The Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI) – a civic organization fostering accountability in Nigeria activated a “last-minute” sensitization and mobilization rally to encourage citizens to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) ahead of the collection deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to exercise their franchise in the forthcoming general election. The rally held in Ibadan; Oyo State was tagged “Voter Benefit Campaign (VBC)”.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after a week of distributing the PVCs at Local Government Offices devolved collection to the 8,809 Registration Areas/Wards to ease pick-up for Nigerians. Although the Commission had extended the collection exercise from 22nd January to 29th January 2023, there is the need to sensitize and mobilize more registered voters to collect their voting cards.
PLSI’s Executive Director, Olusegun Elemo explained that “for us at PLSI, we feel very strongly the burden of sensitizing and mobilizing as many more Nigerians in these last days of PVCs collection to enable more citizens collect their voting cards in readiness to perform their civic responsibility in February and March 2023. We’re elated by the euphoric energy expressed so far by Nigerians showing a positive attitude toward participating in the forthcoming elections but we’re also not oblivious of the challenges faced by citizens through this PVCs collection process and our organization decided to organize this “die minute” sensitization and mobilization rally to encourage and inspire registered voters who may have been frustrated or disappointed by the collection process not to give up and ensure they do everything possible and lawful to collect their voting cards”.
Olusegun stated further that “the 2023 elections is even more crucial than that of 1993 and the outcome of this election will determine what policy solutions will be deployed in resolving myriads of policy issues affecting our country at this critical point in our national life. Voter turnout across Nigeria hovered around 30 to 35 per cent of registered voters in the last two electoral cycles and we certainly don’t want this to repeat itself next month. We will be happy to see 50 per cent turnout and we will continue to sensitize citizens even after 29th January on the benefits of voting. While the benefits of collecting one’s voting card and voting during the election might not be tangible in the immediate, it will eventually determine the quality-of-life citizens enjoy in the long run. We’re optimistic this initiative would assist to mobilize additional 20,000 registered voters to collect their permanent voter cards between 26th January and 29th January 2023 when collection is scheduled to end”.
The sensitization rally went through the following routes: Ashi Road → Iwo Road → Mokola → Dugbe → Iyaganku → Alesinloye → Jericho → Sabo →Veterinary → Sango → University of Ibadan and terminated at Bodija.
