2023 General Elections: My PVC is not for Sale

Article: My PVC is not for Sale.

Just as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is distributing Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to all voters for the coming general elections, some politicians and their agents are looking for ways to compromise the judgment of voters for selfish reasons.

They have been going about for inducement of the people with various expendable items, such as bags of rice, yam, and cash gifts. All of these are meant to compromise the electoral process and make voters choose the wrong choice.

But, as a note of warning, my PVC is not for sale. It is my personal commodity to exercise my franchise. It is to effect change and make me contribute to the progress and development of the country. It is my power, voice, and instrument to either say “no” or “yes” to people wanting to govern my country.

I will use it to change the powerless and crawling economy and support a productive, vigorous and censored economy. These are part of the changes my PVC can do; that’s why it is not for sale.

Just as I make this vow not sell my PVC, I expect many youths to do the same. It is our privilege and chance that will either make us better or bitter after the election, depending on how we use it. We all crave for sound and qualitative education and want to leave school as employable graduate. We must use our PVCs to do this.

Also Read: Presidential Election 2015: Who will Salvage Nigeria Education?

Our PVCs are our identities. They identify us as patriotic and visionary, who will rather vote for the future than cast our future out of the votes. That is what our PVCs can do and that is why it should not be up for sale.

If we see our neighbours trying to sell their PVCs, we must tell them that their PVCs are their passports and visas to a safe country. They can make their dreams come true and take them to the place of their dreams. That is what their PVCs can do and that is why it should not be for sale.

Beyond the physical PVCs in our hand, there is a PVC, which money cannot afford; it is our person and conscience.  It is our conscience that tells us what business to do with it. It teaches us to share the profits for today and tomorrow. Why will we then declare a state of emergency on our persons and conscience because of money?

Money is simply a servant; we need it to work for us and our vision. Our conscience is the passage that cuts across both. Why do we need money if it is not to get what we want?

Nigeria has been yearning for manifestation of good signs. Never have we had an opportunity like this to sit in the examination hall of history to make a choice between prosperity and poverty. Whatever we tick in this examination will either bring us to good and prosperous four years or another period of tribulations. It is a critical period for us, but it is more critical for the generation ahead. Whatever we tick will give rise to a new country for our unborn generation or present a poverty-stricken jungle to them.

We all must make up our minds to be part of the history. Our actions today may bring a true nation for us tomorrow. If we don’t want our tomorrow as youths not to be traded off today, we must act and make a good choice today.

Nigeria is worth living for, but it is not worth dying for, because there is no need to die for Nigeria before Nigeria can be great. If death brings birth, Abraham Lincoln needed not intervene in the American

Civil War, but he did because there is tremendous power in a people alive in unity. It brought a trembling development despite diversity.

Nigeria will live, and as youths we shall not die but live to realise the promises of generations that will come after us. I am proud to be a Nigerian. Are you?
Opeoluwa Sonuga wrote for Nation Newspaper

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