I had always nursed the idea of being part of an electoral process. The 2015 elections presented that opportunity and my being posted to the north for my national service year where a lot of people detested due to its history of post electoral violence didn't kill the desire in me.

So it was with enthusiasm that I took up the role of a presiding officer in a very remote Village about 3hrs away from a semblance of civilisation.

Tunga in Birbyang, Kanam local government is one locality not known to most natives of the same local government, but I had no choice than to take up the call of duty.

We left Dengi the LGA quarters for the locality at about 10pm with electoral materials and I was woken up when we arrived, electoral materials were shared among the adhoc staff of the 4 units in the rac into the morning and I was finally able to catch some sleep from about 3am on the 28th only to be woken up later at about 6am. We made some preps and rode into the village where we paid homage to the community head who promised us breakfast, we later left for the polling centre where we met a handful of people already waiting, the booth was setup and we settled for the business of the day.

The card reader failed with the first few people who where ready and we thought it was something we didn't do right, apprehension was mounting and I had to assure the people around that they were going to vote whether or not the card reader worked, giving away the fact that I spoke a bit of Hausa which I had fought so had to keep even from the native adhoc staff.

I had to take up the accreditation process myself whilst also monitoring the progress of the card readers as I had a voting point attached to the unit. Not sooner had the accreditation commenced that I noticed some obviously underage voter brandishing there PVCs, hoping to be accredited as well, it got to a head when they won't stop coming and even much younger kids came around with the PVCs, I declined pointing out they were too young only for the villagers to warn me to do what I came to do claiming that showing a PVC is enough requirement to vote. I then directed them to the voting point aware of the possible consequence of defying them even while trying to maintain a strong moral stance.

Seconds ran into minutes and then hours and the crowd kept mounting and with it more people who didn't have a business being there.

It was approaching 1.30pm and I knew I had to stop more people from joining the crew only for me to notice the complete absence of the security personnel posted to the unit, a situation that prevailed until the end.

I was getting exhausted and the crowd kept mounting, I had to allow my apo who happened to be a fellow corp member take up the process while I took a walk around. The crowd defied all forms of control and I had to count on the card readers running down to stop the process as they were determined that even those who have yet to come would still get accredited, my APOs were laising with the locals and handing out electoral materials meant to be handled only by officials to them and when I noticed and pointed it out, some youths were pointing fingers at me and on top of their voices and I had to quietely inform the elders who were apparently educated and that is wasn't about getting the highest number of votes, that it could count for zero if not properly handled, and same had to be communicated to the youths that I was raising pertinent points which was for their good. And they calmed down.