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It’s week two of the
voter registration exercise. After one week of hitches some facts are
gradually becoming clear. The Presidency has acknowledged that the youth
corps members being used as ad-hoc staff were ill trained for the
exercise while INEC has admitted having various logistic challenges
including the failure of one of the DDC machine vendors to deliver on
time, which has led to incomplete deployment across the country.

Above all these
hitches however, it’s heartwarming to note the enthusiasm with which
Nigerians have embraced the registration process and how they troop out,
enduring all kinds of pressures daily to participate in it. The massive
campaign at all levels has helped in no small way in getting the word
out and in making the people appreciate the need to vote in the coming
election. Many youth groups have been in the forefront of this campaign
besieging the Internet and using all youth sensitive media to reach this
largest segment of the population, who from past records have shown
apathy and disinterest.

Very heartwarming
also is the fact that the clergy are gradually stepping up to the
challenge of contributing to nation building by encouraging their
congregation to partake in this very important civic duty. For long I
have particularly been irked by the silence of the more popular
religious leaders who control congregations that run into millions while
things went awry in the polity. No gain repeating what strong influence
religion has on our people and how the religious institutions remain
very key players in the effort to rebuild Nigeria.

I have heard and
read about a couple of such efforts. A Muslim friend told how the Imam
had concluded his sermon at last Friday’s Jummat prayers with a call on
the worshipers to register to vote. Efforts such the one by the good old
priest who said Mass at my Parish church last Sunday combine to make
the call for change and progress through the ballot box not just a civic
duty but in many ways a religious one as well and that in my opinion is
how best religion should serve the interest of the people in our time.

One such message
from Pastor Paul Adefarasin of the House on the Rock caught my attention
recently. For me it was the first time I would hear the rather reserved
gentleman speak on a national issue and the message itself drove home
the need for Nigerians of all tribes and creeds to register to vote in
the coming elections.

Naturally I was
impressed this was coming from a man of God but even more I felt it was
worthy of note that he had said quite unequivocally that creed should
play no part in the people’s choice of their leaders, instead the
virtues of integrity and competence should be sought for in the
candidates. He said: “Make religion and tribe irrelevant in Nigeria’s
2011 elections. Register and vote for competence and integrity.” I take
out two important words from his full statement which I must state
contained many other nationally enriching lines; Competence and
Integrity. The absence of these qualities has been the bane of our
country. For so long we have had leaders that were either ill prepared
for the office they found themselves in or that foisted themselves on us
through the power of the gun. And when we had a chance to elect, we
fouled the system and justified it with an “it’s our turn” or “he is our
brother” bias. Competence and integrity have thus far been very
unpopular virtues amongst our leaders but as a pair of virtues they
constitute a sine qua non for progress and good governance.

If we must make
progress, then we must grow above our ethnic and religious mindsets and
install a new order. In that context, is not enough simply to have
registered. For if we all fail to sieve the candidates properly and do
as we have done in the past, we will once again end up with leaders who
do not feel responsible to us and who certainly shall not deliver the
promises their manifestos bear. As I have stated elsewhere, poverty,
disease, bad roads, power outage and all the other issues we confront
daily do not know zones and neither do they worship God in a particular
way. They confront us all squarely.

Pastor Adefarasin’s call and indeed those of all other religious
leaders who have been making similar calls is indeed a welcome
development and couldn’t have come at a better time. As we endure the
inconveniences to register, let us have this at the back of our minds:
this time competence and integrity should be the basis for our votes. We
can’t afford to do otherwise.