President Muhammadu Buhari’s Monday declaration of his intention to seek reelection in 2019 is not sitting well with some would-be voters in Lagos.
Recall that mixed reactions had greeted the president’s announcement of his second term ambition across the globe, with the New York Times querying why Buhari was seeking reelection at 75 years.
According to reports emanating from some Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) registration centres in the state, since the president’s declaration, there has been a spike in the number of potential voters thronging the centres to collect their permanent voter cards (PVCs) in order to vote in the 2019 general election.
A source who asked not to be named disclosed to The Herald Nigeria that majority of would-be voters at a centre in Yaba area of the state claimed that they were seeking to collect their PVCs in order to vote out Buhari in 2019.
The source disclosed that his wife witnessed the brouhaha when she went to register in the ongoing continuous registration exercise.
He said, “My wife’s name is Jennifer. She was at the INEC office near Yaba and around that location, they have a place where people go to collect their cards, do voter cards replacement and the like.
“She noticed that the queue was very long for those kind of people.
“The hall overflowed capacity and when she made enquiries, they said that it was based on people trying to get their cards. And this was immediately after Buhari declared.
“From interviewing one or two people, they said they wanted to see how Buhari’s going to win in 2019; that all of them were going to get their voter’s cards.
“They were even arguing that how can Kano have 11 million voters and they say that the whole of the South East only has 8 million voters.
“These were some of the things she heard.”