REFUSING
TO BE DELIBERATELY DISENFRANCHISED
Responsibility
cannot be shoved and when there appear to be any lapses in a statutory duty you
strive to fix same up
As election approaches every right thinking Nigeria
who’s tired of the old perceived smelling and odorous fresh air of the rather
seeming sycophants’ of the on paper transformation agenda of the current
administration is willing and ready for an era of change where there lies an
equal opportunity and a level playing ground for all and sundry. But in
achieving this desired change it is incumbent and important to get the
permanent voters card (PVC) in other to fully exercise the constitutional
rights bestowed on me by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as
amended.
As every willing Nigeria will take fervent steps to
get his or her voters card, I endeavour to do same but was unavoidably absent
to get same at the time it was shared as i heed the clarion call to serve my
father land under the NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE CORPS compulsory one year service.
As a responsible and willing citizen who’s always willing to discharge all
constitutional duty reposed in him, proceeded to the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) in my Local Government in Lagos to get same but to
my utter dismay I was told that some data’s of the polling booth I registered
was missing, which fortunately or unfortunately mine was a part of the missing
data and my PVC could not be produced. However I swung to ask few questions,
how will I get my PVC now? How will I register for another voter’s card? When
will it be ready?
These are few of the questions I asked the inec
official that attended to me and all I got for an answer was the registration
is over and there’s no registration again until further notice. This response
destabilizes me, as I never expected same but alas it appears have forgotten we
are in Nigeria where anything can happen and nobody seems to care what’s
happening despite the continuous plundering of the collective wealth of all
Nigerians by some cabals. Few months ago millions of dollars went missing, 216
girls still missing, thousands of people die daily due to government nonchalant
attitudes towards making the economy work, book haram menace yet sum few
individuals still use billions of naira to eat despite the seeming crash in the
economy.
Inec as a commission is charged with lots of
responsibility as the constitution that establishes it knew the task to be
faced by the commission and it gave same autonomy and independence to run without
interference from any person or authority. The electoral act also empowers inec
as it relates to administering her official duty. It is the duty of inec to
provide voters registration card for eligible individuals, the electoral act
also further provides for a continuous voters registration in section 10 of the
said act. Section 10 of the electoral act provides as follows;
(1)Without prejudice to section 1O (5),
there shall be continuous registration of all persons qualified to be
registered voters.
(2)Each applicant for registration under
the continuous registration system shall appear in person at the registration
venue with any of the following documents-
(a) birth or baptismal certificate;
(b) national passport, identity card or
driver's license; or
(c) any other document that will prove
the identity, age and nationality of the applicant.
(3) The Commission shall, within 60 days
after each year, make available to every political party the names and address
of each person registered during that year.
(4) When a general election is notified
by the Commission pursuant to section 31 of this Act, the current official
register of voters certified by the Commission in accordance with the provision
of this Act shall be the official voters' register for those elections.
(5) In the case of every by-election
conducted under this Act, the official voters' register for use at such
elections shall be the existing current register relating to the senatorial
district or the constituency concerned.
(6) As soon as claims and objections
have been dealt with or the period for making claims and objections has
expired, the supplementary list shall be included in the revised register,
which shall be certified by the Commission as the official register of voters
for the purposes of any election conducted under this Act and supercedes all previous
registers.
The above provisions shows how
responsible inec should be in having a process that enables a continuous voters
registration in the country to enable all eligible Nigerian voters exercise
their constitutional right as guaranteed them by the constitution. Its
about a month a few days to the conduct
of the general election yet thousands of Nigeria have not gotten their PVC and
millions still unregistered due to inec’s insensitivity and ineptitudeness
towards duty imposed on her by law.
The question is how will those who were
unable to get their PVC due to inec sheer incompetency and negligence cast
their vote for their various candidates in the forth coming election? Inec as
better fashion a way to solve this rather unwarranted happening to avoid any
legal consequence of failing to abide by the rules as lay down by section 10 of
the 1999 constitution as amended. The time of when Nigerians are gullible and
unwilling is past. We are at a time when we know when to press the charges in
court even against the untouchables.
As I refuse to be disenfranchised
deliberately, I implore inec to take swift step to solving the lapses in her
internal dealings and produce our PVC or rather conduct a swift voter’s
registration or risk legal battle in days to come.
Mubarak Tijani writes in from Lagos
Tweets @illuminant_o
08084390248
tijanimubaraklaw@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment