By Olanrewaju Adesanya
The Chairman Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Mahmood Yakubu has charged the Nigerian youths to get registered and collect their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) pledging that their votes will count.
The INEC boss gave this assurance while addressing the teeming Lagos youths on Saturday at the YouthVoteCountNG 2.0 Mega Concert in TBS Lagos.
Professor Mahmood noted that the weeklong initiative witnessed a huge turnout of youths across the state, a development which in his view signals a positive response as 5000 people are already registered in the last one week.
He however, having highlighted what the youths want from INEC, made two requests-that the youths collect their PVCS and vote, with a pledge that their votes will count.
“There are two things you want from INEC, I listened to you one, you want your PVCS, I want to assure you that you will have your PVCS.
“For the last one week, we registered over 5000 people, yesterday when I saw the crowd that trouped here to register, we said we must change strategy.
“The strategy is that instead of everyone coming to TBS to register, we will register in the 20 Local Government Areas in Lagos and more machines will be deployed all over Lagos from next week.
“Secondly I know you will want to hear from INEC, are we going to end the registration on 30th June? We have heard from you loud and clearly, you want more time for Nigerians to register, you will hear from INEC very soon on that .
“I have two requests, when you collect your PVCs please go and vote, vote not fight.
“The registration will continue after this YouthVoteCountNG 2.0 Mega Concert today, we are going to resume registration.
“The registration will continue and we have deployed more machines in Lagos and other parts of the country, to ensure that every Nigerian who desires to register are given the opportunity to register.
The Lagos Resident Electoral Commissioner Olusegun Agbaje, speaking earlier counseled Nigerians to be much more alive to their civic duties right on time.
“One of the objectives of the initiative is to get the youths to come out and many of them did come out during the exercise, so even though we didn’t get close to the number we are expecting, we have tried almost about 10,000 got registered, I think it is a good achievement .
“This is to also teach us a lesson in Nigeria, when a period is set for something, you should not wait until the tail end before we come out.
“I have been going out since I came into Lagos on the first of March this year, I have gone to all the 20 local government areas talking to various communities, my EO’s have been doing the same thing, we have gone to many Radio stations and television shows to talk to people to appeal to people to come out.
“So apparently it is the usual practice here,we do appreciate it but then we are going to ensure that we capture as many of them as practicable before the end of the exercise.
“By the time we start registration on Tuesday, we will try to extend the time we close at the registration centres from 3 to 5 o’clock to ensure we capture more people, although in some local governments like Ojo and Amuwo-Odofin we have been closing around 7-7:30 that is part of the extension too.
“The revalidation issue is not true, my PVC is done since 2011 and is right here in my pocket as I talk to you now, so there is no revalidation, any INEC PVC would work at any time in any of our elections.
“So the ones we had in 2011,2018 including the ones we are issuing now will still work next year.
“Only if during the last election you had challenges then you can come for us to iron out those challenges.” Agbaje opined.
Samuela Isopi an European Union Ambassador while speaking at the star studded concert held to galvanize and mobilize the youths, to get better involved in the CVR exercise, so as to evolve a better Nigeria, hinted that the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN), is resolute in its partnership with INEC to ensure a saner political evolution through a democratic process takes root in the country.
Isopi who appraised the Nigerian electoral act as one positively helping to guarantee more respect for voters right, cited youths inertness in the electoral process as the main cause of voter apathy often recorded.
“Voter apathy and issue of low turn out, we need to change it and mobilize the youths.
“You are a massive force and you have the power to make change happen, to make the difference, your vote is your power, get the PVC and come out on the election date to vote.
“Don’t allow others to make decision for you, make your vote count. The European union will stand with you to help build a better Nigeria.
“This is just the beginning let’s continue together till the date of election,” Samuela said.
Mr. Lanre Arogundade Executive Director International Press Council (IPC) one of the organizers of concert spoke about the importance of youths active participation in the political space.
Arogundade said: “What we expect from the youths now is to register, go beyond registration collect their PVCs and on election day, go and vote for the candidates of their choice.
“Let it be on record that they are able to vote,if they do this they can influence change in our society but unfortunately our youths are active online, yes you can register online but you can’t vote online.
“They are active on the social media,you can’t vote on the social media and people keep saying our youths are not politically active, the other time when they express themselves by way of EndSars people felt that well beyond this, you have to do something.
“So the essence of this is to send the message across that part of being politically active is to register to be able to vote.
“In my generation we were young people when we led the Nigerian students, I was 21 years old when I was president of National Association of Nigerian Students NANS, but the government then was a military government.
“We were saying that the military should go, now that the military has gone, the current generation of youths have to fight their battle within the democratic structure.
“Yes we can still demonstrate and protest but at the end of the day, they can only take their destinies to their hands by joing political parties, by registering,by being active and that is the only way that things can change.
“In 2019 President Buhari signed the Not Too Young to Run Bill, which enables young people to participate in politics but how many of them are we going to see contesting for elections 2023?
“So this is the challenge that we have but we had to start from somewhere and it start from recognizing that you have a civic duty to register and vote.
Speaking about whether the initiative really had hit the target, Arogundade affirmed the plausibility given the huge turn out and the opportunity of more days to go before the closure of the exercise.
“We are waiting for the data but if we look at what happened yesterday because, when we started on Monday we didn’t have much crowd but by yesterday we had a huge crowd and so to that extent we are likely to be close to our target which is through this exercise 25,000 youths will register.”
Samson Itodo, executive Director of YIAGA Africa, which is one of the partnering organisations for the programme, charged Nigerians, especially the youths to show interest in the leadership recruitment process in the country, adding that active citizen participation inspires confidence in election outcome.
He stressed that the event would be completed with a concert on Saturday which would be free for Nigerians who have their TVC’s or PVC’s as entry requirement, adding that several leading music artists and Nollywood stars are scheduled to perform and speak at the event.
Among the artists who performed at the concert were music stars like : 2Baba, Patoranking, Bella Shmurda, Small Doctor, Omawumi, MI, Teni, Waje, Wasiu Alabi (Pasuma) and comedians MC Macaroni among several others.