The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been urged by the Prof. Pat Utomi-led Big Tent Coalition of political parties and civil society organizations for Obi-Datti to extend the Jan. 29 deadline for collecting Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the group is supporting Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, and Dr. Yusuf Datti, who is running as his running mate.
In order to encourage a culture of cleanliness of the mind, body, and environment, Utomi issued this clarion cry on Saturday at the Big Tent’s grassroots engagement for the ObiDatti movement with a new iteration of the “Clean-Up Nigeria Project” in Lagos.
Utomi said that there was no “justification for halting the PVC collection operation when a lot of individuals had not collected theirs, despite making reasonable attempts,” in a statement by Mr. Charles Odibo, Director of Media and Communications for the Big Tent.
According to a respected political economist, INEC must live up to its name by making sure that none of its employees work with political outlaws to unintentionally deny millions of Nigerians their right to vote.
According to evidence we have, millions of Nigerians are being intentionally denied the right to vote by having their PVCs withheld. Every registered voter must be given the chance to pick up their PVC, according to INEC’s regulations.
The INEC employee working out of Falomo Primary School in Ikoyi, Lagos, has been absent from their post for the past three days, and this is a common occurrence.
Therefore, he suggested that INEC seek assistance from organizations led by the commercial sector, such as chambers of commerce, the Economic Summit Group, and civil society organizations, for the task of distributing PVCs.
He claimed that this was required since “it appears like INEC workers are stretched.”
The international community was also urged by Utomi to prevent INEC from compromising its independence as a result of pressure from political elites “who now know that their time is up.”
The chairman stated that the majority of Nigerians had “chosen to back the more credible, capable, young, dynamic, and trusted candidate of the Labour Party, Obi,” adding that the country could not endure another day of bad leadership.
At the Clean Up Nigeria event, which took place simultaneously across the nation, Utomi declared that it was time to invite everyone to examine the state of the nation and the extent of its cleaning needs.
Utomi stated: “Climate change is true, thus we need to clean up our environment. Cleaning starts with the physical.
“We need to clean up our acts so that our nation can develop,” says one person. “We need to clean up our consciences because serving the people is a fundamental requirement of our citizenship.”
He urged Nigerians to continue environmental cleanup.
“We set our minds to clean up corruption, to clean up nepotism, to clean up state capture, to clean up the urge to dominate others because genuinely it is fascism and it is creeping into our politics,” Utomi remarked in reference to cleaning up the environment.
Utomi also noted that large forest belts continued to exist in Africa, which were important in absorbing carbon emissions and improving the situation of the nation as a member of the planet.
The advancement of the desert into our country, which has a direct impact on poverty, can be truly saved if our young people commit to rescuing the world, among other things.
We want to stop the desert and create a green army so that we may gain huge respect for our nation, Utomi remarked.
Therefore, the lecturer stated that he anticipated that young people would understand what the late President Kennedy told America’s youth.
Utomi cited Kennedy as stating, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.”
“We will be able to develop an economic machine that will advance our economy with the youth of Nigeria travelling around and cleaning up our rural areas as we are cleaning the urban areas,” he stated.
But more importantly, “we will be able to unite young people, engage them in the issues of today, teach them how to transform their country, take control of their country, clean up the environment, clean up consciousness, and offer us a new country that we can all be proud of.”
NAN reports that before the commission extended the deadline to Jan. 29, INEC had set Dec. 12, 2022, to Jan. 22, for the collection of PVCs.
