Chief Chekwas Okorie, the founder of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has raised alarm over the inactivity of Ndigbo in the ongoing Continues Voter Registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
in an open letter he addressed to Ndigbo — as the national chairman and convener of Igbo Agenda Dialogue (IAD) — titled, ‘2027: Auspicious Opportunity for the Igbo to Reclaim their Political Space in Nigeria’, Chief Okorie regretted the performance of Ndigbo in the ongoing exercise.
“The INEC portal remains open for online continuous voters registration. Sadly, findings show that the Southeast is still trailing behind other geopolitical zones by a wide margin,” he said.
He recalled the 2023 election, regretting that while Ndigbo had more than eleven million registered voters, only 2.2 million participated in the exercise.
“The results of the 2023 elections published by INEC showed that the number of registered voters in the Southeast geopolitical zone was 11.5m, and the number of voters who participated in the presidential election was 2.2m.
“In spite of the fact that the Southeast recorded the least number of registered voters per geopolitical zone, the matter was worsened by the fact that a whopping 9.3m registered voters did not participate in the 2023 presidential election. We cannot continue to do this to ourselves,” he said.
The former chairman of APGA, meanwhile, said the leadership of Igbo Agenda Dialogue (IAD) had embarked on advocacy to promote political consciousness among the Igbos, with intent on non-partisanship.
According to him, the advocacy, aimed at ensuring Ndigbo record massive success in not only the voters registration but participate fully in the next election, would be in partnership with monarchs, women groups, civil society groups and student unions, among others, championed through town hall meetings etc.
“The leadership of the Igbo Agenda Dialogue (IAD), in active consultation and collaboration with a network of Igbo stakeholders, extant Igbo unions, associations, women organisations, youth groups, civil society and pro-democracy organisations have agreed to embark on proactive and robust advocacy to promote Igbo political consciousness on a non-partisan basis.
“The effort will include, but is not limited to town hall meetings to be held in major cities across the length and breadth of Nigeria. IAD has incorporated and established a functional office in the United States of America to coordinate and engage the vast Igbo diaspora population.”
Chief Okorie revealed that the target is to ensure that by the end of the voters registration, the South East geopolitical zone would have at least 20 million registered voters and 15 million registered Igbo voters in other parts of the country.
“We have set for ourselves the modest, realizable, and measurable target of ensuring that by the end of the ongoing window of the continuous voters registration exercise, the Southeast Geopolitical zone should be able to record an impressive figure of 20 million registered voters. In the same token, we project to mobilise about 15 million aggregate numbers of Igbo registered voters in the rest of the country.
“We are confident that with a minimum of 35 million Igbo voting bloc for the 2027 general elections, Ndigbo will be on their way to Igbo political resurgence and restoration of our long lost relevance and respect in Nigeria,” he said.
Chief Okorie challenged Ndigbo to leverage the current innovation whereby registered voters could change their polling unit online, saying the innovation had removed the challenge of disenfranchisement.
“Again, it is now possible for already registered voters to change their earlier registered polling units to their preferred polling units online for ease of voting on election day.
“This innovation has effectively removed the incidence of disenfranchisement by INEC officials or agents.”
Meanwhile, he listed the consequences of voter apathy to include “Self-denial of one’s inalienable rights to participate in the recruitment of your preferred representative, governor and president and at all levels.
“Refusing to vote in the election means that you have inadvertently and unwittingly voted for the person or persons you ordinarily would not want to represent or govern you.
“In the likely event of a referendum or a plebiscite for self-determination, state creation, or the recall of a failed representative, only those with their valid voters cards will be eligible to participate in such crucial events.
“In the absence of a credible population census, it is the quantum of votes recorded by the Igbo that will be the yardstick to weigh Igbo political relevance in Nigeria.
“Igbo participation in the recruitment of elected leaders where they are domiciled anywhere in Nigeria immediately becomes their bargaining chip in making claims and demands for patronages and inclusiveness in those places.”
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