Have You Collected Your PVC?

_{Emmanuel Ikwuegbu}

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Now that the festivities are over, everyone has spent their money and had their fun, the next and most important thing that is now in focus is the coming elections. And I am talking about here in Nigeria, my dear country.

It is now that time of the era, the time that we all have been patiently waiting for since October 2020. We have come far indeed and it is just remaining just about a month and finally, the citizens of Nigeria will go to the polls and elect themselves a new leader.

Registration for voter's cards ended last year, and people are collecting theirs now. At first, it could only be collected in the various local governments, but now it can be collected at the polling units. This is to facilitate quicker distribution.

So, as the good citizen that I am, I went to my polling unit today to get my card. And the crowd I saw there was just overwhelming. It could easily have been more than a thousand people that were there to take their cards and only two officials to attend to them. The officials were operating under a tree, out in the open, but still, the place was stuffy. The people were packed so tightly together that it was difficult to breathe if you were in their midst.

_{Tara Winstead}

You had to be strong health-wise if you were going to survive in such an environment.

But then, this got me thinking. Why did INEC just assign only two officials when they knew this number of people registered in the area? This is a school area, and so many students registered in the school and would therefore vote in the school as well. You know how populous our schools are, why did they understaff those in charge?

For me, even when I was watching the officials, I pitied them. They were just shouting and it was like no one was hearing what they were saying, they were sweating like goats that knew they were about to be slaughtered. And the people themselves were not helping matters, they were just rowdy, refusing to stay in line, talking at the top of their voices, and being uncontrollable and unruly.

And for that, for a very long time, no one collected their card.

But thankfully though the officials were able to get it under control, and they started answering people and dishing out the cards. Although it was kind of a long process, from finding the card, to thumb printing to signify that you received it. But by the time it finally entered your hand, you were home free. Soon, the crowd began to reduce, but more people were coming and so it was not reducing at all.

Finally though, I was able to get my card. But by then, my back and legs were aching me severely. This was from standing and walking about for so long. But I was happy, all the stress was worth it.

_{Emmanuel Ikwuegbu}

And thinking about it, the stress involved is usually one of the reasons people fail to collect their cards after they had been printed. Because it was very hurtful when you spent your day and time fighting the crowd and trying to stay in line and then, you don’t get what you came for.

But then, it is a necessary sacrifice we have to make for the good of our country. We just have to take out the time, go through the stress and get it. Because if I am being honest, the stress I went through today is not even close to the one bad governance has been doing to me these past eight years. What kept me going is the knowledge that I am doing the right thing and I am doing it for my future.

There are those who are still harboring the idea that their votes don’t count, and even if they end up voting it will all be for naught. So I ask you, if it didn’t count would the politicians bother with campaigns and rallies? Would they be trying to buy your votes if they were worthless?

We tell ourselves these things so we can have an excuse not to do the right thing. We know what we are meant to do, why do we keep on trying to convince ourselves otherwise?

_{Tope A Asokere}

The power to enact change is in our hands, no one is going to do it for us, and we have to take that charge ourselves. We have to bring about the change we want to happen. That is the only way we can finally be free from all these hardships and suffering.

So, my dear friends, are you yet to collect your voter’s card? What are you waiting for? Please hurry to your polling unit and collect yours. It might be stressful, but see it as a sacrifice a patriotic citizen must make for the good of the Fatherland. Once you have it, there will be nothing else for you to do until election day. And that is when we would go out en-masse and take back our country.

Enough is enough!

_{Bankole Ade-Oni}

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_{Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below, I would love to know what you are thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}