By Our Correspondent <\/p>\n
Disturbed by the usual voting apathy of the Igbo race which has made it impossible for them to have candidates of their choice after every election, a pan Igbo socio-cultural organization, Imeobi Igbo Forum, IIF, has urged the Igbo, especially those of the Southeast geo-political zone, to obtain their Permanent Voters Cards now to change the narrative now that the 2027 general election is around the corner. <\/p>\n
According to the forum, there is need for the five governors of the said zone to ensure house to house voter registration exercise as means of ensuring complete registration of eligible adults to avoid disenfranchisement.<\/p>\n
Making the urge, the National chairman of IIF, Dr. Ikegulu Chukwukpezie, lamented that the votes of the people of the Southeast zone is nothing to write home about compared with what is obtainable in the Northern part of the country.<\/p>\n
His words, “You may have heard that the total registered voters in the Southeast is less than that of one state in the North west. We are already used to the figures that depict all South east states being less than single state in the North in terms of land mass, but they fail to let you know that 90 per cent of those areas are ungoverned and uninhabited spaces.<\/p>\n
” If we cast our minds back to the Nigeria census of 1921 the picture will be clearer. Colonial sources placed estimates of the population of various ethnic groups in Nigeria as Hausa\/Fulani about 2.0millio, Yoruba about 2.1million\u00e0 and Igbo about 3.9million. <\/p>\n
“Despite the 1967 to 1970 genocide, the proportion in the figures would not be different.
\nToday, in urban centers, less than 10 per cent of the population eligible to vote is registered. In the rural areas, 30 per cent of the eligible voters are registered.<\/p>\n
“The current nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise by Independent National Electoral Commission is scheduled to run for two months, from 11 May 2026 to 10 July 2026. This is the third and final phase of the ongoing registration exercise ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 elections.<\/p>\n
” During this period, eligible Nigerians can: register as new voters, transfer their voting location, correct personal details, replace lost or damaged Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs). I have taken time to interview people in mechanical workshops, markets and sundry gatherings where I find myself.<\/p>\n
” I have challenged many on why they have not gotten their PVCs, and the answers are the same, frustration by electoral officials. People are asked for 5-20k for forms and a similar amount for the voters card. I took out time to enquire and noticed the attitude deliberately employed by eletoral officials to deny potential registrants, from access to voters registration forms and the voters cards.<\/p>\n
” Its like Ndigbo are experiencing at home what they’re subjected in Lagos state of 2022 till date. In the North, my enquiries have revealed that the electoral officials go to the homes of people to register them and issue them with the voters cards at home.<\/p>\n
“The igbo political and business elites, should be made to know that they rarely identify with the common igbo man. Not with our pain, interest and tears. But other nationalities in Nigeria, regard you as igbo leaders. However, you know that igbo leadership is not by selection, election, inheritance, appointment or depth of pocket.<\/p>\n
” It’s attained by words and deeds that are intandem with igbo values and expectations.
\nThe igbo political and business elites have spent hundreds of millions of naira on religious and social activities, not knowing that those do not uplift us in the comity of other nationalities in nigeria. <\/p>\n
“Some ethnicity claim that we have no votes and therefore no respectful voice in Nigeria affairs. Shoved aside in sharing the national cake. All these can change if such funds are directed towards making sure that INEC officials go from house to house to register eligible adults for elections. <\/p>\n
“Our people are busy interprenures who don’t have the time to wild away at INEC offices. It’s not enough to say, go and register. When our people go to designated centers, they are subjected to all manner of abuses, neglect and extortions. This repels them from being registered to vote.<\/p>\n
“Imeobi Igbo Forum calls on Igbo socio-political\/cultural organizations to join the call on the Five Executive Governors of the SE to embark on this project pro actively of getting our people to be registered to vote. We have lost two weeks already but we can make it up in the next six weeks of the exercise. Who knows, sponsors of the move may be the eventual beneficiaries.
\nI implore you to use your privilaged positions to help our people to stand and be counted,” he pleaded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Our Correspondent Disturbed by the usual voting apathy of the Igbo race which has made it impossible for them to have candidates of their choice after every election, a pan Igbo socio-cultural organization, Imeobi Igbo Forum, IIF, has urged the Igbo, especially those of the Southeast geo-political zone, to obtain their Permanent Voters Cards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14405"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14409,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14405\/revisions\/14409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}