Nigeria's electoral system is in dire need of reforms to curb wasteful spending and improve voter participation, according to findings presented by YIAGA Africa at the launch of its voter turnout report in Abuja. Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo , highlighted the staggering financial losses incurred due to low voter turnout. He noted that in the 2023 elections, 93 million registered voters received ballot papers, but only 27% participated, leaving over 500 million sheets unused. “These billions of naira could have been allocated to healthcare, education, and business support instead of being wasted on unused ballot papers,” Itodo told reporters at the launch of the voter turnout report. He advocated for scrapping the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) requirement, arguing that the Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) already maintains voter records. “It doesn’t make sense that we’re still using PVCs when the BVAS contains the voters register. Many Nigerians wer...
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, a lawmaker representing Abia Central Senatorial District, has appealed to former Military Head of State General Yakubu Gowon to write a memoir and document his firsthand account of the 1966 coup led by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu. The fallout of the infamous coup, controversially referred to as an " Igbo coup" by some citizens, has continued to divide opinions in the country. This is coming amid the revelation of another former Head of State, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), in his recently released autobiography in which he documented his version of what transpired in the bloody coup. IBB's account countered the long-held narrative that officers who carried out the coup were largely of Igbo extraction, and they deliberately killed leaders of other majority ethnic groups. ALSO READ: He just had to go - Babangida explains why he overthrew Buhari's regime Babangida explains that while Nzeogwu was Igbo by ethnicity, he was born and raised in...