On-going registration of Voters: My view – by Frank Ofili

Registration of eligible voters commenced on 27th April 2017 at Local Government Council offices across the country. We are told the exercise is a continuous one. While the exercise is going on fairly smoothly in cities, there are however some challenges being encountered in many towns, villages and interior communities.

One of the challenges is the low turnout occasioned by several factors, top of which is lack of awareness. There is virtually no awareness of this all-important exercise created by state and local governments. There is hardly any serious enlightenment in towns and communities in the country side – at least judging from my own local government, Oshimili North, in Delta State. Even politicians who are supposed to be the ultimate beneficiaries of votes cast are not doing anything in terms of mobilizing the people to register to vote.

The second contributory factor to the low turnout is the difficulty in moving from the interior communities to local government headquarters where the exercise is taking place.

As we know, many community roads, especially in towns and villages in the country side, are in deplorable condition. My local government area is a case in point. Travelling from interior villages to Akwukwu-Igbo, the local government headquarters, is seriously challenged because of bad road, especially in this rainy season. The condition of the roads also makes the journey expensive. This serves as a disincentive to the rural dwellers, especially with the possibility of making the journey and still not get registered due to some hitches or the other at the council secretariat.

In an ideal situation, local council offices are supposed to have outposts in interior communities where this kind of exercise can be done seamless, but we all know this is hardly the case. How do you tell an eligible voter to travel kilometres simply to get his name registered? Take my town Illah for instance. How do you tell a farmer resident at Otu, Machakolo or Ngegwu to travel to Akwukwu-Igbo just to be registered? What happens when it is time to collect the voters card? He would be required to travel kilometres, again, to Akwukwu-Igbo just to collect it.

Because of this problem, I hear some communities are making ad-hoc arrangements to have local state electoral officials come to their communities on some designated days to carry out the exercise. The problem here however is that local council Electoral officials are saying they need sponsors before they can do this. I do not understand. What other sponsorship do they need if a community is ready to take care of their movement to, and possibly accommodation in, the community?

In the face of these challenges, what is the solution? What can be done to ensure that a high percentage of eligible voters in towns, villages and interior communities are registered?

It seems to me that the solution is actually simple if state and local governments in collaboration with State Independent Electoral Commission put their mind to it. Since every community has a school, at least a primary school, I think teachers from the communities should be appointed and trained to do the job on behalf of the Commission. At some financial token to State Independent Electoral Commission of course. There is nothing to suggest that this cannot be done.

Registration of voters is an important exercise. It is only those who are registered that can actually vote on election day.

Unfortunately, we in the south of Nigeria tend not to pay much attention to it in terms of enlightenment, mobilization and logistics. In the north, states and local governments and even traditional and religious bodies get fully involved to ensure that as many people as possible are registered. That is why there is almost always large voter turnout in most parts of the north.

But in the south, particularly in the south-south and south-east, our governments really do not care much. We never do the right thing at the right time. The south-west is trying but it can be better. While authorities in the north – traditional, religious and government – mobilize their people, we in the south usually prefer to fold our hands and do nothing. We carry this attitude to election proper, and when results are announced and the north records higher votes we cry wolf. That is why a state like Kano recorded more votes than Lagos, a mega city of over 20 million inhabitants, in the last general election.