TWENTY-FOUR years into the Fourth Republic, democracy is becoming less participatory, excluding more and more citizens. This harsh reality is highly disturbing. The receding inclusivity is evinced in the latest progress report on the 2023 general elections that nearly seven million registrants had not collected their permanent voter cards as of the first week of 2023. Through these years, Nigerian politicians have messed up the country through their incompetence and self-centredness, so Nigerians need to collectively reverse this and make democracy flourish through their massive participation.
About 6.7 million PVCs were uncollected across 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory as of January 4, a report in The PUNCH stated. With less than 45 days before the presidential/National Assembly ballots on February 25, this is a huge figure. As of December 29, an estimated 1,693,963 PVCs remained uncollected in Lagos State. PVC collection is suffering a similar fate in other states.
For 2023, the umpire’s register contains 93.4 million names, up from the 82.3 million in 2019. Many did not collect their PVCs then. The outcome was that just 28.6 million or 35 per cent voted in the 2019 presidential election. That percentage meant the winner was not truly representative of the whole.
Democracy without popular participation was also at play in the governorship ballot in Edo State in 2020, recording a turnout of 24.22 per cent; the Ondo governorship polls had 31.6 per cent voter turnout; Anambra in November 2021 recorded 10.38 per cent; Ekiti State in June 2022 had 36.5 per cent; and Osun State in July 2022 recorded 42.16 per cent. Plainly, Nigerians are not voting.
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