By Ogunrinde Adewunmi
These past few months, I have noticed a wild clamour and advocacy for citizens to get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC), which I must say is very admirable.
Firstly I’ll say, your PVC is not enough, get involved!
While it’s commendable to get your PVC I hate to put it to you, but the card is not enough to enforce the change we all clamour. I created a poll on social media, asking people if they have their PVC, I made an option of YES/NO, “I am getting one” & “I am never getting one” respectively.
Honest truth is that the result of the poll helped me realize we are eventually getting involved in our modern-day politics and its activities. In as much as some social media users still chose the option of never getting a PVC. Many of the leading advocates for citizens to be more involved in the country’s politics have relentlessly pointed fingers at the “arguably disastrous tenure” of President Muhammadu Buhari, In the year 2019, of all the total of 67,422,005 registered voters, only 29,432,083 (43.65%) cast their votes in the presidential election. I hope this doesn’t reoccur in 2023, because If WE refuse to participate how do we get the change we desire?
This reminds me of something that happened sometimes ago, I was with a group of friends and we happened to talk about POLITICS, the conversation went on, and lots of brilliant suggestions and constructive criticisms were flying around until someone asked if we all had our PVC, well, your guess is right! Nobody signified, then it dawned on me that, we need to do more than being a keypad advocate, we need to step up as well, so I took a leap of action by registering for my PVC, I also influenced some of my friends to get theirs as well.
We stay behind our phones punching in the sweetest of English vocabularies on Twitter and similar platforms, while the “underage northerners”, “illiterates” and “baby thugs” owns their PVC, because they are aware of the power it possesses, they will keep determining our future for as long as we let this narrative play.
So back to knowing if the our PVC is enough to change the fate of our already “Bad Government”. Personally, I’ll say YES IT CAN and NO IT CAN’T. Getting a PVC isn’t the problem, but a challenge, (In this country because of the way the system operates) but how do we know we are voting for a Responsible candidate? There are so many questions that are better answered by individual voters.
I think, one thing the PVC guarantees you is your basic right, the right to vote and be voted for(franchise). I’ll add that, the PVC does not guarantee we will vote for a worthy candidate. Where am I headed? Apparently, having your PVC is important, it is because it guarantees you a vote. That way you’re participating,
Also, the PVC is a card, it does not guarantee good governance, When we elect candidates, we feel they are of good choice,
Sadly our PVC does not know what they will do or not when they get in power, makes it beyond our control. Lastly, a PVC helps us vote out a bad government, but when voting in a new one, how are we sure we have not voted in a worse candidate? I mean, let’s take President Buhari for an instance, we all thought he was the best candidate or permit me to say, a lot of us thought he was, so we voted for him, hoping for a CHANGE, as he assured.
I’ll like to agree we got the “CHANGE”, even if it is the total opposite of what we expected. I’m sure many people who voted in this administration has regret(s) but do I blame them? Definitely not!
No one would have foreseen the disaster. Hence, it is important for voters to be cautious in the choice they make at the polls. The trend in our political history is for the electorate to vote based on emotional and primordial considerations that doesn’t add value to us, as a nation . it’s no gainsaying that, the destiny of this nation including future generations, lies in OUR hands.
So we shouldn’t just sit down and fold our hands. Getting and voting with your PVC is just the beginning of the journey, we shouldn’t stop there because the real work just began, we need to join hands together to fight for a better country.
This is all we have.
So I’ll advise everyone to get involved in the electoral process come 2023 and not adopt the past lackadaisical attitude that has done no good to the nation.
If Nigeria must move forward every hand must be on deck, enough of bright ideas without implementation, enough of folding of hands, hoping for a messiah, enough of many Nigerians sitting in the luxury of their well-furnished parlors on election day watching the news and analyzing everything going on.
Get your PVC, it’s our only chance at change!