BEYOND THE PERMANENT VOTER’S CARD

‘‘What we have on our hands is a total and brazen looting of our scarce resources by pseudo democrats and scoundrels.
Never before have our collective aspirations been ruthlessly betrayed. Our people are bleeding profusely. Unemployment indices have risen; violent crime has become common place; prostitution is now a by-word, while hunger and misery are now the lot of our people.’’ Quoted in Nowata’s book-WHERE WE ARE (page 110).

Pebbles with Igbotako Nowinta

Thank God almighty for democracy since 1999 in Nigeria! Many thanks to the divine being for periodic elections which democracy affords in our clime.

I am taking off on this note today because of the way a very large number of politicians in this country carry themselves while holding public office.

Majority of our so called politicians carry themselves as if there will never be a day of reckoning; as if there will never be a time such as the general elections afford us in February 2015,starting with the presidential election.

I listened to President Goodluck Jonathan trying desperately to convince voters inside the Adokie Amiesemaka’s stadium in Port-harcourt few days ago; that they should vote for him on February 14th,even as the President admitted that he failed to do anything for the people of the south-south.

Thank God for election period! The same President Goodluck Jonathan, who never cared a damn about visiting Maiduguri (the nerve center of Boko Haram’s demented campaign), had no choice than to stop over there some few weeks ago.

Recently, there have been hue and cry about the non-availability of the Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC), to a cross section of the Nigerian public.

Even, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, and the revered Sultan of Sokoto cried out not too long ago about their inability to access the Permanent Voter’s Card.

The blame of non-availability of the PVC should be heaped squarely on the door steps of Professor Attahiru Jega’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),because it is more of logistics problem, given the stark fact that funds have been adequately provided for this all important exercise.

While Jega and members of his crew continue to sweat in order to make the PVC available the Federal Government should simply come to the rescue of INEC by declaring some public holidays to accommodate those that are yet to get the PVC, in order for this category of citizens to be able to perform their fundamental civic responsibility during the February election.

Therefore, the issue of postponing the Presidential election should never arise at all, as it has been heavily canvassed in certain quarters (including Col. Sambo, National Security Adviser, to President Jonathan, at Chattam House, London).

I have never seen or heard of postponement of scheduled general elections in the United States or in Europe for instance.

If the Jonathan administration is sincere in conducting general elections in February, it should go extra mile by assiduously assisting INEC to overcome all odds and challenges.

Now what are the real issues that have become recurring decimal at this period of stocktaking by politicians in Nigreia?

For about six years now the Jonathan administration is still looking for a needle(political will) in a hay sac to fix some of the problems rocking the oil industry; the palaver starring at Nigerians about power supply; massive looting of resources and glaring wastages; unemployment etc.

For about three months now, the health workers have dropped their tools, thereby turning all our federal hospitals into something else.

Checks revealed that the Federal Government has blatantly refused to implement agreement earlier done with the health workers.

What can or will compensate for the colossal waste of revenue that should have accrued to the Federal Government since the last three months now, as a result of the strike embarked upon by the health workers?

Less than two weeks to the presidential election in Nigeria, our hospitals have been paralyzed and our President is carrying on as if there is no fire on the mountain.

Only God knows how many innocent souls that would have been sentenced to untimely death as a result of the three months old strike being embarked upon by the health workers?

Why would the Federal Government enter into and signed an agreement only to refuse to comply? What type of government is this?

That was how they lured Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) into signing an agreement which the Federal Government cruelly refused to implement before comrade Festus Iyayi was killed in the heat of the protracted ASUU strike.

And a sitting President that wants to be elected back to office has the effrontery to start going round the country, carrying bags of promises that will never be fulfilled, even if he gets reelected to Aso Rock Presidential Palace on Valentine Day.

And in the midst of this incredible nauseating scenario, some group of people argued with me some few days ago that Nigerians should still vote based on some nonsensical sentiments that came to play in 2011 Presidential election.

How long are we going to be perambulating in a vicious circle of government insensitivity, mind boggling corruption, misplaced priorities, stark planlessness etc.

Beyond the Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC), which I don’t see as a magic wand that will put an end to electoral malpractices, because after the Card Readers must have authenticated the PVC on election day, voters will still do the routine of thumb printing for the candidates of their choices.

Beyond the PVC we must continue to canvass stridently for a digital voting system that will bring absolute sanity to the voting pattern in Nigeria.

The point I am trying to make in earnest is that professional election riggers can still go about fraudulent massive thumb printing in places where they are popular and influential during election in Nigeria.

For sixteen years, we have had one side of a political coin in Nigeria, in which the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has led us into a humiliating dark road.

It is natural that we seek a drastic change now. After all Nigeria belongs to all of us, not only a very few individuals who have turned our commonwealth into a private empire.

Beyond the PVC , this election is about our lives and tomorrow. We must vote wisely!

Nowinta wrote, Where We Are-A Call for Democratic Revolution in Nigeria.