and directed to come back after the elections. He expressed dismay at his inability to vote due to what he considered INEC's incompetence that means his card was not printed five months after he registered.

Aishat, 24, also faced the same problem as she left the centre in anger most especially at the time she wasted on the queue before she discovered her card was not ready.

Deborah, a middle-aged trader, also cursed at an INEC officer who informed her that her PVC will not be ready until after the elections are over. She told Pulse she had relocated to the Surulere area last year and requested a transfer from her former polling unit in another area of Lagos. Her card was still not ready on Monday.

This isn't limited to voters in Lagos. Pulse also spoke to Nigerians in Abuja, Ekiti, Delta, Kaduna and Ogun who had similar PVC problems. Many others also took to social media to air their frustrations with INEC.

Prof Yakubu announced in December 2018 that INEC had printed PVCs for all newly-registered voters who registered between April 27, 2017 and August 31, 2018, and for all those who requested replacements and relocation of their cards ahead of the 2019 general elections.

"These will be delivered immediately after the Christmas break. So we are happy to say that all 14.5 million or so newly-registered voters have their cards printed and delivered to the states. So we are good to go on that," he had said.

When he announced the deadline extension on Friday, Yakubu said that the commission was taking urgent steps to address complaints of unavailability of the PVCs of some registered voters and promised to rectify the situation before the end of the Monday deadline.

He reassured Nigerians the commission would take every necessary step to ensure that no registered voter was disenfranchised from participating in the 2019 elections on account of non-collection of PVCs.

However, on evidence of the complaints from Nigerians like Samuel, Abdul-Lateef, Aishat, and Deborah, the INEC chairman has failed in his promise to make sure all willing Nigerians are able to exercise their voting rights as enshrined in the nation's laws.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has some explanations to make and some major improvements to implement when the dust settles on the 2019 general elections ece-auto-gen

The waiting period between Samuel's registration for his PVC and the final moment he was told it wasn't available for him to vote was five months. If you take the gravity of the situation into account, that should be enough time to process, print and deliver cards into the hands of the electorate to exercise their rights.

While there's very little to be done about dozens or potentially thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of Nigerians who'll be denied their rights to vote in a few days simply because of INEC's failure to deliver their cards in a timely fashion, it should be a catalyst for a fresh look at the process.

The current process which involves wasting productive hours on queues to register for cards and then return at a future date to once again queue up to collect cards is already facing criticism of being a very archaic method in these very modern times.

This PVC collection setback should be enough failure to trigger the need for a review, as urgently as possible, to avoid a recurrence of a situation that's completely unacceptable. You cannot hope to inspire the electorate to go out to vote during elections and then also systematically deny some the liberty to express their voting rights and leave the window open for apathy to set in.

The voter turnout in 2015 dropped by 10 million people (from the turnout in 2011) but there are efforts to get more Nigerians to show up at the polls in 2019 ece-auto-gen

If a complete overhaul is impossible in the immediate future, whatever part of the process that has made this current mess a possibility should be reviewed and improved upon going forward and there's great hope that this can happen as INEC has shown incredible willingness to improve its operations.

It must still be clearly stated that INEC's latest dereliction of duty is inexcusable especially as it has given more fuel to allegations that the commission is colluding with the current government to keep PVCs out of the hands of people likely to vote for the opposition.

While there's no doubt that anyone can find isolated scenarios to 'prove' these unfounded theories if they look hard enough, there's also enough to prove that it's simply a matter of inefficient operations and not a deliberate political sabotage of the electorate.

The most efficient way to avoid these unfortunate rumblings altogether is to implement a system that ensures that everyone who expresses a willingness to vote (and is of the right voting age, of course) can do so without being handicapped by the very agency that's supposed to help them express that right.

With Nigerians like Samuel, Abdul-Lateef, Aishat and others paying for INEC's ineptitude this election cycle, efforts should be made to ensure it never happens again.

Every single vote is as important as the next one and every single voice deserves to be heard.

Editor's note: Pulse reached out to Prof. Yakubu's Chief Press Secretary, Rotimi Oyekanmi, to explain why INEC failed to provide all the PVCs before the deadline, but one email message and two follow-up text messages went unreplied for over 24 hours and a call placed to his phone was neither answered nor returned at the time of publishing the story.