The chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, Mr. Yinusa Tanko, has urged the Federal Government to declare a public holiday to help Nigerians collect their permanent voter cards. Mr.Tanko made the call during a telephone interview with our reporter on Thursday, after he and other party leaders had met with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega.
“The challenge is that so many people are finding it difficult to leave their places of work to chase PVCs. Some of the places where the (collection) offices are, are far from where people are domiciled. If there is a general holiday, people would know that the day is for the collection of the PVC and they would spare time to go and collect it,” Tanko said.
The permanent voter cards are issued to potential voters who registered during an exercise that lasted for months. But collection has been hampered by poor logistics and chaos at collection points.
Tanko warned that the poor collection record could have an adverse effect on Nigeria’s democracy.
He said, “It is important for us to have this election. We can’t afford to go back to the (era of) June 12 when we had an election and the military truncated it. Therefore, we (the parties) have developed an attitude that says let’s find a solution to the problem.
“People were disenchanted with INEC before but the level of commitment shown by INEC gives room for a lot of hope. People didn’t understand that when you register and your name doesn’t appear in the register, then you haven’t registered. You would have to register again.”
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