Nigerian youths on a queue at the Old Parade Ground in Abuja to get registered.

After weeks of waiting for the crowd at her registration centre to reduce, Lovelyn Asukwo (real name hidden) and her friends were introduced to an INEC official at the commission’s office in Area 10, Garki in Abuja.

The seven of them paid N2,000 each to the official and immediately got their Permanent Voters Card (PVC), two days to the 30 June initial deadline for registration.

Although voter registration is free, some corrupt officials have been taking advantage of the rush by Nigerians to beat the deadline for the exercise.

“I spent almost all my two weeks leave from office on queue before our HR spoke to a friend who linked us up with an INEC official in Area 10,” 23-years-old Ms Asukwo told PREMIUM TIMES.

Ms Asukwo had visited the same office four consecutive days but left each day in disappointment either due to the capturing machines being slow or staff resuming late.

However, after collecting N14,000 from them, the official advised Ms Asukwo and her friends to meet him at the office before 6 a.m.

“The entire process, including capturing, did not take up to 20 minutes. It was very fast,” she explained.

Commotion at registration centres and experiences like that of Ms Asukwo had forced INEC to extend its 30 June deadline for the exercise by one month. However, a week before the new deadline, crowds have disappeared at the registration centres in many parts of the country.

The Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) had resumed on June 28, 2021 to allow especially Nigerians who clocked 18 years since the 2019 general elections to participate in the 2023 elections. The exercise was last conducted in 2018.

With the target of capturing 20 million new voters, INEC conducted the registration online and at centres across the country. The exercise was to last until the end of June 2022.

“The youth want to know when the registration will end. I want to assure you on behalf of the commission that the registration won’t end on June 30. For as long as we have you people trying to register, we will continue to register you,” the commission’s chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, told a crowd of expectant registrants at the Old Parade Ground in Abuja on 25 June

His statement came after the Federal High Court in Abuja issued an interim order restraining INEC from closing the exercise on 30 June.

Due to rowdy scenes at the registration centres in many parts of the country, a civil society organisation, SERAP had approached the court for the order directing the electoral body to continue the exercise indefinitely.

The applicants in the case had argued that INEC would be disenfranchising many Nigerians if its deadline was not moved.

The development followed a new spark of interest in voter registration in many parts of Nigeria, attributed to recent developments on the political scene in the run-up to the 2023 general elections.

The entrance of a former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and a former governor of Anambra, Peter Obi, into the presidential race has caused excitement among Nigerian youths on social media.

The two politicians had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to pick up the presidential tickets of the Labour Party (LP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) respectively.

Unlike Ms Asukwo and her friends who got their PVCs after bribing a corrupt INEC official in Abuja, Samuel David, decided to follow the procedure stipulated by INEC in Enugu State.

Mr David’s face was gloomy as he approached the exit gate of the Michael Okpara Square, where he had gone to register on a Wednesday afternoon.

He had been going to the centre for two weeks and was part of a long queue when a PREMIUM TIMES reporter arrived that Wednesday in July.

“I haven’t eaten since morning. I am exhausted. Maybe I should try my luck somewhere else,” a frustrated Mr David said.

The capturing machines were too few for the population of eligible registrants in the area, resulting in a large crowd at the centre every day.

The reporter met over 300 intending registrants milling around at the centre. A few metres away, about 200 others sat under canopies. Those were the people who had been issued numbers and were expecting to be attended to that day.

Inside one of the canopies, officials of INEC were conducting the exercise. But there were only three machines at the centre, so the process was slow.

“We worked with seven machines last Friday,” Chimobi Nduka, one of the registration officials, told this newspaper. “But today they (INEC) brought only three machines.”

Mr Nduka said one machine could register 180 persons a day. He blamed the commotion in the centre on “the Nigerian factor.”

Similar scenarios were playing out at an INEC office inside the headquarters of Enugu East Local Government Area.

Chukwuma Anike, was among the about 200 persons waiting under a canopy waiting to be issued numbers for possible registration the next day.

Mr Anike had arrived at the commission’s office before 6 a.m. but as of 3:18 p.m., no number had been given to anyone.

Inside the office complex, another group of over 100 waited under a canopy. “We are the people who have received numbers. We came yesterday,” one of them said, noting that numbers were no longer being issued for the day.

An INEC official declined comments when this reporter sought explanations for the delays. He, instead, referred this newspaper to the commission’s Enugu headquarters.

Across the registration centres visited by PREMIUM TIMES in the state, the trend observed was that machines and personnel were grossly inadequate, which explains the difficulty experienced in getting people registered.

For food vendors, however, it was a welcome opportunity for brisk sales as crowds of intending registrants surged at different centres in the state.

Ahmad Abubakar, dressed in a black polka-dot shirt and blue jeans, was engaged in a shouting match with other intending registrants at the INEC office in Area 10 Abuja when PREMIUM TIMES visited the centre again on 8 July.

“Don’t mind him, it’s a lie, he just got here,” a woman, possibly in her early twenties, said.

Mr Abubakar had been accused of lying about how he got his number tag when he had allegedly not been among those who arrived at the centre early.

Denying that he had paid someone else to take his place, Mr Abubakar said the man in question was his brother who stood in for him while he left for his office in the Central Business District (CBD).

“See the number, see, how would I have had it if I was not here before?” he asked.

“He was not here. I got here around 7 a.m. and he was not among the people I met here,” another man insisted despite Mr Abubakar’s explanation.

The protests against Mr Abubakar were provoked by the atttitude of the staff of the commission at the centre. Intending registrants accused the staff of late resumption and indolence.

“How can the staff be coming to work after 10 a.m.? Is it that those of us who got here as early as 7 a.m. don’t have jobs?” a woman shouted.

A new registrant, Mudi Kings, said he decided to send someone to the INEC registration centre in Trademore Estate in Abuja early in the morning, to pick a number for him after he had failed a couple of times to get one. And it worked for him.

“It did not take me up to two hours to get myself registered,” he said.

After the court’s order extending the exercise, states like Plateau, Yobe and Niger declared work-free days to enable citizens get registered in the continuous voter registration exercise. Plateau declared 27 and 28 June, while Yobe and Niger State declared 29 June to 1 July.

The exercise was relatively smooth in Niger and Yobe, but PREMIUM TIMES observed hiccups in Plateau State.

Outside the INEC headquarters at Miango Junction in Jos South Local Government Area, the reporter saw a mammoth crowd of prospective registrants when he visited early July.

In the crowd was Caroline Emmanuel, who confessed that she is 16 years old after the reporter queried whether she was up to 18, the minimum age for eligibility.

There had been reports of underage voters in some parts of the country. Miss Emmanuel said she had been going to the centre for three days without success.

In Katsina State, despite the challenges being encountered by residents to register for their voter’s card, people were still trooping to the registration centres.

During a visit to the Katsina Local Government INEC office, many eligible voters were seen waiting for the arrival of officials.

Though many refused to speak to this reporter, Abba Aliyu, a student, said he was finding it very difficult to register.

“I’m a student at the Polytechnic (Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic) and I have been coming here for over a week. The officials don’t come on time,” he said.

Asked if the long queue and the absence of the officials would make him shelve the plan to register to vote, the Office Technology Management student said he would persist.

However, Rukayya Shehu, a married woman in the city centre, said she would only register if the equipment was brought to her home.

“As a working mother, I have a lot of things to do other than wasting time on a queue struggling for a voter’s card,” she said.

An official at the office referred our reporter to the state INEC office for comment. But on getting there, no senior staffer was around.

The phone of the director of voters education and mobilisation, Abbani Takai, was unreachable and he did not respond to an SMS sent to him.

Before the extension of the 30 June deadline by INEC, the commission received tonnes of complaints from Lagos residents.

PREMIUM TIMES visited some of the registration centres in Lagos at the peak of the social media campaign against the commission in late June and in the first week of July.

Some PVC applicants at the Igbede community in the INEC office at Ojo local government said it was an herculean task to get the cards.

Having arrived at the centre around 6 a.m., a retired civil servant who identified himself as Aliyu said he was shocked when he was given number 100.

“I was here around 6 a.m. and I wrote my name. I was number 100. I was wondering how they arrived at that number. Perhaps they had a carryover from Friday,” he said.

Mr Aliyu said he went home after writing his name and came back but had yet to be attended to as of 11 a. m.

Adewale Afolabi, one of the few applicants seen outside at the centre, said it took him about seven hours before he was attended to.

“They are stressing people here. I came from Iyana Ipaja. I have been here since 7 a.m. I have spent seven hours here,” he said.

Before this reporter left the centre, Mr Afolabi, was however, given a form to fill in his details.

Another registrant, Ifeanyi Nwobodo, said he got to the centre with his wife around 8:20 a. m. and wrote their names on a list that was passed among the applicants.

“My number was 113 and my wife was 114 as of the time I came. I have done data capturing,” he said.

Delay, shortage of machines and late resumption of staff members were among the complaints of PVC applicants in Alimosho, Amuwo-Idofin among other places PREMIUM TIMES visited.

However, nine days to the new deadline, this newspaper noticed the disappearance of crowds at the centres.

Having admitted to having been overwhelmed by the surge of applicants at some of its centres across the country, INEC, in July sent in additional personnel and machines to hasten the process.

Formerly at the centre of social media troll, PREMIUM TIMES on 5 July, saw how nobody showed up to register at the INEC Lagos office following the extension.

This was the same situation in other centres this newspaper revisited in Abuja, Enugu and Plateau. The crowds have disappeared.

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