“Secondly, the issue of card reader, we just want to encourage INEC (it not easy to come up with a new innovation in a developing nation like this), to make sure that every THE Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), on Wednesday, raised a concern over the credibility of the forthcoming general election, maintaining that the polls may not be free, fair and credible if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fails to patch some loopholes.

Its president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, pointed out the issue of permanent voter card (PVC) distribution and the effectiveness of the card reader as major constraints that must be fine-tuned for free and fair elections.

Oritsejafor, who made this known while speaking at a one-day interactive session of key stakeholders in the Nigeria Project, with the theme: “Towards a Peaceful and Purposeful Political Transition in 2015,” organised by the Think Nigeria Christian-Muslim Movement, in Abuja, said those two areas must be looked into by the electoral body to have a credible election.

“I am concerned about two things; number one, this issue of PVC. I have heard it several times that there are many Nigerians who refused to collect their PVCs, but I beg to disagree, because I sampled views in my church, I pastor a small church in Warri with about 35,000 people.

“I asked them to show me their PVCs and I was shocked. Probably close to half of my congregation don’t have PVCs and I begin to ask question. I asked my pastors (I have about 100 pastors) to go out and ask people why they don’t have the PVCs?

“I discovered that many of them felt insulted that anybody will say that they registered and they don’t want to go and take their PVCs. They were asking my pastors, ‘why will I register and not go and take my PVC?’

“They said sometimes you see a lot of PVCs in a particular location, but the truth is that those PVCs don’t belong to the people in that location, and most people in that location come looking for their cards, but the card is somewhere else.

“I think, what the INEC can do is to publish the PVC they have, so that Nigerians can see it. So, if I don’t see my own, somebody that knows me can see my name and see the location where my PVC is, and, therefore, draw my attention to it.

one of those card readers work well, they should do everything possible to ensure they work.”

The CAN president maintained that the two dominant faiths; Christian and Muslim, were being practised in all most all the families in the country, stressing that for the country to move forward, the faithful must be committed to peaceful co-existence.

“If we are going to have a successful election, there must be confidence building and one of the ways to build that confidence is that both the Christians and Muslims must resolve to protect one another.

“The Christians in the pre-dominantly Muslim areas must not be killed and the Muslims in the pre-dominantly Christian areas must not be killed.

“We must make commitment to each other that Christians are saved in the Muslim dominated areas and also Muslims are saved in the Christian dominated areas.

“Also, in our places of worship, we must also make commitment here today that we will go back and begin to emphasise to the people in every sermon (because most of us here in this hall are preachers and if you are not, you are a politician) that Christians are safe everywhere, Muslims are safe everywhere,” he said.

Also speaking at the event, the President-General of the Supreme Council of Islamic Preachers in Nigeria (SCIPIN), Sheikh Muhammad Bn-Ahmad, noted that the process of moving a nation with multi-ethnic groups and religions like Nigeria forward is non-stop, adding that everybody must work together to strengthen the unity of the country.

“Two major problems currently threatening the corporate existence of the Nigerian nation are that of religious extremism/intolerance, as well as subterranean forces working to break-up Nigeria into those previous pieces and ethnicities that were amalgamated in the past 100 years.

“I call on all Nigerians, especially the political class, to eschew inflammatory statements and actions that are capable of firing the ember of suspicion, mistrust and enmity among the peace loving citizens of Nigeria,” he said.