2023: It’s Not Enough to Get Your PVCs

                                         POLITICAL NOTES

Not a few are impressed with the sudden mad rush by some youths to get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) just so they could partake of the change they seek in next year’s elections. Many of them, though, rooting for a particular candidate, the frenzy is, however, intimidating and of course, welcoming.

But, if these youths that everyone knows are still the ones in question, then, it would not go beyond the initial “gragra” as they say downtown. Very few of them, clearly betraying the number that came out for registration, are definitely going to vote on the day of the election, often disappointing their desire for change. 

Announcing results of the recent governorship election in Ekiti State, Returning Officer, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, said the APC candidate, Biodun Oyebanji, scored 187,057 votes to defeat his closest rival, Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who garnered 82,211 votes, while Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 67,457 votes. There were 13 other candidates, who couldn’t pull as much weight.

Thus, for a state with three senatorial districts, six federal constituencies, 26 state constituencies, 16 local governments areas, 16 candidates, 177 wards, 2,445 polling, and boasting 989,224 registered voters, out of which 749,065 voters, representing 76 per cent, collected their PVCs, then, that turnout was cause for concern. 

If out of the 989,224 registered voters, only 363,438 were accredited, representing 36.74 per cent, then everyone should be worried. Although this might not be considered abysmal, when compared to the November 6, 2021 governorship election in Anambra, where just 10.24 per cent voter turnout was recorded, it was still a far cry from the kind of expectations that could cause change to happen. 

Unfortunately, while Ekiti could have served as a foretaste of what to come in 2023, such voter attitude often encourage the archetypal politicians to manipulate the system and, of course, get away with ‘murder’, because it would be easy to manipulate and churn out the much-needed votes from their strongholds.

So, the hype around the current registration is unable to move mountain yet until it starts to translate into numbers during elections.