The declaratory judgment by the Federal High Court in Abuja directing that the Independent National Electoral Commission to henceforth conduct Continous Voter Registration till 90 days before Election is nothing but an Academic exercise having been arrested by time.
Legal Practitioner and Communications expert Fassy Yusuf disclosed this while reacting to the Judgment on Continous Voter Registration delivered by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday.
Mr Yusuf said the Court having seen that the matter before it has been arrested by time gave the judgment to at least ensure that is done going forward.
The Judgment according to him is also coming late as a function of the fact it was not given a more accelerated hearing by the Federal High Court from the time it was first filed in July which was 7 months to the election.
He added that if it had taken one month between when the judgment was delivered and and when it was filed it would have taken effect.
He also called for an harmonisation of the various platforms where peoples particulars are domiciled in several different agencies which should be in one place.
He backed the call for the Continous Voter Registration to be treated like the Licence for drivers where you can just walk in into any INEC office and register once you are of age.
He also talked about the limitations currently faced by Justices on the various Courts across the Country.
He said the Judiciary is battling with the same challenges the larger Nigerian Society faces.
He added that the nation currently has no clearly defined Electoral Court and that the current Courts have to handle the cases involving electoral matters at the same time as handling Other cases that may also be expeditious or time bound.
He described the issue of Continous Voter Registration as a cultural or attitude thing where most Nigerians wait till the last minute to rush to do any thing that is official and then complain about perceived inadequacies.
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