No issue has generated so much attention lately than the Permanent Voter Card (PVC). Everybody across the length and breadth of Nigeria, whether they are participating in the election or not, has something to say about it.
The literate and illiterate all discuss PVC with relish. Whether they are in school, church, eatery, mosque, office, or even in the comfort of their homes, the story is the same.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) started it all when it assured Nigerians in the build up to the 2011 ballot that future elections would be conducted with the PVC.
That assurance was communicated to us as part of the reforms which the INEC under Attahiru Jega is expected to effect during his tenure. A good idea! It is not only encouraging but in line with international best practices when one considers that in some countries where real democracy is practised, the use of PVC provides something that looks like rig-proof.
For the first time, Nigerians will vote with PVCs and that alone is enough to generate attention and tension, and why the collection has become a problem when it should not.
We live in a society where change of any sort is an anathema. The husband wants to resist change in his home with the vehemence he can muster, the same way his wife and children may not immediately embrace a shift from the status quo until assured of what is in the change for them. That is natural and comes with a prize.
If history is anything to go by, the most difficult change is the one that takes place without violence. If we were in a military regime (God forbid) and there is a decree that all eligible Nigerians must collect their PVCs under two weeks nobody would resist it. By now potential voters would have been guarding their cards.
But this is a democracy where people assert their rights, it does not matter whether they are right or not. That explains why we are finding it difficult to move away from the traditional mode of voting we are used to, with all its complications and trappings for manipulation, to a simpler and yet almost zero tolerant manipulation the PVCs offer.
Listening to different shades of opinion on how the INEC has so far distributed the PVCs, one could raise posers on the type of people we are as Nigerians.
Let me start with myself. Until the presidential election was about two weeks to February 14 before the exercise was rescheduled, I was still procrastinating about going to collect my PVC.
I had the opportunity of doing so when the INEC originally deployed its staff to the polling units where the electorate were registered, but that I did not do until the deadline given for collection elapsed and the collection points moved to local governments.
When eventually I made up my mind to collect my PVC, I noticed at the collection centre that several PVCs were lying there without the owners coming forth for them. “You have so much PVCs uncollected, why?”, I asked one of the officials.
Her response struck me. She said: “I don’t knowoooh. People are not coming to collect it. When you open television now you will see people saying there is no PVC to collect. Na wa for Nigerians.”
Curiously, it did not take more than five minutes before I collected my PVC and left the centre in Ogba, Lagos. I could not but blame myself for not being responsive and responsible enough to pick it up earlier.
There are many Nigerians who are not interested in collecting their PVCs. Some people’s PVCs were brought to them in their homes, offices and business places, which shows how much importance we attach to the instrument.
We need to participate in the election if we are determined to practise democracy. How else to describe what is happening than voter apathy? That is part of what we are suffering from. Is a man who is not interested in collecting his PVC interested in voting?
Again, if a man was pressured to register who says he will be willing to collect the PVC without another prompting? Some PVCs will remain uncollected, no matter how high we raise our voice about it or who to blame.
The first alert that the PVC may pose a challenge was raised by TheNiche in a lead story titled “30 per cent PVCs stuck in China”, published about a month to the February 14 date. But we will be telling ourselves lies if we say the situation with the PVCs has not improved since our publication.
The blame we daily heap on Jega and the INEC is neither here nor there if the kind of change we anticipate from deploying the PVC is anything to go by.
Rather than political party chieftains wasting their time and everybody’s time trying to get at the INEC leadership, they should channel their efforts at their supporters, most of whom are suffering from voter apathy. Most Nigerians are yet to appreciate that democracy is about the people and that their participation is key to its success.
Does it not amount to a lack of interest that in a country of almost 170 million people, only about 68 million registered to vote in this election? This is not up to half the population.
Part of the problem, again, is that the parties are only interested in winning election and not in the things that will help deepen democracy. Prior to electioneering, how many of them created awareness for the electorate, enumerating the benefits of their voting cards?
Perhaps they forgot that Nigeria is transiting from the old ways of voting to the new ways, and I won’t be surprised if the parties have been caught unawares.
Had the parties and the INEC collaborated well on enlightenment, perhaps the argument back and forth on the PVCs would not have arisen. It is the duty of all of us to help the INEC succeed because its success is the success of Nigeria and our democracy.
But the fact that there is this “we and them” syndrome in relation to the INEC, it is difficult to see anything right in what it is doing. For instance, will it be fair to assume that the INEC registered 68 million Nigerians for this election when, as Jega pointed out last week, about four million names were struck out because of multiple registration?
Besides, why are we wasting so much time discussing stolen PVCs and telling the INEC to replace them, knowing that the card readers will sort all that out during voting, assuming some parties or individuals are still thinking of the old ways of doing balloting?
So much has been said about the careless comments some parties’ representatives are making regarding the rescheduled poll and the distribution of the PVCs. We do not need those comments.
The problem with the PVCs is collection, not distribution. And that can also be dealt with if those in charge do their jobs rather than make provocative statements that foul the environment and heighten tension.