By John Oba
Abuja
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) yesterday raised concern over the credibility of the forthcoming general elections, insisting that the polls might not be free, fair and credible if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to redouble its efforts.
President of the association, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, identified the issue of the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and the effectiveness of the Card Reader Machine as major factors that must be worked upon for peaceful and credible polls.
Oritsejafor was speaking at a one-day interactive session of key stakeholders in the Nigeria project with the theme: “Towards a Peaceful and Purposeful Political Transition in 2015,” organised by the Think Nigeria Christian-Muslim Movement, in Abuja.
According to him, those two grey areas must be thoroughly looked into by the electoral umpire for a credible election to take place.
He said: “I am concerned about two things; number one, this issue of PVC. I have heard it several times that there are many Nigerians who refused to collect their PVCs, but I beg to disagree, because I sampled views in my church. I pastor a small church in Warri, with about 35,000 people.
“I asked them to show me their PVCs, and I was shocked, probably close to half of my congregation don’t have PVCs. And I begin to ask questions. I asked my pastors – I have about one hundred pastors – to go out and ask people why they don’t have the PVCs?
“I discovered that many of them felt insulted that anybody will say that they registered, and they don’t want to go and take their PVCs. They were asking my pastors, ‘why will I register and not go and take my PVC?’
“They said that sometimes you see a lot of PVCs in a particular location, but the truth is that those PVCs don’t belong to the people in that location, and most people in that location come looking for their cards, the card is somewhere else, and somebody said they don’t want to collect it.
“I think what the INEC can do is to publish the PVC they have, so that Nigerians can see it. So, if I don’t see my own, somebody that knows me can see my name and see the location where my PVC is, and draw my attention to it.
“This may not solve the problem but it can go a long way. I don’t want any Nigerian to be disenfranchised.
“Secondly, the issue of Card Reader; we just want to encourage INEC – it not easy to come up with a new innovation in a developing nation like this – to make sure that every one of those card readers works very well. They should do everything possible to ensure they work.
“We must begin to teach our people to believe in Nigeria. Yes, you are a Muslim or Christian, but you are a Nigerian. We must begin to eradicate and wipe out in the mind of our people this idea of saying this is an infidel, and this is a believer.”
In his remarks, the President General of the Supreme Council of Islamic Preachers in Nigeria (SCIPIN), Sheikh Muhammad Bin-Ahmad, said the process of moving a nation with multi-ethnic groups and religions like Nigeria forward is non-stop. “Therefore, everybody must work together to strengthen the unity of the country.”
He said: “Two major problems currently threatening the corporate existence of the Nigerian nation are that of religious extremism/intolerance, as well as subterranean forces working to break up Nigeria into those previous pieces and ethnicities that were amalgamated in the past 100 years.
“I call on all Nigerians, especially the political class, to eschew inflammatory statements and actions that are capable of firing the embers of suspicion, mistrust and enmity among the peace-loving citizens of Nigeria.”