Most Nigerians believe that no government has come to power through credible election since 1999. The 2011 vote was an improvement on previous ones, yet had mixed reviews from observers. It failed to mitigate ballot stuffing.
Some polling units recorded the impossible – 100 per cent voter turnout, all of whom voted for a particular candidate.
Senior Correspondent, ISHAYA IBRAHIM, examines all the sides in the coming ballot.
The election in Nigeria in 2007 was rated the worst. The European Union Observer Mission (EUOM) insisted that it fell far short of basic international and regional standards for democratic elections.
Umaru Yar’Adua, who won the presidential vote, agreed with the report. “The April elections had flaws and shortcomings but it is significant that for the first time in our history, we had a civilian to civilian transfer of power,” he said.
Card reader, the game changer
This time the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is bringing sanity to the system. It claims that it has wiped millions of duplicated voters from the electoral roll, issued Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and installed biometric machines to stop multiple voting, nay rigging.
For the INEC, it is about time Nigeria got its first truly credible poll. It says the electronic voter authentication system, with the aid of smart card readers, will be deployed for the elections on March 28 and April 11.
The card reader can only read PVCs issued by the INEC, and any person who shows up at the polling unit without a PVC or with one not issued by the INEC cannot vote.
The technology will demobilise election riggers to some extent. It keeps a tally of all cards read, comprising details of all voters verified as well as those not verified, and transmits the information to a central INEC server via GSM data service.
Information transmitted to the INEC server will enable the commission to audit results from polling units. In this case, ballot stuffing will be restricted.
Card reader worked in Ghana
Ghana successfully used the card reader in its election in 2012. Its technology was even more sophisticated, as polling stations were equipped with fingerprint scanners.
The INEC says it has learned from the experience in Ghana where card readers suffered battery problems.
Kayode Idowu, spokesman for INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, said the commission has procured about 35,000 spare batteries “so that if, for whatever reason, there may be a challenge with the battery, one can replace it.”
Jonathan’s early moves for credible election
On April 28, 2010, two months after then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was elevated to Acting President (because of Yar’Adua’s ailment, the Senate invoked the doctrine of necessity), he ordered the then INEC Chairman, Maurice Iwu, to proceed on terminal leave with immediate effect.
Iwu’s tenure was originally to expire on June, 13, 2010.
Jonathan said his directive was in line with Section 155(1) (c) of the INEC Act, which stipulates that the chairman and members of the INEC “shall hold office for a period of five years” but renewable for another term of five years.
Reaction to Iwu’s sack
Muhammadu Buhari, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) presidential candidate in the 2007 election, said Iwu’s “removal is the best thing for this country but more still needs to be done to bring back confidence.”
The Action Congress (AC), which later became the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), also hailed Iwu’s sack.
Its National Secretary, Usman Bugaje, said: “The most important thing at the moment is that the person who will replace Iwu must be the one with good credibility, good record of probity, who has the commitment to love and serve this country.”
Jega enters with applause
Jega, the Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), was nominated by Jonathan as INEC Chairman on June 8, 2010.
A statement issued by the then PDP National Publicity Secretary, Ahmed Alkali, congratulated Jonathan and the National Council of State (NCS) “for this nomination of an erudite scholar, an accomplished administrator and a deeply committed patriot with a track record of integrity and national service.
“The PDP also congratulates Jega on this historic responsibility bestowed on him and believes that he will bring his wealth of experience as a notable political scientist to bear at this critical moment in the evolution of our democracy.
“By this choice of a neutral umpire, who was a member of the Justice Muhammadu Uwais-led National Electoral Reform Committee, the president has clearly demonstrated his commitment to enhancing the integrity of the electoral process.”
For the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), the appointment of Jega was “a birthday gift to Nigerians on the country’s 50th independence anniversary.”
NIPR President, Muhammed Abdullahi, said Jega “is the type of man Nigerians have been searching for such an assignment.”
A different tune in 2015
Jega’s problem, even though it was long kept under wraps, got to a head on February 5 this year when some close associates of Jonathan demanded his sack. The agitators included former Information Commissioner, Edwin Clark; former Anambra State Governor, Chukwuemeka Ezeife; and a stalwart of Afenifere, Femi Okunrounmu.
They alleged in a joint press conference that Jega was not the credible electoral umpire Nigerians thought of.
They said they had “authoritatively gathered with unassailable and incontrovertible evidence that [Jega], who was away in Lagos for an official engagement, through one of his national commissioners that represented him, met with select leaders of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), led by Ango Abdullahi, on August 20, 2014 where strategies and modalities for enthroning a president of Northern extraction through vote rigging were discussed and agreed upon.
“The meeting was sequel to an earlier meeting of the [NEF] held on August 16, 2014 at Arewa House, Kaduna, under the chairmanship of Yusuf Maitama Sule, where it was resolved that all avenues must be explored towards enthroning a president of Northern extraction in the forthcoming 2015 elections.
“In addition, Jega reportedly directed the release of PVCs in their catchment states to emirs, district heads and top politicians and not necessarily to the voters themselves, a situation that culminated in some voters being in possession of two to three PVCs.”
The group called for Jega’s sack and the repositioning of the INEC.
Jega’s denial of the allegation did little, as Jonathan’s foot soldiers continue to date, to keep his feet to the fire.
Buhari’s aide warns against Jega’s sack
Buhari’s spokesman, Rotimi Fashakin, said Jonathan should be prepared to contend with the whole world if he dares to sack Jega at this crucial moment.
“There are certain things that are spontaneous. They too know that. They have a whole mountain to climb,” Fashakin warned.
“Punch was very emphatic in its editorial yesterday (March 5) that whatever happens in terms of backlash with that infamous decision, the whole international community should hold Goodluck Jonathan accountable.”
Fashakin wondered why anyone would ask Jega to proceed on terminal leave at a time the country needs him the most to perform a crucial assignment.
Debate over card readers
On March 7, the INEC conducted a mock election using the card readers. The PDP said the technology has proved to be unreliable for the coming election.
“Our response to the emerging problems and challenges from Saturday’s testing of the card reader is ‘RES IPSA LOQUITOR’ – the fact speaks for itself.
“The PDP and indeed all well-meaning Nigerians await INEC’s official response and or its final decision after such defining challenges,” said Olisa Metuh, PDP spokesman.
Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke, said Jega has lost his integrity that had led to his being appointed INEC boss. “The facts are before us,” Imoke insisted.
“The testing of card readers yesterday (March 7) and the failure that still has not been addressed. The PVCs remain unprinted as we speak. The INEC has no right whatsoever to disenfranchise any Nigerian.”
Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, said despite Jonathan’s robust funding of the INEC, it is still ill-prepared for the ballot.
“In our own opinion, the INEC appears ill-prepared for the 2015 elections. For example, at the time the polls were shifted due to security concerns, over 23 million registered voters had yet to collect their PVCs and you know there are some countries with populations of about just three million,” Akpabio argued.
“Twenty-three million would amount to disenfranchising more than five West African countries in their own elections. It will be recalled that even [Jega] admitted on the floor of the Senate that over one million PVCs had yet to be printed in far away China.
“According to [Jega], the postponement was a blessing in disguise. How then can Nigerians reconcile the purported readiness of the INEC for the February 14 election with the testing of card readers more than a month after the postponement?”
The APC gave a cautious approval to the mock exercise.
Ekiti State APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said: “If the result achieved at the weekend is improved upon, we can safely say that the technology marks the end of over-voting and impersonation problems that dented the credibility of the nation’s electoral process leading to litigations that tasked contestants’ finances.
“It is incredible that accreditation for each voter is taking not up to one minute instead of about five minutes in the past exercises.
“Apart from eliminating multiple voting, it will encourage voters to vote for candidates of their choice without any fear of manipulation of results.”
The INEC gave itself a pass mark for the card reader test run. It claimed 100 per cent success in its objective of verifying the authenticity of PVCs presented by voters.
The INEC conceded that only 59 per cent of voters who turned out for the demonstration had their fingerprints authenticated.
But it allayed fears of disenfranchisement of voters, saying provision for manual validation has long been put in place for such cases.
Idowu clarified that the INEC, in agreement with registered political parties, provides in the guidelines for the conduct of the elections that where biometric authentication of a legitimate holder of a genuine PVC becomes challenging, there could be physical authentication of the person and completion of an Incident Form, to allow the person to vote.
