2023 Elections: Are Nigerians Ready?

Despite the seemingly endless waits, with long queue and repeated visits, Nigerians are still enthusiastic about picking up their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) for next month’s presidential election among the top three contenders; APC, PDP and LP.

Nearly 10 million new voters have been registered for the February 25 ballot, of whom 84 percent are young people aged under 34 — a key block of ballots.

Finally, since the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1999 till date, a third-party candidate is presenting a real challenge to the dominance of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Many new voters have been recorded since the registration of voters for the upcoming elections. It has been mostly acclaimed to the dissatisfaction that many citizens have concerning the present state of the Nigerian economic and political system.

The political apathy that had been recorded before now, has been bridged by the numbers of people seen trooping in and out of the various wards to collect their PVC. Some would-be voters were successful but others were frustrated to be told to come back.

Election officials say 2023’s ballot will be more transparent because of the introduction of electronic transfer of results and a biometric voter identification technology known as BVAS at the voting stations to stop fraud.