In Nigeria, a country located in West Africa, elections are carried out every 4years to
determine who the next president, senator, House of Representatives member of a
zone and Governor of a state will be in almost all states of Nigeria, save a few due to
past peculiar incidents that have occurred in those areas.
There have been a lot of seemingly disappointment in the present administration,
and a lot of people could not hide their pain, especially since they voted in a man,
they felt will make Nigeria, the country of their dreams, the country they would be
proud of and want to remain in instead of seeking greener pastures in the western
would in a bid to secure a better future for their children and/future generation.
In April 2022, I ensured to follow all the INEC [Independent National Electoral
Commission] instructions to becoming a credible Voter in the forthcoming 2023
general elections in Nigeria.
I ensured to visit the INEC website a couple times, following instructions on what I
needed to do to transfer my PVC [Permanent Voters’ Card] from my previous PU
[Polling Unit] to a location that would be easily accessible to my current residence;
with all website visitations proving abortive, I had to take out a day off work to go on
physical queues to get my PVC sorted, which was still not a success so I made up
my mind to reside the night before, around my PU, come 2023.
A few weeks to the election, a link to check out our polling units were released, I
checked for mine and kept getting the “Voter Details Not Found” message,
however, I made plans to stay in a walkable proximity to my PU a night before the
elections. On the day of the Presidential and Senatorial Elections, I woke up in my
hotel room with a headache because I had a busy night studying and tidying up work
I came home with while feeling motivated and hyped to go on the queues to perform
my civic rights. I had a sumptuous breakfast, took a shower, got dressed in
comfortable clothing with sufficient water and items I need to stay comfortable at the
polling centre and headed out to locate my exact PU which I was able to find barely
30 minutes of my arrival at the location.
I got to my PU at 9:30am got my name on a list and found a seat to wait for the INEC
electoral officials to come so voting can commence. Officials of INEC arrived at
10:13am at my Voting venue, and all set-ups and arrangements immediately
commenced.
I had some interesting conversations with some pals and other interesting people I
only met at the PU while I waited to cast my votes. Phone network reception was
bad, so I took time off my phone rather spending time reading while occasionally
observing my environment.
My Polling unit was eventually ready to start receiving voters at 14:14hrs. I drew
closer to the voting tent, I got accredited within one hour twenty-seven minutes of my
being on the queue, and within 50minutes of standing on the voting queue, I was
able to cast my votes for the presidential, and the various Senatorial and House of
Representatives seats respectfully; after which I said my good byes and left to my
hotel room to wait for 18:00hrs. which was the stipulated time to begin moving
around the city on the day of elections [Movement was banned from 00:00hrs to
17:59hrs on the said day.
It was a peaceful and violence free election at my PU, but I still felt that the
disorganization experienced could have been improved upon, not an experience we
should be having as a nation in 2023 – I however believe in an improved and better
Nigeria as it is a Nation filled with possibilities and greatness.
“Nigeria Decides”