This
piece has nothing against Jega as a person or an umpire but is merely a
bonafide legal commentary on his insistence that the only voters he
will allow to vote are those possessing their PVC. That is well and
good; but in such event, Jega must also be mindful of the following
provisions of the law:
First,
the PVC regime is not mandated by the Constitution or even the
Electoral Act. What the law clearly requires is simple registration.
Jega is the one that is creating this unlawful and disagreeable
situation of upgrading this notion of PVC to such an infamous extent
that is now threatening the stability and good order of Nigeria. To be
sure, instead of these runarounds, to vote just requires you to be a
Nigerian of at least eighteen years of age; and then stepping up to any
designated INEC centre to register. Once you have done that, you have
done your part, preparatory to ultimately performing your civic rights
to vote and be voted for. Conversely, INEC has a legal duty to oblige
you with due registration, and then publish your name in the voters
register thirty days to the date of the pertinent election. It is that
simple and clear, as intended by our laws; yet, Mr Jega has, for reasons
best known to him, single-handedly brought a whole nation to infamy by
introducing these burdensome rules of his own.
So,
what Nigerians are now dealing with is Jega virtually legislating that
you won’t be allowed to vote unless you present a PVC. Nonetheless,
despite its pitfalls, failed tests, discriminatory distributions, warts
and all, Nigerians now appear helpless and verged on playing along with
this patent illegality. But shouldn’t that be on the proviso that Mr
Jega must demonstrate, before the elections, that he has achieved
hundred percent PVC distribution? Hell, yes, because it is only after
Jega has achieved his hundred percent that it might be reasonable to
then shift the burden of collection to the voter. If, however, before
the elections, Jega fails to achieve hundred percent PVC distribution,
he must postpone the elections to allow time for that, otherwise any
election result issuing from such willful disenfranchisement of voters
will surely be invalidated by the courts for failing the basic
constitutional muster. Alternatively, Jega can save the nation all these
troubles by simply abiding with what the black-letter law says, and
that is: allow all registered voters to vote.
I
might add that Jega’s inexplicable absolutism with this PVC and the
hideous dangers it portends for our country are clear enough to every
patriot, except the duplicitous few who have decided that they will win
the elections only when millions of voters have been deliberately
excluded by Mr Jega. If Jega, in deference to the secret forces that are
said to be pushing him to this perfidy, ultimately decides to proceed
with the elections sans distributing PVC to all voters, then he must be
prepared to be solely held responsible for all the terrible consequences
that are sure to follow. Those consequences are better imagined than
stated.
Further,
in the making of this inferior administrative rule which suddenly
requires PVC as the sole ticket to vote, Jega must ensure that no single
voter will be turned away or otherwise willfully or even negligently
frustrated from collecting his PVC. And while Jega is at it, he must
also be guided that to refuse a voter his PVC on grounds of his partisan
affiliation is as evil as it is also grossly unconstitutional. Such
refusals have been widely and credibly reported to be happening, with
impunity, in Lagos and other parts of far Northern Nigeria. As of now,
whether these millions of mistreated compatriot-voters later collected
their PVC remains to be seen; yet, I am sure that a slew of well-meaning
candidates and their attorneys have been gathering quantum evidence of
such willful disenfranchisement, to be later arrayed as material grounds
for judicial annulment of all election results that issued from such
blatant unconstitutionality.
Finally,
there’s this little discussed but important matter of Jega restricting
voters to vote only in States of their registration. While this may be
administratively convenient for a tardy umpire, there’s nothing in our
laws that expressly supports such strange policy. Under the Nigerian
Constitution, Nigerians have but a single citizenship, and thus should
be legally able to cast their votes from any location or State in the
country. If Mr Jega had cared to think about this retrograde policy
carefully, he would have been minded that the following unsavory
scenarios will surely result from it. First, it will mean that all
Nigerians will be restricted to places of their usual domicile
throughout the election period, lasting almost two months. That’s very
bad and potentially violative of our constitutional right to travel.
Second, if you have to travel for whatever good reasons, you will
thereby be automatically disenfranchised. This too is as silly as it is
latently unconditional, to boot. Third, millions of Nigerians who are
now justifiably afraid of voting from certain locations in the country
are fleeing, and thus will never be able to vote from their new
locations; thanks to Jega and his many bad rules. And now this: While
INEC rule says you can migrate or transfer your registration, Jega made
it almost impossible for voters to do so when he allowed only a few days
window for such voter-migration applications. Those few days expired
over two months ago, long before Jega’s ill-fated February 14.
Source: African Herald Express
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