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From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
The leadership of the unified Nigerian Youth Forum (UNYF) on Wednesday rejected the extension of the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) and validation for additional 60 days by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC believing the time frame would not be enough to capture more people.
To this group, about seven million young Nigerians who would be clocking 18 years just a few days after the expiration of the new deadline which is August 29 will be disenfranchised from the 2023 general elections in the country.
The group in a statement by its President, Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem then appealed to the commission to expand the voter registration and validation infrastructure to capture the teeming young Nigerians who are patriotic and willing to exercise their civic responsibility come 2023.
His statement read in part, “if the registration should stop on August 29th as proposed by INEC, over 7.7 million of our members who will attain the age of 18 by September 3 and September 25, 2022, will be automatically disenfranchised.
“Our Forum alone, for instance, has over 10 million registered/financial members cut across the country, hence, our position to call for extension beyond the new 60 days in the interest of all and sundry.
“Going by INEC’s new proposal the registration will stop by August ending which to us show that many eligible Nigerians will be deliberately disenfranchised and our members include. It looks outdated for INEC to propose closing her portal 5 months before the General elections in this technologically driven century.
“As a developing country, there is nothing wrong with the registration to continue until a few weeks to the general elections except if we are not ready for such due to some certain factors associated with electoral processes in our country. Nevertheless, the budgetary allocation of INEC is enough for stakeholders to demand the best in the above regard.
“We as a Forum sincerely hope that INEC would reconsider extending the voters registration and Validation exercise to cover significant numbers of those who are willing but unable to get their PVC to date due to queues, corrupt process, inadequate registration centres, favouritism and late report to duty post by most INEC officials saddled with the tasks.
“We salute the courage of the Zamfara State Governor for declaring a work-free week in this regard and the leadership of the House of representatives who seek for extension of the said exercise for 60 days and was approved today”.
