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HOW – TO AROUND NIGERIA’S COMING ELECTIONS

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HOW – TO AROUND NIGERIA’S COMING 2019 ELECTIONS

Hey guys, I was asked to discuss the coming elections. But before I get to the elections, I will like to take us back a bit to talk about Nigeria and our democracy. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (now amended), states that “the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice... It … declared that: (a) sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority; (b) the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government: and (c) the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution”.

Building on this knowledge, can citizens confidently say that their intentions would naturally shape their leadership in Nigeria? Has Nigeria been experiencing true democracy? Has our form of democracy been diluted to emasculate citizens? Has it been watered down? Do Nigerians appreciate the critical role of citizens in Nigeria? Have they come to terms with the fact that democracy is a sharp departure from military regimes which have plagued Nigeria in the past? Democracy is completely different just in case you are pondering on the questions – and citizens are gods.

Democracy, democracy, democracy. What is democracy? Unpacking this term is critical because it’s important to understand if Nigeria has experienced true democracy since 1999. Austrian Economist, Schumpeter (2010) defined democracy as a recognised political process in which persons obtain the power to govern others through votes. How elections are managed is a critical determinant of whether Nigeria is a democratic State. Elections are important in any democracy (especially a budding democracy as ours). If the electoral process is inclusive and fair, Nigeria will be termed democratic. If it is not, the reverse is the case. Nigeria’s democracy cannot be viewed outside of the political environment that dictates how Nigerian leaders emerge. It is as such not a surprise that promoters of ‘procedural definitions’ of democracy single out elections as an indispensable fabric of true democracy. According to this school of thought, democracies should not accommodate “shams” that twist outcomes to crush oppositions. If Nigeria gets elections wrong, it would be inaccurate to define it as a democratic state. 

And this gets me to the focus of our discussion today, how we should engage the coming elections (Presidential/NASS elections now slated for the 23rd of February 2019 and the Governorship/SHOA elections fixed 2 weeks after, on the 9th of March 2019). It is important to emphasize that people should not limit their focus on only the presidential elections but also on the legislative elections. The legislature is the truest representation of the people. They have the power to summon the executive to give account as need be. Recently, state legislators got their financial autonomy which strengthens their independence to carry out their functions of oversight, law making et al. Don’t want to derail. Key message is that the legislature is as important, if not more.

So back to the hows. If you are currently thinking of the hows, you probably have gotten your PVCs. If you don’t have PVCs because you didn’t register, don’t sweat, the did has been done, prepare to participate in the 2023 elections. If you do have your PVCs, then the next concern should be to know where your polling unit is.

Fortunately, there are people/organisations that have designed simple online databases for locating your polling unit. All you need is the PU code located on the top left section of your PVC. You will notice the numbers just to the right of a word CODE. These online databases are as follows: 



Can’t think of others.

Should we panic when we hear of crisis (violence, fights etc.) around our residences or polling unit on the election day? Yes. But should we depend on this info and by so doing not go out to vote? Some of you may say yes but don’t be so quick. I would advise No and my reason is simple. Who benefits when you do not come out to vote? Take a minute to internalise this bit. Who benefits?

If majority of residents expected to vote are scared of coming out, the few persons that come out will define the winner. I am not saying that you should endanger your life. But rumours do not help. If there is violence in a location, you would want the results from that location to be cancelled for a possible rerun when normalcy is restored. And to ensure this, you need evidence. If 50 persons in one polling unit complain about a problem with evidence, surely even a corrupt process will dobale. Just saying.


If there are 200 registered voters and only 10 persons legitimately vote (regardless of vote buying), if the INEC official present is not sincere, the remaining 190 can be played with. However, if 150 persons vote legitimately, only 50. More so, if these 190 persons have evidence, no number would be played with.

Naturally, after locating your polling unit, the next task will be to do the voting on the ‘d day’. Keep in mind that only authorised stakeholders (e.g. observers etc.) will be allowed to drive on the days of elections. There is a restriction of movements of persons from 6am through 6pm. I have heard that you may be allowed to move if your polling unit is very far from your home/residence. This is yet to be confirmed as such, it is advisable that you prepare to trek the distance or you wake up very early to move to your polling unit. I will be doing quite a bit of trekking myself. Google map has mapped the walking distance in time from my house to my polling unit to take up to 53 mins. Looking forward to it. Long live Nigeria.

Due to the length of time and distance you may have to walk, it is advisable that you wear comfortable shoes and clothes. You may need to go with some water, snacks, sun glasses or a cap. Also, charge your phone tonight. If you have a power bank, go with that as well. Keep in mind that you most likely will be under the sun for hours. Hours of fun. 

Polling units will be open for accreditation and voting from 8am. The pictures below were shared by INEC as the dos and donts on the ‘d day’. These pics capture succinctly the critical hows for voting on election days.


My advice to everyone is ‘understand the steps defined by inec’ and follow them.

Just to emphasize two points:
  1. INEC has made it clear that you can vote with any finger of your choice as all fingers were registered at the point of registration. Just make sure you vote within the box of your party of choice because if you accidentally touch multiple boxes, your vote will be considered invalid.
  2. you are allowed to take your mobile phone to your polling units. Taking your phone to the polling unit is a good decision because you can capture events you witness at your polling unit and monitor what is happening across the country. The only place where mobile phones are not allowed is inside the voting booth. My take is that if you are alone at a polling unit and you are sceptical about who to give your phone, give the INEC officer at the entrance of the booth. Pick it up when you come out.
As I mentioned earlier, taking your phone to your polling unit is cool. There are several apps that I have identified which you can use to ease your election monitoring and complaints process. Not sure if all of these apps are on applestore. I use an android phone and have these installed on my device. More is better than less on this occasion. 
  1. MyINEC: Official app of INEC
  2. Cdd Election Tracker
  3. Zabe – Election Monitoring
Elections in Nigeria have been largely ‘do or die’ for candidates. As such, this chat won’t be complete if a quick analysis of attributes of an ideal candidate is not done. Often, candidates are endorsed based on demographic biases (segmentation based on age, sex, economic status, level of education, income level and employment, amongst others.), spatial/geographic/ethnic biases (segmentation based on ethnicity, residency, places of origin amongst others), or religious biases (segmentation based on faith; Christianity, Islam, Traditional religion, Atheism amongst others).

Progressives would even argue that the ideal candidate should be astute and able to create a vision and a blueprint to lead Nigeria to Eldorado. Sadly, while this position is commendable, there is no certainty in knowing if candidates have sincerity of purpose. We often get an array of persons who promise, fail and then champion double standards, insisting that expectations of voters should be managed. In my opinion, a critical yardstick for assessment in addition to that of the progressives is precedence. What someone has done with little things will exemplify what he/she will achieve with more; from tangible results and intangible results that touch lives of citizens (not high-profile conference room results). Then again, even this can be manipulated. This is the beauty of democracy.

That said, permit me to just focus on the presidential candidates for now. Although there are many candidates for the presidential election, several have publicly stepped down. Heads up, regardless of their public display, their parties have not been removed from the ballot papers, although some have openly endorsed candidates of the major parties (PDP/APC). They continue to preach some supposed coalition. Feel free to read the manifestoes of some of these persons and vote (see link below). All of us na Nigerians las las.









Didn’t get the time to provide a synthesis of these manifestoes. Apologies. When reading these focus on their plans on health, education, infrastructure, ease of doing business and social security. Security and corruption can also be looked at. Happy reading and happy voting!

Meanwhile, while you are here, some of us have been disenfranchised from voting locally just because of where we are based. I long for the era of e-voting. I for one would like to be able to vote for my preferred state legislator and governor regardless of whether I am in Kano or London. This will probably be a good post-election campaign in preparation for 2023.

Cheers guys! ✌🏾

Sylvanus Nabena
Twitter: @slynabena

Get involved in #NigeriaElectoralProcess. #NigeriaWakeUp.

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