We have arrived at ‘Another Day Before D-Day’.
Today is the day before another presidential election day, just like we had last Friday before the polls were postponed till tomorrow.
Just like last Friday 15th February 2019, INEC – the Independence National Electoral Commission – says they are ready for tomorrow. INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu has been briefing the media every day this week, and providing updates on their readiness and fielding questions on almost every thing related to the elections.
Yesterday, he finally released the table containing the number of Permanent Voters Cards distributed and collected state by state. This list wasn’t released before last Saturday’s botched elections and some people have wondered whether that was a pointer to the postponement. The list should have been made public BEFORE that election. Anyways, that’s another story.
The list of PVCs collected shows Lagos State topping the list, followed by Kano and Kaduna states, respectively.
5,531,389 prospective voters collected PVCs in Lagos State, 4,696,747 in Kano State while Kaduna State has 3,648,831 persons. Katsina State follows with 3,187,988 cards and Rivers State rounds up the top five with 2,833,101 PVCs collected.
The total number of PVCs collected is 72,775,502 while 11,228,582 were uncollected. This means that of the over 84 million registered voters, about 72.7 million are eligible to vote tomorrow and the total votes are therefore not expected to be above 72.7 million.
The number will of course be less as some people may not be able to vote either due to inability to transfer their cards to their new places of abode after they relocated, inability to travel to where they registered, especially as some had at first travelled last week and had to return to base after postponement, or some cannot locate their cards. There may also be those who have died or are indisposed and cannot go and vote.
While many prospective voters travelled last week, the enthusiasm of the first time may have waned this time and lack of financial resources to embark on another trip could also affect turn out tomorrow.
But there is no doubt that the whole country wants to put the elections behind it and face the future.
Political campaigns and advertising which resumed on Tuesday have stopped last night in obedience to the 24-hour rule before election.
The two top contestants in the presidential race, APC’s Muhammadu Buhari and PDP’s Atiku Abubakar have said their bit and will relocate to their bases in Katsina and Adamawa respectively to prepare to cast tbeir votes tomorrow.
Many of those who are travelling are already on the highways.
The announcement of the closure of the land borders have been made effective 12 noon today, Friday.
INEC says materials and people have been distributed nationwide.
Federal government has declared today work free – except for banks – to help those travelling to have no hindrance.
The people are waiting for D-Day a second time. It’s a great expectation.
The Die Is Cast – Again!
Image credits: inec.org.
Ogie Eboigbe, veteran journalist, broadcaster and public affairs specialist writes and analyses current and historical issues with a ‘wise pen’.
