MORE Nigerians have been presented with another opportunity to participate in the country’s democracy. After a prolonged wait, the Independent National Electoral Commission has opened the window for eligible citizens to collect their Permanent Voter Cards, the essential document required to vote in Nigeria’s elections.
Beginning October 9, INEC is expected to distribute 10.6 million PVCs, largely to citizens who attained voting age and registered in 2025, as well as those replacing damaged cards. The commission has also undertaken a clean-up of the voter register.
Yet, the process raises questions as to why collecting a voter card takes so long in an age when banks and fintech companies can issue debit cards within hours. The cumbersome electoral bureaucracy does little to inspire confidence in the system. Worse, it risks discouraging citizens who are already disillusioned with the political process.
The collection window is also too restrictive. The electoral authorities and lawmakers should rethink a system that makes participation unnecessarily difficult.
Registration and PVC collection must be accessible, convenient and continuous enough to accommodate as many eligible Nigerians as possible, subject to appropriate safeguards against fraud.
Nevertheless, The PUNCH Editorial Board urges every eligible Nigerian to collect their PVC within the stipulated period. It is a basic act of responsible citizenship and the first step towards influencing the country’s political direction.
The PVC is not a souvenir to be tucked away in a drawer or a document to be locked in a vault.
It is an instrument of democratic participation, empowering citizens to choose their representatives and hold the political class accountable.
Nigerians must therefore go beyond collecting their PVCs. They must turn out in large numbers to vote in the 2027 general elections.
High voter turnout is essential not merely for the sake of impressive statistics, but for the credibility and legitimacy of the electoral process. A government chosen by a substantial proportion of eligible voters has a stronger democratic mandate than one returned to power by a small fraction of the electorate.
Mass participation also broadens representation. When millions abstain, elections are disproportionately shaped by those who turn out, leaving the interests of large sections of society inadequately represented.
Young people, women, workers, traders, professionals and economically disadvantaged citizens must not surrender their collective voice to a relatively small electorate.
Their absence does not suspend the consequences of government decisions; it merely leaves others to determine their direction.
Citizens who routinely lament Nigeria’s leadership deficit on Facebook, TikTok and other social media platforms should be at the forefront of this mobilisation.
There are no polling stations on social media, and online outrage, however justified, cannot substitute for a ballot cast. Those who demand change must be prepared to participate in the process through which political power is conferred.
It is tempting to argue that citizens who refuse to vote forfeit the moral authority to complain about the government.
However, the right to criticise public officials does not disappear because someone abstains from an election.
Nevertheless, habitual abstention weakens citizens’ collective influence and allows a minority of voters to exercise disproportionate power over the political future of the majority.
Nigeria’s voter register contained approximately 93 million eligible voters in 2023, yet turnout in the presidential election was only 27.1 per cent, the lowest in the Fourth Republic. That means nearly three-quarters of registered voters did not participate.
With the electorate now exceeding 103 million, the challenge is to translate the growing register into actual votes.
Following military rule, turnout in the 1999 presidential election rose to 52.3 per cent, reflecting the enthusiasm surrounding the return to civilian government. It climbed further to 69.1 per cent in 2003.
Thereafter, participation steadily declined: 57.5 per cent in 2007, 53.7 per cent in 2011, 43.7 per cent in 2015, 34.7 per cent in 2019 and 27.1 per cent in 2023.
The downward trajectory is alarming. It suggests that the initial enthusiasm for democratic government has been eroded by a combination of unmet expectations, distrust of the electoral process, dissatisfaction with political leadership, insecurity and the logistical difficulties associated with voting.
While these factors vary across communities and elections, they must be confronted rather than dismissed as public apathy.
In the United States, turnout increased during the 2020 presidential election, while the 2024 election also attracted substantial participation. The United Kingdom recorded lower turnout in its 2024 general election, illustrating that voter disengagement is not peculiar to Nigeria.
But the scale of Nigeria’s recent decline demands urgent attention, particularly because the consequences of electoral choices are felt by a population already grappling with economic hardship and insecurity.
The responsibility for reversing this trend cannot rest on citizens alone. INEC must earn the participation it seeks. Voter mobilisation campaigns will ring hollow if citizens believe their votes are ignored, manipulated or rendered meaningless by opaque procedures.
The commission has introduced measures intended to strengthen electoral integrity, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and the electronic transmission and publication of polling-unit results through its Result Viewing Portal, iReV. These innovations can improve transparency, but technology is only as credible as its implementation.
The failure to upload polling-unit results to iReV as expected during the 2023 elections damaged public confidence and contradicted expectations created by INEC’s assurances. The commission must ensure that the problems encountered are not repeated in 2027.
Its preparations should include rigorous testing of electoral technology, transparent procedures, reliable communication, adequate training of personnel and prompt public explanations whenever technical failures occur.
INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan must make restoring public confidence a central priority. The commission should demonstrate impartiality not merely through declarations, but through consistent decisions, transparent administration and equal treatment of political parties and candidates.
It must ensure that electoral offences are investigated and referred to the appropriate authorities, with offenders held accountable under the law.
Political parties and their candidates equally have a responsibility to discourage violence, vote-buying, intimidation and the manipulation of electoral procedures.
The security agencies must protect voters without partisan interference, while election observers, journalists and civil society organisations should be able to monitor proceedings freely and report irregularities without intimidation.
Crucially, high turnout must go hand in hand with the protection of the ballot box. Mobilising millions of Nigerians to vote will achieve little if their choices can subsequently be compromised through intimidation, ballot snatching, result manipulation or the falsification of figures. Every valid vote must be counted, properly recorded and reflected in the final results.
Protecting the ballot box begins before Election Day. Authorities must identify and secure vulnerable polling units, provide effective arrangements for the safe movement and custody of election materials, and respond swiftly to credible threats of violence.
Polling agents must be properly trained to document results and challenge irregularities through lawful channels. Citizens, too, should resist inducements to sell their votes and report attempts to undermine the process.
The experience of Osun State’s recent off-season governorship election offers an encouraging example of what stronger participation can look like.
Despite reported threats and concerns about violence ahead of the poll, turnout was reported at about 51 per cent. While an off-season state election is not directly comparable with a nationwide general election, the level of participation offers a useful reminder that voter mobilisation is possible even in a challenging political environment.
The task is to replicate such engagement nationwide while strengthening the safeguards that allow voters to exercise their rights freely.
The National Assembly should also revisit the legal and administrative barriers that unnecessarily restrict participation.
Beyond simplifying PVC collection, lawmakers should examine secure alternative voting arrangements, including carefully designed provisions for citizens who cannot easily reach polling units.
Postal voting, where appropriate, would require robust identity verification, ballot secrecy, chain-of-custody safeguards and mechanisms to prevent coercion. Such reforms should complement, not weaken, the integrity of in-person voting.
Ultimately, the 2027 elections will test both the willingness of Nigerians to participate and the ability of their institutions to protect their choices.
Neither side can afford to fail. Citizens cannot demand accountable government while abandoning the principal instrument for choosing it; equally, the electoral commission cannot demand public trust without demonstrating transparency, competence and impartiality.
Nigeria’s democracy will not be strengthened by a voter register that grows while turnout collapses. Nor will it be rescued by technological innovations that fail to inspire confidence or by promises that are not honoured.
The message to every eligible Nigerian is simple: collect your PVC, turn out to vote and protect your vote.
Do not surrender your political voice to apathy, intimidation or cynicism. The greater the number of citizens who participate freely, the broader the representation, the stronger the democratic mandate and the harder it becomes to dismiss the electorate’s collective will.
INEC must do its part by ensuring that every eligible voter has a fair opportunity to participate and that every valid vote counts. The political class must do its part by respecting the process and its outcome. And Nigerians must do their part by showing up.