INEC has reassured the Nigerian people that it will conduct elections on February 2015. INEC chairman, Prof Jega, spoke at a meeting in Abuja with a number of stakeholders. According to Jega, the issue of disenfranchising millions of Nigerians should not arise as the electoral body had distributed sufficient number of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs); and it is the responsibility of any registered voter to collect his/her PVC from various collection centres.
However, calls that the election be postponed have yet to abate after Sambo Dasuki, National Security Adviser, during an interactive session in London, Chatham House, made it clear that he advised INEC to postpone elections. Dasuki said that more than 30 million people have yet to receive PVC.
In an open letter to Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria president, the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law argued that, should the elections go ahead on February 2015, INEC may set Nigeria on fire. The body said: “As of date, over 35 million Nigerians most of them registered voters have been disenfranchised by the Jega’s INEC. The total number of disenfranchised registered voters across the country is 30, 059, 085; out of which those that have not been captured in the PVCs production and delivery is 14, 491, 866, while those captured in the PVCs but have not received theirs till date is 15, 567, 219. This brings to total the number of disenfranchised registered voters to 30, 059, 085 (thirty million, fifty nine thousand, eighty five).” The body also accused INEC of “condoning Buhari’s non WASCE/GCE certificate & allied misconducts”.
An opinion poll conducted by Unic Press illustrated that the number of Nigerians wishing that the elections time table remain unchanged is 52%. However, it is still unclear what the government will do regarding February 2015 elections.
