Stakeholders urge youths to ‘stop agonising, start organising; get your PVCs’
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Stakeholders have urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to leverage the new Electoral Act to facilitate its efficiency, simplify the electoral process, and remove the frustration of voters.
The Act provides a suitable ground for the INEC to perform better, even amid pressure from greedy politicians, panellists insisted at the second edition of The FixPolitics Dialogues which focused on youth participation in the electoral system.
The dialogue on “INEC’s Independence and the Future of Elections in Nigeria” explored how the INEC can leverage technology for efficiency and accuracy, make the process voter-friendly, and encourage greater youth involvement.
FixPolitics Executive Director Anthony Ubani counselled the youth to stop agonising and start organising.
“This is the time to be strategic, if we are going to change anything. We need to go out and get registered and get our PVCs (Permanent Voter Cards).
“We need to go out and help five other people to also get registered and get their PVCs and, if possible, get each of these five people to also get another five people to get registered and get their PVCs,” he said.
“Voters should follow the campaigns. That is the only way to identify those politicians and political actors whose views best represent or speak to the issues that are important to you.”
The panellists included Yiaga Africa co-founder Cynthia Mbamalu; BudgIT co-founder/Director Oluseun Onigbinde; legal practitioner Kamo Sende; OrderPaper.ng Executive Director Oke Epia; Dinidari Africa Executive Director Ndi Kato; and Mubarak Bello.
The guest speakers were Yiaga Africa Executive Director Samson Itodo and Enough is Enough Executive Director Yemi Adamolekun.
Special guests included United States Ambassador to Nigeria Mary Beth Leonard; Deputy US Ambassador to Nigeria and Head of Mission Kathleen FitzGibbon; British High Commissioner to Nigeria Catriona Laing (represented); and INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu (represented).
Topics discussed included the need for the INEC to improve on its performance in the management of elections, assert its independence, and leverage technology to increase security and participation in the electoral process.
The panellists charged the INEC to invest more in voter education and help create citizen’s awareness of the new electoral law, but stressed that the INEC needs greater financial autonomy to function maximally.
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Monopolistic democracy
FixPolitics Chairman Obiageli Ezekwesili said the dialogue arose from a research she conducted on ‘monopolistic democracy’.
In a monopolistic democracy, the democratic space is absolutely controlled by the political class or politicians to the detriment of the electorate and the entire political system, she explained.
This lopsidedness, in her view, has created an imbalance in the democratic space, stressing that her research shows that monopolistic democracy is worse than market monopoly.
“Monopolistic democracy cannot correct itself because it lacks any incentive to yield its distortion of dominance control of the democratic space,” Ezekwesili argued.
“Therefore, in the absence of an effective regulatory system and corrective mechanism that can cut the powers of the monopolistic political class in any democracy, a few citizens must step up to take responsibility and mobilise what we know as the ‘Office of the Citizen’ to structurally transform their political system.
“In the case of Nigeria and Africa, this culture of dominance pervades the entire democratic system to the marginalisation of other actors in the democratic space.”
Where there is distortion in the system, she added, the regulatory side should take certain measures to correct it, as that is what is required in a market economy situation.
“Does it happen? My research shows that in most of Africa, it hardly happens. Our democratisation process has not really started until we get the citizens to be at the centre of everything we do in our democracy. We have not started the journey!”
Another contributor, Mbamalu, urged young people to understand and follow the whole process of election right before the primaries.
“If you do not register to vote, you cannot vote. If you do not have your PVC, you cannot vote. We cannot limit our participation to social media; we have to go back to the communities.
“We need to build this democracy through hard work, determination, resilience and patience.”
Epia stressed the the new Act should spur the INEC to prepare adequately ahead of the next general election.
“Is the independence of INEC real, imagined or something we can keep working at, especially as we approach the next general elections?” he asked.