Few Nigerians expected the sudden craving for registration for the Permanent Voter’s Cards, PVCs, sweeping across the polity today. This is coming especially from the youth who had hitherto buried their heads inside their cell phones, looking for excitement to make them forget the pains of life in Nigeria.

INEC’s metrics on voter apathy are out there for all to see. For instance, in the 2018 presidential election, 82,344,107 intended voters were registered.

Out of those, 26,454,825 voted, leaving a whopping 55,899,282 who registered for their PVCs but failed to show up to vote. Many of these are part of the over 20 million Nigerians who have abandoned their PVCs in INEC offices nationwide.

Following the conclusion of the primaries of the 18 registered political parties, the Nigerian electorate (especially the youth) has suddenly been energised. “Get your PVC” is now a song on every lip. Over the past week, hundreds of thousands of eligible voters have besieged INEC offices to register for their PVCs, but it has been mainly tales of woe galore.

It is either that INEC does not have enough functional machines or its staff is reluctant or even allegedly asking for bribes.

In many parts of Lagos, evil-minded politicians are already rigging the 2023 elections by sending hoodlums to prevent non-indigenes from asserting their constitutional right to register and vote.

This violation has been going on since 2018, yet INEC and the law enforcement agencies have refused to do the needful.

That is unacceptable. This is one of the factors driving some sections of the country to embrace separatism since their constitutional and citizenship rights are being violated with impunity without appropriate response from the state.

While we commend the INEC for mobilising 209 more registration machines to the South-East, Lagos and Kano in response to the upsurge in prospective voters, we call on the Commission to prevail on its staff to attend to all comers without bias or malice.

The rights of non-indigenes must be specially protected from local politicians and their hoodlums.

Otherwise, the INEC and law enforcement agents will be complicit in the rigging of the 2023 elections. We cannot bend the Constitution just to gratify the fear of local politicians of the people’s power.

INEC must be on the side of the people. Secondly, INEC should extend the registration deadline to allow more people to register.

One more month is adequate for that. INEC should intensify its sensitisation campaign on eligibility because a lot of people who already have cards are part of the crowds seeking to register.

Apart from the traditional media, the social media are freely and readily available for that.

A free and fair general election in 2023 starts with an inclusive registration of voters in 2022.