BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
With the successful conduct of the June 18 and July 16 governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States respectively, stakeholders have lauded the Independent National Electoral Commission for improving on its mandate of deepening democracy through the organisation of peaceful, credible, free, transparent, conclusive, fair and acceptable elections in the country.
As soon as the Ekiti and Osun polls were over, stakeholders including local and international observers, civil society organisations, political parties among others commended the electoral umpire for achieving the milestones as they noted that INEC has been changing the narratives as far as elections were concerned notwithstanding some low points which could be surmounted if adequate measures are put in place.
The Commission had before now been condemned by major stakeholders for alleged sharp practices, late arrival to polling units, and compromised postures of staff among other unethical acts before, during and after elections. The public almost lost hope on the umpire during the 2018 governorship election in Osun where the first ballot was declared ‘inconclusive’ to the amazement of many Nigerians.
But the narratives appeared to be changing and the commission is upping its game, especially with the introduction of technology into the electioneering system.
“In the face of hitches, the June 18, 2022 election was a milestone. The incumbent government sustained a conducive, peaceful environment. INEC was able to avoid technical hitches, the election materials arrived early, non-sensitive materials were deployed without hitches, and no snatching of ballot papers and no ballot stuffing while the ad hoc and INEC staff conducted the election with the highest sense of responsibility,” some right groups including the Nigerian Human Rights Community and Civil Society Coalition for Mandate Protection had said after the Ekiti gubernatorial poll.
The story was the same in Osun as the commission carried every stakeholder along in the process and at the end, they all expressed satisfaction at the conduct of the poll.
Election observers have argued that the arrest of a corps member serving as ad-hoc staff to INEC, Orji Desmond Ikenna, and a staff of the Commission, Makanjuola Bilahu for allegedly selling Permanent Voter’s Cards to some politicians in the state and late arrival of INEC presiding officers at Owode-Ede in Osun State on the election day respectively, should not overshadow the commendable efforts of INEC in the large success of the just concluded poll in Osun State.
The credibility of the recent polls was largely aided owing to the deployment of technology in the electoral process by the commission, both as a matter of practice and a requirement of the law. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System was deployed in Ekiti and Osun for voter accreditation and uploading of election results on the INEC Result Viewing portal on the election days. Except for some fee hitches and malfunctioning of the BVAS machines, the device functioned well at major polling units of the states.
The electorate, politicians, United States Mission and observers including Yiaga Africa, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, Centre for Transparency Advocacy among others were excited at the early commencement of election in Osun State and commended INEC for the feat.
In order not to give chances to possible manipulation or alterations of sensitive materials, INEC shunned the Central Bank of Nigeria and flew the materials directly to its Osogbo headquarters under heavy security before they were dispatched to polling units. The decision not to store the materials with CBN, it was gathered, was not unconnected with the partisan disposition of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Upon the arrival of the materials, both sensitive and non-sensitive, agents of political parties, local and international observers gathered at the INEC headquarters in Osogbo to receive and confirm the electoral items. They all expressed satisfaction at the transparency of the electoral umpire.
Another point scored by INEC at the Osun election was the sense of belonging it gave to persons living with disabilities, women and the elderly. Right from when presiding officers and agents were trained, INEC had informed them of the need to give priority to this set of people at polling units.
“There was a brazen display of mechanisms to vote buying as each voter would publicly show their thumb-printed ballots to some political parties’ foot soldiers who have positioned themselves to reward voters financially afterward”
Checks by this reporter during the poll revealed that they complied.
Also, assistive devices were provided for PWDs to have a more pleasant voting experience on election day. Magnifying glasses, Braille Ballot Guide and Posters for voters with hard of hearing conditions were deployed at the polling unit level in areas of need based on data collected in collaboration with the PWD community.
INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, during a stakeholders meeting organised in the build-up to the election said, “Our revised Regulations and Guidelines provide for priority to be accorded at polling units to PWDs without waiting in long queues during voting as is the case with elderly people, pregnant women and nursing mothers. Beyond these measures, we also want to make PWDs get more involved in election administration like everyone else. In this regard, the 2022 Osun State Governorship election will also make history, being the first election in which INEC is deploying PWDs as ad hoc staff.
Thirty-five (35) serving NYSC members with one form of disability or another have been identified, trained and engaged as ad hoc staff at polling unit level.”
Checks by our correspondent revealed that elderly voters including nonagenarian men and women were accorded priority at polling units as they were offered seats before casting their votes.
Before the election day, Yakubu had supervised and monitored mock exercises to test the functions of BVAs and the level of preparations by his offices.
He also disclosed that enough Registration Area Technical Support Staff were trained and that adequate transportation arrangements were made for their rapid response in the event of reported glitches on Election Day, especially as it relates to possible malfunction of the machines.
Challenges and expectations in 2023
Notwithstanding the pockets of success recorded so far by INEC, stakeholders are still disturbed about the sanctity and general acceptability of polls in the country.
Civil Society Organisations, local and international observers, who reacted to the conduct of the poll in Osun expressed displeasure over the high level of inducements of voters before and during elections. They lamented that INEC appeared to be overwhelmed with rising vote-buying at polling units even in the presence of security operatives.
This reporter observed during the poll how security agents including the Nigeria Police, Department of State Security, Nigerian Army and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps looked away after sighting vote buying and selling activities around polling units in Osun. Also, voters’ secrecy at voting cubicles was desecrated as party agents and family members of voters were seen deciding for voters which political party to cast their ballot for.
There was a brazen display of mechanisms to vote buying as each voter would publicly show their thumb-printed ballots to some political parties’ foot soldiers who have positioned themselves to reward voters financially afterward.
These ugly discoveries were corroborated in separate addresses of Hussaini Abdu, the Board Chairman of Yiaga Africa, Ene Obi, the Convener of Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room and Faith Nwadishi, the Executive Director of CTA during their separate press conferences in Osogbo after the election.
They charged INEC to fashion out means of tackling these menaces which appeared to be clogs in the wheel of progress of the electoral body in achieving credible polls that would deepen democratic culture in the country. They said these and other observations were things that INEC should focus more on as the nation prepares for the 2023 general elections.
Unfortunately, politicians were only being hypocritical to vote buying and inducements as they would publicly condemn the illegal acts but go underground to perpetuate them.
These anomalies also disturb INEC. Yakubu, during stakeholders’ meeting in Osogbo before the poll, identified vote-buying as the most difficult challenge confronting the nation’s electoral processes and expressed optimism that the Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal Bill which is currently undergoing consideration at the National Assembly would combat the illegal practice.
Yakubu appealed to the National Assembly to speedily conclude and pass the Bill into law. Addressing the gathering which included gubernatorial candidates and leadership of their political parties, Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi and other traditional rulers, top security echelon including the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba among others, the INEC boss lamented that some “retrogressive elements” were hampering the efforts of the commission through inducements and vote-buying.
He said, “There is a matter of serious concern to our elections. Here, I am referring to sundry violations of our electoral law, including the diabolical practice of vote buying in which voters are financially induced to vote one way or another. It is obvious that the more the Commission and other stakeholders work hard to progressively improve the quality of national elections in Nigeria, the more some retrogressive elements try to undermine the process.
“While we will continue to work with the security and anti-corruption agencies to confront this challenge, our effort will be given a boost by the establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal as recommended by the Uwais Committee in 2009, reinforced by the Lemu Committee in 2011 and the Nnamani Committee in 2017. Happily, the Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal Bill is under consideration at the National Assembly. INEC supports this initiative and appeals to the National Assembly for a speedy conclusion and passage of the Bill into law.”
Speaking in the same vein, the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Johnson Kokumo disclosed that the fact that vote-buying is being done in topmost secrecy has been a challenge to the force in nipping the menace in the bud.
Kokumo, the head of the police team deployed for the July 16 governorship election in Osun State and also the supervisory DIG for the South-West, said the force has its ears to the ground to arrest traders of votes during polls.
“What has been most worrisome to us in recent times is vote-buying. We have our ears to the ground. We want to appeal to members of the public to please make information available to us so that we can possibly swoop on those who are engaged in vote-buying and vote-selling. This, of course, is not good for our democracy. The problem we have in that area is the fact that vote-buying remains what is done in topmost secrecy, when money exchanges hands, it will be difficult to determine whether the money that has actually exchanged hands is meant to buy votes or for the selling of votes. But we won’t rest on our oars involving other means that would serve the purpose of ensuring that the buyers and the sellers are taken off the streets,” he said.
Aside from the challenges of inducements and vote trading, INEC has insecurity to confront in preparation for the general elections. There have been rising security breaches including terrorist attacks, jail breaks and release of hardened terrorists to the streets, and insurgencies in the North among others and these tragic happenings appeared to be insurmountable for the present governments.
For major and critical stakeholders including the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto and Convener of National Peace Accord, Most Rev Matthew Hassan Kukah, insecurity in the country will be a major threat and setback as INEC prepares for the 2023 polls.
Speaking during the Signing of Peace Accord by political parties and gubernatorial candidates in Osun State, Kukah said, “The rich harvest of deaths in Nigeria is a threat to democracy and preparatory to 2023 general elections” and called for urgent need by political actors in the country to curb growing violence and killings across the country.
“According to INEC’s reports, only about 40 percent of the 1.5million voters who collected their PVCs in Osun voted in the just concluded poll. Stakeholders have been displeased over this”
According to INEC’s reports, only about 40 percent of the 1.5million voters who collected their PVCs in Osun voted in the just concluded poll. Stakeholders have been displeased over this.
They called on INEC and other relevant organisations to urgently embark on aggressive and holistic voter education and sensitisation ahead of the general polls.
Kukah proffered reason for apathy saying that the suffering and frustration inflicted on ordinary Nigerians by the political class has remained the reason why Nigerians don’t vote during elections.
“We are not unaware of the fact that, as one of the campaign slogans says, you want to win from top to bottom, but the experience of ordinary Nigerians is that after winning from top to bottom, it is the top that seems to benefit and this speaks to the need and urgency of political actors to begin to focus on ensuring a much broader spectrum of opportunities available for our people. Because the persistence of violence in Nigeria is directly correlated to the tragic situations around which our people find themselves. The bottom of Nigeria is characterized by ordinary people who make up over 90 percent of the population.
“Our lives today are characterized by hunger, people are angry, people are dying, people are sick, children are out of school. The university students in Nigeria can be classified as out-of-school children, this is unacceptable, especially as I said that these things are happening in a democracy.
Democracy has always given us an opportunity for negotiations, consensus and so on. It’s tragic that the chairman of INEC is himself a professor, a lot of results are being announced by professors, it’s therefore not acceptable that after so many months, our universities are still closed.
“We must understand that without the Universities giving opportunities for academic energy and analysis and horizons, it’s impossible for our democracy to grow. So, the most important thing for political actors in Nigeria is that it’s time for us to take our responsibilities sufficiently seriously. We must therefore try to make democracy work,” he said.
The hard conditions Nigerians seeking to register and collect their PVCs are subjected to by INEC and its officials have been identified as one of the challenges the commission would have to tackle ahead of the general poll.
An election expert, Alex Asigbo said most Nigerians have not been able to register because of the crowded nature of PVC registration and distribution centres, lack of coordination and orderliness and insufficient devices to fasten processes.
He urged INEC to deploy more staff and machines to registration and distribution of PVC centres as the nation approaches general elections.
Following expensive sales of nomination and interest forms by political parties to individuals seeking political offices, Nigeria is said to be gradually moving from democracy to plutocracy.
Kukah lamented that Nigeria’s democracy is gradually turning to plutocracy where only the rich would participate in political processes as a result of heavy monetisation of political processes including selling of political interest and nomination forms at exorbitant rates and over monetisation of campaigns.
According to the fiery cleric, “Increasingly, we are witnessing our democracy moving from a democracy to a plutocracy. The sheer amount of money that is being shared not only for campaigns but just for picking up a piece of paper to declare the intention to participate. These things are not acceptable because the majority of our people remain hungry and sick and we cannot be flaunting this wealth in a democracy. Because if that is the system we wanted, we will call it plutocracy, which means only rich men and women can participate in a political process. There is a need to expand the frontiers of freedom to participate in the processes concerning our country.
“The urgency of fixing our nation is tied to the process we have chosen. I want to call on Nigerians, let’s go out and vote. Let’s go out and register because this is a civic duty that we must perform. I think that we are quite happy that somehow by a twist of faith, there is some energy that is being expressed,” he noted.
Stakeholders have expressed worry over the continuous disenfranchisement of essential workers during elections.
They have therefore challenged INEC to look into a way whereby essential workers such as INEC officials, security operatives, journalists, observers and other people deployed for election monitoring can vote even while carrying out their election duties.
An expert in election affairs, Remi Aiyede said, “I think it is high time we began to apply means of tackling this challenge of disenfranchisement in our system. If you watch, we have thousands of people deployed for election duties year after year and it is shocking that we have been disenfranchising these sets of Nigerians.
“So, I want INEC and other stakeholders to see it as a challenge that we need to address. INEC should be thinking of ways to ensure that election essential workers can vote even when they are performing their duties. This will further deepen our democracy and make everybody feel belonged in our electoral process moving forward,” he said.
