INEC: Bracing for future polls

At a post-2019 polls review meeting in Lagos, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof Mahmud Yakubu reiterated the agency’s determination to learn from past mistakes and conduct hitch-free elections in the future. GROUP POLITICAL Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU reports.

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, has reiterated the determination of the agency to improve on future elections.

He said the envisaged improvements would be noticeable in the proposed governorship polls in Kogi and Bayelsa states on November 16 and the first post-2019 by-election holding in a constituency in Plateau State, which became necessary following the death of the legislator-elect.

Describing elections as a collective responsibility involving all stakeholders, Yakubu said the electorate, political parties, politicians, security agencies, electoral officers and the media have roles to play to ensure credible exercise.

He noted the recommendations of the foreign observers, including the Commonwealth Observers’ Group and European Union (EU), pointing out that, while certain aspects of their recommendations can be addressed administratively by the commission, other suggestions can only be addressed through legislation by the National Assembly and other agencies.

Yakubu spoke at the INEC post-2019 General Elections Review Meeting with the Media in Lagos, where participants brainstormed on critical challenges confronting the electoral system and how they can be resolved by the INEC and other stakeholders.

The six challenges identified include the procedure for accreditation of media organisations and reporters, access to information on INEC and its officials before and on election day, adequacy and effectiveness of public enlightenment and voter education, conduct and experiences of voters on election day, especially people living with disabilities and other vulnerable persons, voter turnout, conduct and experiences of party agents, security personnel, candidates and political party chieftains, collation and declaration of results, fake news and hate speech.

The meeting also deliberated on the INEC responsibilities, number of political parties, campaigns by candidates and political parties, prosecution of electoral offenders, legal framework and election technology.

Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Sam Olumekun lamented that INEC was being blamed for many situations beyond its control, including vote buying, violence, violation of nomination guidelines by political parties, unmindful of where the country was electorally in 1999 and feats achieved by the commission.

The National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education, Festus Okoye, said since INEC lacked its own radio, television and printing press, it will always rely on the media for information dissemination to Nigerians.

Acknowledging the push for constitutional amendment in aide of the electoral process, he observed that while it is necessary to amend the law, it is a mistake to think that it is capable of resolving allthe challenges.

He said to ensure a credible process, stakeholders must rise to the occasion by maintaining fidelity to the electoral laws.

Okoye said further debate was required on the adequacy of the constitutional framework for the registration and regulation of political parties.

He also said the searchlight should be beamed on the time frame for the adjudication of pre-election matters by the court before the election.

Other issues which the INEC commissioner said were worthy of review included the need for exclusive court jurisdiction on pre-election matters by a court, declaration of results contrary to the law, consideration for electronic voting and combination of electronic and manual voting, and the setting up of separate electoral commission for electoral cases.

The President of Guild of Editors, Funke Egbemode, who was represented at the review, complained that security agents were fond of harassing journalists on electoral duty.

She raised some puzzles: “How do we handle political parties that are fond of endorsing candidates of other parties? How do we curtail the do-or-die attitudes and desperation of politicians to win, which leads to violence? How do we handle cancelation of voting due to violence since politicians will like to disrupt election where they are not strong?”

The Chairman of Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos State branch, Dr. Qazeem Akinreti, who reflected on the pre-election challenges, said when parties nominate candidates in error, INEC should not uphold the error.

Noting that some aspirants may be excluded from the intra-party selection process, he said the agency should consider the option of independent candidacy.

Yakubu said INEC is committed to implementing the recommendations by the observers. However, he maintained that some of the recommendations cannot be implemented by administrative action by the electoral agency. He reiterated that the implementation will require collaborations other institutions, particularly the National Assembly.

Yakubu said: “If we want unimpeded access for the media, we need to talk to security agencies. If a politician complains of lack of access to a state owned media, we have to speak with the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), which is the regulator.”

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There are aspects that require amendments to the Constitution and the Electoral Act, so we have to work with the National Assembly. Some may require enhanced voters education and we have to work with the media.

Yakubu said the commission consistently said that the conduct of party primaries for the 2019 general elections was the most acrimonious in the history of elections.

He added: “We have issued 87 Certificate of Return in obedience to court order also confirms what we have been saying about the conduct of primaries by political parties. And the fact that we have so far 809 court cases challenging the conduct of primaries by political parties more than the number of court cases challenging the outcome of the main election itself,.”

On violation of internal democracy by parties, he said: “We started seeing a trend beginning with the Anambra governorship election. Parties conducted their primaries in Awka and we monitored the primaries. But, by the time they submitted their nominations, we discovered that two parties changed the names of those who emerged from the primaries as they were bringing the list from Awka to Abuja.

The chairman said the Professors on electoral dud, must embrace computer knowledge. He said: “We will look into this and ensure that they are competent with figures. We have been encouraging them to use the Excel sheet and in virtually every collation centre, we have this facility. So, you don’t even need to be racking your brain and using ordinary calculators to calculate election results. The Excel sheet will add things up for you, including marginal lead and cancellation.

In Yakbu’s view, the biggest reform required in our electoral process, which incidentally cannot be legislated, is attitudinal change. He stressed: “Our concern is where mistrust is induced by people, who would say that the best thing to ever happen to Nigeria since 1914 is INEC, when they win an election. But, where they don’t win, they say the worst thing that happened before Lord Lugard is INEC. That was why I said we need attitudinal change and that attitudinal change cannot be legislated.

How is the commission bracing for the challenge of conducting polls in “Special areas?” Yakubu said:

The problem of terrains in Nigeria is not only limited to Borno State or the North, but virtually everywhere. I’ll give you an illustration of that. In 2016, we conducted an Area Council election in the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) which is the only place where INEC conducts local government elections. I was under the assumption that everywhere in Abuja was like Wuse, Garki or Maitama. I didn’t realise that there are parts of the Federal Capital Territory which are not even motorable. So, we had to engage the association of Okada riders to move election materials.

People didn’t know that we were using the Okada’s to navigate the villages. In Bayelsa, for example, I think its only parts of Sagbama, Yenagoa, Ogbia and parts of Kolokuma/Opokuma that you can actually go by road. How do you get materials to Brass, Ekeremo, Oporoma the capital of Southern Ijaw and Nembe? Not only that; you have security issue added to it. We had to hire boats.

Even in Ondo State, how do you get to Ilaje? It’s always a sore point making a declaration of election result in Ondo because results from Ilaje will always come last. In the last governorship election in Ondo, we decided to do something different. We insisted that results must be brought to Akure, the state capital, no matter how late. We arranged with the Navy and they provided escorts. So, the kind of things we go through getting to the villages to conduct elections and getting the results out can only be appreciated by those who are involve.

I think we may consider the suggestion that journalists should be embedded in the conduct of elections in the riverine areas, so that they would see how elections are conducted in those areas. I only hope they will have the stomach to go to a place like Oporoma, where you spend hours on the open seas trying to get to polling units. Remember, this is the biggest logistical undertaking in this country, to get to over 176,000 polling units and to make sure that they open at 8.am nationwide, it’s a big issue given the state of infrastructure in the country.

I recall that the Ministry of Information did something about the fight against insurgency in Borno State. I remember that one of the journalists tweeted after a helicopter tour of Sambissa forest that ‘the forest is six times the size of Lagos State. But the impression we get sometimes is that is just like the size of a football field, so all we need to do is to just send a plane and bomb everyone back to their senses.’ This is not to say that every challenge does not have a solution.