The exercise began in Katsina on Wednesday where members of the Coalition held a lecture and a public procession to sensitise residents of the state capital to the PVC.
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Coalition, Dr Nastura Sharif, told newsmen that the exercise was being carried out because of the need to encourage more residents of the nineteen northern states to obtain the PVC ahead of the forthcoming general election.
He said the exercise started in Katsina State following observation that the state lagged in the number of electorates who had collected their PVC.
Sharif stated, “We are carrying out the sensitisation on the PVC in the nineteen northern states including Abuja. We are starting in Katsina for two reasons. First, we observed that Katsina came second in the last presidential election.
Second, Katsina State came almost second to the last in voter registration. So, we believe we should begin from Katsina, then Kebbi, then Yobe, until we go around all the nineteen northern states.
“Actually a lot of people have lost hope in our democracy because of what they had gone through since 2015, in terms of insecurity; in terms of hardships. But what we are telling them is that with their PVC, they can choose good leaders.
“We believe that with constant enlightenment, more and more people will come out to register and participate in the choice of good leaders in Nigeria.
“It’s true we have to elect our leaders. But the problem is, in as much as we continue to collect money from politicians before we vote for them, we shall continue not to have good leaders.
“Let us use our PVC to elect leaders based on competence, good character and good personality, whether their political parties are big or small.”
Notable personalities including a cleric, Mallam Muhammed Jibia, and an activist, Muttaqha Darma, among others, had earlier addressed the gatherings where they implored residents of the state to collect their PVCs and elect candidates based on merit and not because of financial inducements.
Members of the Coalition later held a brief procession to sensitise Katsina residents to the need to collect the PVC.
