14082018 - POPULATION GROWTH : Danger looms for Nigeria

10—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 14, , 2018
2019: We have
8 million
PVCs awaiting
collection – INEC
•Say some Nigerians tell us they are not interested
•Maps out measures to avoid 2015 mistakes
•FG can’t ensure credible polls – Ann Kio-Briggs
BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE
& OMEIZA AJAYI
TO avoid a repeat of
some of the mistakes
and flaws that
hallmarked the 2015 general
elections, the Independent
National Electoral
Commission, INEC, has
embarked on moves to ensure
credible polls, next year. It has
also urged the electorate to do
their part of the duties by
getting registered as voters,
collecting their Permanent
Voter’s Card, PVC, and
coming out to vote during the
It is now an
issue of the
collection. ‘’So,
we are putting
in place
measures to
assist those
that are willing
to collect their
cards
elections.
Lamenting that some
Nigerians are already
hurting the electoral
process, the INEC told
Saturday Vanguard that
many people are
unwilling to collect their
PVCs, lamenting that it
now has over eight million
of such uncollected cards
in its kitty.
INEC’s Director incharge
of Voter Education,
Publicity, Gender and
Civil Society Liaison, Mr
Oluwole Osaze Uzi, in an
interview with Saturday
Vanguard, added that while the
commission in some cases had tried to
reach out to some Nigerians to come
and claim their cards, many of them said
they were not interested or that they had
relocated from were they were
registered.
His words: “You know we do not
distribute PVCs. They are collected. The
onus is on those collecting. There are
quite a few cases where the cards have
not been printed but that is not the main
issue. The issue is the collection. We
have over eight million cards lying down
in our offices, uncollected, and we have
distributed them to our distribution
points. It is now an issue of the
collection. ‘’So, we are putting in place
measures to assist those that are willing
to collect their cards. We are simplifying
the process, ensuring maximum
publicity so that people will know the
importance because, automatically, they
are disenfranchising themselves when
they do not pick up their cards. We are
trying to persuade people. Some are not
interested.
‘’Sometimes, we even try to call them.
In Oyo State, I know that they even had
to call people on phone but those that
•Mahmud Yakubu,
INEC boss
they were able to reach said they were
not interested in the cards. Some said
that they had relocated. So, we are
making efforts. In some states, they have
sent text messages too for collection.”
2015 election mistakes
Non-distribution/collection of PVCs
was one of the problems that plagued
the 2015 election. While the INEC
insisted on individual collection in some
parts of the country, it allowed monarchs
or district heads to collect and distribute
the cards in other parts of the country.
Other problems included:
malfunctioning card readers; inability
of Direct Data Capturing Machine,
DDCM, to capture fingerprints of voters
in many locations; some states had
surplus DDCMs and accessories while
others had few; people dislocated by
violence vote in some locations but could
not vote in some parts of the country;
and poor handling of the voters register
in which 82,206 men were captured as
housewives (due to input error during
voter enrolment) among others.
According to the INEC’s ‘’Smart Card
Reader Accreditation Backend
Continues on pg 11