With barely one month to the 2023 elections, Nigerians are uncharacteristically upbeat and hopeful, mainly because of the BVAS technology. NESH Foundation, a not for profit, non-governmental organisation as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is sensitising Nigerians across board. In this exclusive interview with IKECHUKWU AMAECHI, Mr Emeka Ugwu-Oju, founder of NESH Foundation says getting the 2023 elections right will be the beginning of a new and better Nigeria. And he is confident that Nigerians will have their day in the Sun not only because majority of them want a clean break from the status quo, but also because with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), power is now in the hands of the people.
You are the founder of NESH. What is it all about?
NESH is an acronym which stands for Nigeria and Entrepreneurship, Summit and Honours. That is where you get the NESH from and of course, it is a Foundation. So, the full name is NESH Foundation. It is a not for profit organisation whose key objective is promoting, supporting and celebrating Nigerian entrepreneurship.
Why is it necessary to have such a foundation now?
NESH Foundation didn’t just start. It is about seven years old. And we believe we have made a whole lot of difference since we came into existence. In the area of advocacy, I think our roundtables in the different sectors that we are focusing on for now have really been quite impactful and based on the sort of people that are participating in our roundtables, people who support our roundtables, that tells us that Nigerians value what NESH Foundation is doing.
As at now, we have roundtables in the area of what you might call small and medium enterprises, under the brand of our annual conference for Nigerian young entrepreneurs. Then we have a roundtable on health, oil and gas, and the maritime sector. Probably our next roundtable would be the agriculture sector.
Is NESH Foundation playing any role in the 2023 elections?
Recently, we issued a press statement, which, sort of, tells us where we are with regards to the 2023 elections. The main focus of our Foundation is on Nigerian entrepreneurs but based on how things are at the moment, Nigeria is at the crossroads and if things are not done right, we might not have a Nigeria. So, we might even lose our name – Nigeria and Entrepreneurship.
So, that led to the situation whereby we looked at the different persons and said yes, we have a role to play in the sense of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in ensuring that we engage Nigerians on how we see things and the role the 2023 elections will play in helping to get Nigeria on the right track.
That is how we came into the 2023 elections – reaching out to Nigerians to say, hey, you just have to get the country right. And following that, we came up with “A New and Better Nigeria is Possible,” which is like a theme resulting from something that happened on October 1, 2022. You know Pastor Poju Oyemade has this his Platform which he holds on May Day and October 1 and it has been on for the past 15 years.
So, on the 15th anniversary, we focused on how Nigeria can really get it right and it aligns with our vision and that theme was a better Nigeria is possible. And he brought ten excellent presenters who viewed things from different perspectives and all showed a roadmap and how we can get a better Nigeria.
But one thing that runs in that roadmap is that leadership is very important and they also focused on the need to get the leadership right and what the next set of leaders out of the next elections would focus on. So, NESH Foundation took its time to get the key takeaways from the Platform and got it to be part of a special feature which we published and it has been in our annual publication called the NESH Gallery and we are trying to ensure that as many opinion leaders in Nigeria as possible in all the 774 local governments get a copy of the publication.
A new Nigeria is possible seems to be the campaign slogan of a particular presidential candidate. Are you in an alliance with any candidate?
Our slogan is a new and better Nigeria is possible. And as I said, the core theme comes from the Platform, which is a better Nigeria is possible. So, we just added “a new” to the “better Nigeria is possible.” May be, the party that has “a new Nigeria is possible” sees what Platform sees or Platform sees what they see. But for us, we think that a new and better Nigeria is possible.
So, NESH Foundation is non-partisan. Whatever we are doing as a Foundation is not in alignment with any political party. But of course, as an individual, I might have a preference for a particular candidate but that is not what I discuss publicly because that is personal.
Talking about the 2023 elections which is barely one month away, are you satisfied with the way things are going? Do you think that enough preparations have been made by those who will superintend over the conduct of the elections?
From what I see, a lot of people are looking into the elections and some people have issues here and there. But of course, just like the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, said during his appearance at the Chatham House in London that Nigerians should be rest assured that they are going to conduct a free and fair election. But NESH, based on what we are, we are always looking at how we could help Nigerian entrepreneurs and we are situating the election with regards to the entrepreneurs, including the preparation.
And we noticed something, which is that we are losing a lot of man hours and also incurring a lot of costs like having people, even small and micro entrepreneurs in the markets closing the markets in their bid to go and collect PVCs. Ironically, from what we have seen, collecting a PVC should not take more than one hour for anyone who wants to collect it.
Unfortunately, the system we have in place has created an unnecessary bottleneck and it is an issue of interest to us that we now want to address and get Nigerians to know that collection of PVCs should not be a problems. And then we want to make sure that INEC adopts a system different from what we have now that will make sure that anybody who is registered and does not yet have his PVC, can get it without any hassle and does not spend more than an hour doing so. Unless there is an agenda of preventing people from getting their PVCs and I believe that is not what INEC wants.
Many Nigerians see the PVCs as the most important thing every registered voter should get hold of for the 2023 elections to be successful. Do you agree?
I am not really an expert but I will say that since 2002 or thereabout, I have been involved in one way or the other with the election process in Nigeria. A non-governmental organisation that I helped found years back, called Good Governance Group, for the 2003 elections was accredited as national election monitors by INEC and also we were accredited by the Police Service Commission as monitors for police personnel on duty. So, of course, from that time onwards, one got interested in what was happening and you also have your contacts in INEC and other places.
READ ALSO: Group urges INEC to distribute PVCs at polling booths on Election Day
But as at now, I am not really active and I am not going to be a monitor in this election. But that also means that I take interest in the processes and if I have grey areas, at least I could call someone at INEC and say, what is this and what is that. Like my good friend I saw the other day – Mike Igini, the former INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom. We chat all the time.
That said, let me even start by asking, what is a PVC? It is Permanent Voter Card, which is more like an identity card just like any other identity card whether it is Drivers Licence, International Passport, etc. So, PVC really has no use in the electoral process except in terms of identification which could be any other means. And I believe many Nigerians don’t really get it. They think the PVC has a role in the voting process. It has zero role as far as actual voting is concerned. Its only role is in terms of getting you access to say okay, before we give you election materials, first come in let us know you.
But in the actual voting process and in the actual identification of the voter, the PVC has no role because identification via accreditation is based on biometrics and that is your fingerprints and facials. That is how a voter can be identified and not that piece of card called PVC. So, PVC is of no use with regards to being identified as a voter.
For instance, let me just break it down. If you come to a polling booth, you have your PVC and then the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) does not recognise you, definitely, you cannot vote. You have your PVC and you come to the polling booth and say, I want to vote, I have my PVC, you will not be allowed to vote unless you are accredited through the biometric process. So, the means of really identifying a voter and accrediting the voter is the BVAS, the PVC has no role in it. There is nowhere you can swipe your PVC and it accepts you. No! It is your thumbprint or fingerprint and then your facials that are necessary.
Isn’t the BVAS designed to read the Permanent Voter Cards and authenticate voters? So, are you saying that with the introduction of BVAS, the PVC is not as important as people, including INEC, are making it to be?
For the voting system itself, with the introduction of BVAS, PVC has no role. I believe that why we are talking about PVC is because maybe when they were drafting the Electoral Act, the lawmakers didn’t really understand the processes very well and then they said you need to have your PVC. I believe that after this election, that clause will be removed from the Electoral Act. What it will now say is any means of identification that will get you through the door but the actual identification for voting is by your biometrics.
Well, right now INEC is making heavy weather of the task of PVC collection. Is there any way the process could be made easier?
It is so unfortunate that maybe INEC didn’t think through the process of distributing the PVCs. The real work was really in terms of registering whereby somebody has to collect your fingerprints, facials and they have to have an equipment to be able to do that. Now, for collection of PVCs, you don’t need any equipment. You have just printed a bunch of cards and then people should come and collect them. The card has your name and your picture, so you can see the person and identify him or her as the same person whose picture is on the card or ask the person to produce the slip or whatever he or she was given at the point of registration.
The problem lies in the fact that INEC registered all these people and has only one point of collection per local government. People have to go to their local government headquarters and there will be a crowd. And of course, when there is a crowd, some people might want to take advantage of that. So, we know what happens in such circumstances, the process becomes cumbersome, and that is where we now say there are options.
The first option is that before the election, instead of going to the local government, make sure that on a non-working day, the PVCs are brought to each polling booth. It could even help people locate their polling booths. I don’t think there is any polling booth that has more than 500 people and we know that a substantial number already have their cards, so we might be talking about each polling booth having a 100 or 200 PVCs that people will collect. It won’t take an hour for people to collect their cards unless the person doesn’t want to.
INEC might say there are some cost elements and we can really cost it and know whether the opportunity cost of losing so much man hours and even not collecting the PVCs is greater than ensuring that some people are paid for an hour or two and prospective voters know when to go and collect their PVCs.
In any case, based on what I see, INEC doesn’t even have to pay for that. State governments are declaring work free days and if we are looking at our productivity, a fraction of what they are losing on those work free days will pay for the stipends of people who will be needed to go to the polling booths to distribute the cards. So, that is one option.
But the other option which is even my preferred option because it is very efficient, cost effective and also easily verifiable is that of ensuring that the PVCs that have not been collected are brought to the polling booths on the day of election and voters who are supposed to vote in that polling booth will come, pick their cards and go and vote without any hassles.
Now, some people might express fears that: “If I don’t have a PVC and I come to the polling booth hoping to pick it up there and INEC doesn’t bring my card, that means I will not vote.” That also can easily be handled. It is just like saying that they didn’t bring ballot papers to the polling booth.
My suggestion to INEC, I mean for now, is that since they are doing something up until January 29, they should continue. But from January 29 to the Election Day, do you know what they ought to do? All the uncollected PVCs should be documented for each polling booth and there is a verifiable record, which is available to the public that this is what is available that has not been collected. And on the day of the election, if those ones are not brought, then it means that something that shouldn’t happen has happened and it can easily be dictated.
Then what do you do about it? It is the same thing that should happen when you don’t bring to the polling station BVAS and voting materials. So, even political parties will know the number of PVCs that have not been collected at the polling station and then independent monitors will know and on the day of the election, if 50 cards have not been collected, on that day 50 cards have to be brought. And then it tallies with the list that is already in the public domain.
Of course, if someone doesn’t want to vote, even if he has his card, he wouldn’t come out. But what shouldn’t be allowed is someone wanting to vote but doesn’t do so because he cannot get his PVC because of these bottlenecks which everybody is crying about and which shouldn’t have been if we had decentralised it to every polling booth.
What are your fears, if any, about the 2023 elections?
I am being optimistic rather than pessimistic. And that is why we are telling people that the power is now in their hands, they should come out and vote. And your vote, unlike before now, will count. If everybody comes out to vote, it will minimise all the other fears that could be encountered, including voter suppression and vote buying. Because with the current BVAS system, the only thing possible for those who know that they wouldn’t get the people’s vote is through voter suppression.
How will that happen? In areas where they think they are strong, they might just create the impression of violence and some people will be scared to come out and vote. The other one being using money to buy people’s conscience. But when a lot of people come out, it is not possible to buy everyone and from what I am seeing, a lot of people are not interested in being bought because they have seen suffering to the tenth power. And I think many Nigerians now want a change. So, I believe that if we all come out, and INEC delivers as they said they would, then, there is need to be optimistic.
Do you trust that INEC will deliver?
If they don’t deliver, we will see it and then we will go from there. What are they supposed to deliver? Just to make sure that the BVAS is brought and that it works at most of the polling booths.
From what I have seen so far, I am sure what INEC has also done is to tie its own hands with the BVAS because once the BVAS is working, it removes most of the elements of discretion that distort the electoral process.
They say they have enough quantities, hopefully, of the BVAS, so we just believe that they do to be able to conduct the election. Once the BVAS is working, we are going to have a relatively free and fair election.
What does the 2023 elections mean to you?
As a Nigerian and not only that, a Nigerian who belongs to what you might call the activist group, who wants a better country and who has benefitted a lot from the country, and wants a better country for those coming after us, I believe that this election is very important. If we get it right, that will be the beginning of a new and better Nigeria. And we all have to do what we have to do to get it right. So, in summary, my interest is just trying to give back to a country that has been good to me.
From what you have seen so far, do you think that Nigerians have a sense of what this election truly means?
That is the reason why we are, as our own contribution, I mean, other people are doing their own, but we are trying to sensitise Nigerians about the importance of the election. That is why as a Foundation, we decided to visit all the states in the country to amplify the importance of this election and why we should all get involved in the election and why we should also try and focus on how we can use the election to get the leadership of the country right at all levels.
Most of the problems we have in this country have been as a result of bad leadership. And this is an opportunity to get it right. Some say are we not the people that have been electing those bad leaders? I will give every voter the benefit of the doubt that prior to BVAS, the votes didn’t really count. We know how they do the elections. Once you have what they call the original result sheets, and then you have the structure to collect all the unused ballot papers – so where 100 people voted and there are 500 registered voters, you use the 400 that didn’t vote for your candidate. That is what has been happening before now.
So, that is why some people lost trust in the electoral process that the votes don’t count because you see a lot of people who voted this way but when the result comes out, it goes the other way. But with BVAS, you are determining your fate because the arithmetic is simple. In your polling booth, the result will be called and you know what the result is and every other polling booth becomes a matter of addition which is verifiable and traceable because all the voters have been accredited and there is proof that the voter actually came, collected a ballot paper and voted.
It is a different matter whether you voted in a manner that the vote is voided, maybe by thumb printing across lines or inscribing on the ballot paper whereby somebody could recognise that it is your vote. That makes your vote invalid.
So, as I said, we are pushing the information out there and with the media getting the message out there that this election is very important, the votes will count, therefore, let’s go and vote, I know people are getting the message and will do the needful because they have come to realise that BVAS is the game-changer.
