By Emma Nwike

The Drive to see that all Nigerians qualified to vote during elections, especially in the next general election in 2019 are properly registered have become a major task for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in recent time.

Prof.Obioma working up national corps members in Afikpo North CVR campaign

Allover the country, INEC has been on a heightened drive to get Nigerians registered.Indeed, since late last April when the electoral body launched its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) scheme throughout the country, the various offices of the Commission across Nigeria have been all out to capture all eligible voters, from those who just turned eighteen years of age to all others who were qualified to register in the past but did not do so.

The CVR exercise also provides opportunity for all those who registered in one location previously, but now desire to transfer their registration to new places to do so. Side by side with the registration exercise also goes the collection of Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVC) by all those who had registered much earlier before the 2015 elections, but did not collect their cards.

Ebonyi State seems to come across in recent times as one case of the renewed determination by INEC to drive voter registration to a new height. Following the recent appointment of new helmsmen for INEC offices in the states, the new Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Ebonyi State, Professor Godswill Obioma seems to have embarked on his assignment with a remarkable spirit, giving both voice and robust push to the drive to attract and register voters. Barely settled in the state in the INEC assignment, the Ebonyi REC has launched a high octave campaign to the hinterlands of the state, very much like a determined candidate on a political campaign. The Ebonyi CVR campaign initiative which the new REC personally leads, has taken the pitch for registration of voters to a more penetrating level, literarily taking the message to the doorsteps of Ebonyi peopleand in the local language they can identify with.

As his campaign team traverses the local governments areas and localities in the State, the Resident Electoral Commissioner sings, deploys folklores and local jokes to establish rapport with the people, before he drives home his pitch; ‘come out and get registered now so that you will vote and chose your leaders during elections and not end up blaming others for choosing a wrong representative for you’. There are indications that the people are listening to the message.

One of the critical group of stakeholders who the Ebonyi State Resident Electoral Commissioner seems to have identified as key to the success of the campaign to draw people out to register is the traditional rulers. From one local Government Area to another, Professor Obioma seeks out the traditional institution, impresses it on them that it is in the interest of their communities to register to vote, thereafter he joins forces and voice with the traditional rulers to now campaign to the communities. In some instances such as in the Ivo and Ishielu LGAs, the REC personally had to fetch and drive the rulers to the venue of his CVR Town Hall meetings. In that way, he makes a very effective point that INEC not only reveres the traditional institution, but identifies it as a critical factor in social programmes targeted to reach the generality of citizens.

The INEC Ebonyi State CVR campaign format which is receiving broad positive response in Ebonyi State presents a model of social programme campaign which INEC offices across the country may soon adopt. The platform of the Stakeholders Town Hall meetings, very similar to political campaigns in more advanced democracies provides the citizens access and opportunity to express their views to policy makers without much restriction.

In virtually all the localities where Prof.Obioma-led team has taken their CVR campaign, the citizens not only welcome them and their message, but they tell them, sometimes bluntly where INEC is not performing either effectively or well at all. One recurring complaint by the people, from Afikpo North, Afikpo South and Ivo and from Ikwo and Izzi to Onicha and others, is the gross inadequacy of one lap top machine for registration of voters in one center per Local GovernmentArea. Although INEC leadership in Abuja has added one more machine and registration centre in selected Local Areas across the country, the addition is like salt thrown into an ocean. The people are of the view that the registration points are still very far from them and therefore constitute a disenfranchisement of some sort. As one unimpressed citizen pointedly asked in the Izzi Local GovernmentArea during the CVR campaign, what really is there for him to profit that he will travel for over two hours on a very bad road to the Local Government Area office of INEC just to register to vote?

Professor Obioma always took time to explain that the one machine per Local Government registration center is a national policy of INEC, which took into account the fact that Continuous Voter Registration presupposes that people will not need to troop out in large number to register in any particular day, since the registration exercise goes on every day from 9 am to 3pm, and will continue to be so till about election time. He however, encourages the people not to be deterred, promising that their views and complaints will surely help the INEC leadership to re-examine and improve on registration policies.

The buying into the registration exercise in Ebonyi State by the communities following the REC’s Town Hall meetings is being reflected in the gradual, steady inching up of the registration figure, a development which the people insist will greatly improve if registration points are brought nearer to them.