From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
In a bid to ensure that Nigerians participate in the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise, a coalition of civil society organisations, have called on the Federal Government to declare a public holiday as a national day of action to encourage people to get registered.
The group also urged private organisations to give days off to employees to find time and register or even facilitate their logistics from the office to the nearest registration centres.
The civil society organisations who briefed journalists in Abuja were Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative, Connected Development, Raising New Voices and Webfala Digital Skills For All Initiative.
Others were Building Block for Peace Foundation, Kimpact Development Initiative, Aspillos Foundation and SING Nigeria.
Speaking on behalf of the group, the Executive Director, Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative, Abideen Olasupo, said on June 30th, 2022, the Continuous Voters Registration will be suspended by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to clean up its data and print Permanent Voters Card (PVC) ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Olasupo also said that the group has witnessed an unprecedented surge in the number of Nigerians coming to get registered.
He added that given that the nation has barely three weeks, they welcomed the news that INEC is considering extending the deadline for the registration.