Tales of frustration and lamentation by eligible voters have trailed the ongoing Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) registration in Kwara amidst the alleged lame effort of the state chapter of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to resolve the issue.HEAD POLITICS, MUMINI ABDULKAREEMtakes a look at the issue and the expression of agony by the people which has characterised the exercise in the state.
For Mrs. Abdulfatah Oyeniran, this is one of her worst experiences in a very long time. The pregnant woman had to excused herself from office for her to complete her registration process of the permanent voters Card (PVC). But the outing that day followed the same routine of unpleasant experiences of standing for hours in the hot scorching sun despite her condition and frustrating slow process of the Data Capturing Machines used for the exercise.
Narrating her experience, Oyeniran said if not for the fear of victimisation from her bosses or the government and the uncertainty that might follow her action, she would have jettison the collection of the card.
“To say I am angry is an understatement. I mean how else can one described a situation where you absent yourself from work which in itself has its own consequences, leave home as early as 6am, spend close to eight to ten hours and yet returned home without achieving anything and you still come to repeat such frustrating process all over again.
“And the worst thing about it is that the effort of the INEC to improve or redress the situation has been another worrying situation. Initially, they dedicated two machines or computers to each registration centers but it is glaring that such provision is grossly inadequate in addition to being annoyingly slow for the population of the people wanting to register.
And for Hajia Ramat Aliyu, who lives in Omoda area of Ilorin West, her visit to the Ipata Oloje registration centre of INEC in the council was the second in a series without any success in getting registrated.
Aliyu who went for the registration on Wednesday expressed shock that despite the sacrifices she made to come for the registration that day, she was told to come back in five days time on Monday because, that is only when they put down peoples names before they would now be considered for registration because of the slow process of the exercise.
While sitting on the floor out of exhaustion she recounted her frustrating experience to Pilot Politics.
“I initially visited the office on Wednesday but was asked to come back on Monday as that is the only day they register new persons. Which means I have to wait for another four days for an exercise that should have lasted few hours, not to complete the registration, but to commence it by just putting down my name.
“I patiently returned and they wrote our names that they will be calling us according to the list available. To our surprise we have been standing all through for hours as INEC failed to provide a place for us to sit and wait till our names are called for the registration. This is not fair and you don’t even know where to start the agonising experience”, she added.
Such tales of frustration have trailed the ongoing Permanent Voters Cards registration in Ilorin and with the look of things, the situation might not improved soon going by the vibes that is coming from stakeholders.
Many of the eligible voters that trooped out to register for the exercise have expressed fear that they might not be able to make it at the end of the day fueling talks of call for extension of the process to continue till the supposed deadline of June 28, 2018 scheduled for the exercise to be stopped.
While some of those that had wanted to register said the PVC experience has made them developed apathy, not only the registration process but even for the 2019 election with all the attendant consequences on the political process, others have raised serious issues with the response from the commision and treatment of those that took the pain to come out in the first place.
In continuation of the ‘tale of woe’ by the citizens over the exercise, one Malam Qudus Olarotimi blamed INEC for the way it handled the welfare of staff.
“INEC staff have failed to key into the voters welfare in their operations. We have been here since morning and they are yet to attend to us.
“One of the staff who was registering people just stopped at exactly 2pm that he has registered about 50 people for the day and he is tired.
Another pregnant woman, Mrs. Monica Ekele, who was also sitting on the floor of the office of INEC at Ipata Oloje, lamented that she is frustrated over the whole situation.
According to her, it was persistent disturbance from her husband that pushed her to come to register for the voters card and she is already giving up on the exercise.
Following the development however, there are already some concerns that the state government has not also helped matters in the task of getting people to register and collect their PVCs.
Many of such opinion hinged the narrative on efforts by sister states that have declared two to three days public holidays to enable workers go out to do their registration. But in the light of the ongoing development, it remains to be seen whether such decision would translate to any significant impact in the bid to improve the situation.
Already, the state has stated feeling the brunt from the registration nightmare as over two hundred thousand PVCs still remain unclaimed.
The state INEC Publicity Secretary, Barrister Jacob Ayanda, while commenting on the issue in a telephone conversation with this medium, explained that the commission is aware of the issue and is looking at ways to further improve the situation.
He however called on the public to exercise patience with the process as the commission intends to capture all potential electorates.
Ayanda said “the office is aware of the situation causing delay in the registration process.
“We have two registration machines in each centre in kwara state. We have just added another machine in Ilorin West that is faster and the battery last longer than other existing ones.
“This is to complement the existing machines because people are complaining of delay in the registration process”, he added.
He confirmed the collation of name on Mondays, adding that the decision was taken to ensure a smooth process because of the population of people coming out to register for the process.
“Yes, it is true. The decision was in order to ensure smooth registration process considering the population of people coming to the office. If they are captured and assuming those that wrote their names are over 100 people and there is no way to register them on the system in a day, we’ll asked them to go and return in line with the list on ground”.
But reacting to the issue, the state chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon Ishola Balogun Fulani told this medium that the party has done enough to mobilise its members who are yet collect their PVC to do so. He noted that as far as the party is concern, all its affected members across the sixteen local governments in the state have been mobilised to go and collect their PVCs.
Although the situation may have been responsible for the decision to create additional polling unit by the commission in some parts of the country, that decision has further polarised some opposition parties as the Kwara state chairman of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC). Comrade Abdulkareem AbdulMumini Onagun faulted the position of the opposition party Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) that it was a ploy to rig election for the ruling APC by INEC.
Be that as it may, there is urgent need for INEC to do more than it is doing to redress the present situation where those who turn out to register and collect their PVC seem to have overwhelmed the preparation on ground by the commission.
