she has fault INEC for not doing enough by citing the lapses recorded by the people in the field, in addition made recommendations to put INEC on the right path to get Nigerians registered.
Read her full speech below:
PRESS CONFERENCE
INTRIGUES IN REGISTRATION, DISTRIBUTION
AND COLLECTION OF PVC; THE ROLE OF THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL
COMMISSION.
According to Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), “Registration and collection of Permanent Voters Card (PVC) is a
prerequisite for exercising the right to vote. Those who do not have PVCs and
whose names are not in the register of Voters will not be allowed to vote on Election
Day.”
“Voting is a constitutional right for all eligible citizens,
the registration of voters must include as many eligible citizens as possible
and registration centers must be accessible to all qualified persons.”
These are assertions from the INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL
COMMISSION (INEC) but the question that has continued to run in the minds and
imagination of several Nigerians in recent times is whether INEC is actually
independent and living up to her constitutional duties and responsibilities of
ensuring that all eligible voters are duly registered and giving the
opportunity to exercise these nonnegotiable constitutional rights. The answer to this question is not
farfetched.
As a show of patriotism and direct selfless contribution to
nation building and national development, the One Adult One Youth Advocacy Group have deemed it fit to organize
sensitization and enlightenment campaign across the length and breadth of the
Nigerian states to sensitize the mass of the Nigerian people and particularly
those within the voting age on the imperatives of registration and collection
of permanent voters card as a panacea for positive change.
In the course of our sensitization exercise in most states of
the federation, we gather several obnoxiously shocking and unbelievable facts
directly from the people in the grass root areas of our society with regards to
the nonchalant attitudes of INEC officials towards the entire registration and
distribution exercise. Some of the facts gathered are as follows:
1. It is crystal clear that there are hardly any functional
registration centers, not even at the local government level against the
practice of situation of registration centers in practically all the polling
units. This has resulted in the disenfranchisement of countless number of
potential voters across the federation.
2. Complete absence of INEC officials in
the few supposedly functional registration centers where the registration
machines were found.
3. Where INEC officials are skeletally available,
Nigerian citizens are compelled to pay before they can be attended to or get
registered – that act is unconstitutional and unacceptable henceforth.
4. Lack of technical innovations by INEC
as millions of PVCs are lying in their offices across the country uncollected and
proper modalities have not being put in place to distribute them to their
various owners.
5. Absence of display of preliminary
voters list at the end of every quarter as enshrined in the INEC Act of 2010.
6. Lack of transparency and integrity in
the system that have metamorphosed into loose of confidence on the part of the
citizenry and potential voters.
7. Inadequate registration materials at
the point of registration centers citing flimsy excuses of power failure, and
other logistics by INEC officials.
8. Failure of INEC officials to resume
on time at their place of registration and distribution of PVCs to potential voters
as stated in the electoral guidelines.
9. Inadequate number of INEC officials
at the registration point to attend to the large crowd of potential voters.
For everyone seated here today, it is no news that the facts
stipulated above are nothing but the truth as obtainable on ground in most
polling units and we must not allow all these to continue.
As soon as possible and as a matter of urgency and national
interest , the independent national electoral commission should commence an
accelerated dispatch of the necessary registration machines and materials to
designated registration centers across the country to commence serious
registration of eligible voters in other not to disenfranchise Nigerians and by so doing, infringing on their fundamental
human right.
We are also demanding that the registration machines and
materials must be evenly and simultaneously dispatch to the 36 states of the
federation, FCT inclusive, the 774 local government areas, all INEC ward
councils and the 150,000 polling units for reasons of proximity and nearness to
location to afford all eligible voters access to registration.
It is not enough for INEC officials to sit in the comfort of
their offices and throw around complains for low turnout for PVC collection. It
also behooves on INEC to devise ways of sending these PVCs to the potential
owners who perhaps, have refused to go for the collection of their PVCs because
they are of the opinion that their votes do not really count as the result of
the fraud that has characterized our electoral processes over the years.
We are also of the strong opinion that INEC officials and
ad-hoc staff should be trained and retrained to inculcate in them the
acceptable official ethics and value that is comparable to their counterparts
in the international community. The training will go a long way to positively
influence their attitude to work as regards public relations, job crafting and
innovations.
The federal government should immediately make fund available
to INEC for the continuation and effective carry out of their constitutional
mandate. The mandate of INEC is key and should be given priority attention as
the development, unity and existence of our society is dependent on the
credibility, transparency and uncompromising performance of the election umpire
before, during and after the elections.
We are by this demanding that INEC upon the receipt of this memo
that will be transmitted to them today, should act accordingly in national
interest bearing in mind that it is the constitutional right of all Nigerians
to have unlimited access to vote and be voted for so long as they are within
the constitutional voting age.
But if INEC fails to do as advised and demanded in accordance
with the provisions of the law within fourteen working days ultimatum, we will
be forced to mobilize Nigerians en mass simultaneously to match peacefully in
demand for and insist that the right be done as provided for in the
constitutional of the federal republic of Nigeria.
-----------------------
Ene Ogbole Lilian
President/Convener
One Adult One Youth Advocacy Group
Is INEC really doing well or has failed in her constitutional obligations to the Nigerian people?
Your thought maybe good as mine.
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