LAGOS: Angryvoters queuing for hours and entire parts of the country rendered war zones:pitfalls abound for Nigeria's fast-approaching general election. With just overa week until the February 16 opening of polls, logistical snafus havefrustrated potential voters. Across the country on Friday, Nigerians madelast-minute attempts to pick up biometric identification cards needed to castballots on what was to be the last day for collection. But many were unable tocollect their Permanent Voters Card (PVC), in a sign of the challenges aheadfor the 84 million people registered to vote in presidential and legislativepolls that will decide the balance of power in Africa's most populous country.
"They aresabotaging our efforts to vote and elect the candidate of our choice. It'sunfair," said 27-year-old Tobiloba, who had waited in an unseasonaldownpour since 5:30 am to pick up his PVC at a distribution centre in Lagos. Bythe end of the day the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) hadextended distribution over the weekend until Monday. "We will continue totake every necessary step to ensure that no registered voter isdisenfranchised," the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said. PresidentMuhammadu Buhari is vying with his main challenger, former vice-president AtikuAbubakar, for a second four-year term.
Verging on chaos
PVCs played amajor role in the historic 2015 election, where Buhari beat the incumbentGoodluck Jonathan, in the first victory at the ballot box for a Nigerianopposition candidate. The cards serve as proof of a voter's identity and areintended to reduce fraud that has marred previous votes. Yet getting them intothe hands of voters has proven difficult. At the centre in the sprawling Lagossuburb of Lekki, where Tobiloba and thousands of others waited on Friday, INECworkers announced names over a dilapidated sound system. "We are bringingmore PVCs, remain here and stay calm," a staffer called out to the increasinglyimpatient crowd.
Soldiers weredeployed in the muddy courtyard. Earlier in the day they had to quell an angrycrowd attempting to storm its gates before distribution began, an INEC officialsaid. Friday was Francis Ojah's fourth attempt to collect his PVC-but again hewas frustrated. "They didn't find it. They told me that I should comeafter the elections. Can you imagine?" he said. Meanwhile another womanleft with two cards, saying one was for her, and the other for her husband.
Complaints abound
Nigerians havecomplained on social media of being unable to pick up their cards despiterepeated attempts. "We have been inundated by calls, from Nigerians toreview the current process of collection of" PVCs, Yakubu acknowledgedFriday in justifying the extended distribution. But bungled organization isn'tthe only challenge the elections may face. There is poor infrastructure andunreliable electricity.
Potholed roadsmake access difficult to many of the nearly 120,000 polling stations across acountry one-and-a-half times the size of France.
Organized crime,banditry, kidnapping and insurgencies are also major issues. Nowhere has beenas severely affected as the country's northeast, where a decade of violencecaused by the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency has killed some 27,000 people anddisplaced around 1.8 million. Observers, including the United States in aJanuary statement, have expressed fears that Boko Haram could target pollingplaces. Borno state in the northeast has been ravaged by the violence, andthere INEC said it will open polling stations to serve 400,000 people in eightof the dozens of camps for Boko Haram displaced.
Speaking oncondition of anonymity, a humanitarian worker based in the state capitalMaiduguri said this would mean "hundreds of thousands of people will notbe able to vote," particularly those living in areas Boko Haram rules nearLake Chad. Another area of concern is Nigeria's bread basket Middle Beltregion, where clashes between nomadic herdsmen and farming communities havekilled thousands and displaced tens of thousands since early 2018. In thehard-hit states of Benue and Plateau, many families lost everything when theirhouses were burnt in the clashes, including the documents they would need tocollect their PVCs and vote. - AFP