Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in this interview, speaks on sundry issues regarding elections, including the issue surrounding the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello’s alleged double registration. Enjoy…
Recently, INEC commenced the continuous voter registration exercise nationwide. How important is the ongoing exercise to the electoral process?
It is important to stress the phrase, ‘continuous voter registration’ because the credibility of any election is directly related to the credibility of the voter register. In turn, the credibility of the voter register is dependent, among others, on two factors. One, citizens must have access to the register of voters. Secondly, the register must be continuously updated.
The electoral act requires the commission to do a continuous voter registration exercise; meaning that it should be non-stop. As citizens attain the age of 18, they should have access to the registration centres. And those who could not register in the previous exercise should be able to do so.
We have had continuous voter registration exercises in the past. What makes the one you are currently undertaking different?
This is the very first time the commission is conducting a continuous voter registration exercise in the true sense of it. In the past, the exercise was tied to particular elections. With every election in this country until 2011, there was a new register of voters, so continuous was interpreted to mean intermittent, either fresh voter registration for elections or the register was updated for one week close to elections, but not continuously throughout the year. So for the first time, we said we would implement the provisions of the Electoral Act by conducting a continuous voter registration exercise. The exercise started nationwide on April 27 but at our local government offices.
The Electoral Act doesn’t state where the voter registration exercise should start, but we know that for the citizens to be granted access to their register, then it should be taken very close to where they live, meaning that we should take the registration to the doorsteps of the citizens as much as possible.
First of all, I underscored the fact that the continuous registration of voters is a legal process. Part 111, Section 9-24 of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) provide for the registration of citizens as voters, including criteria for eligibility, responsibilities of the electoral commission and sanctions for violations by both citizens and the umpire. Therefore, INEC’s responsibility is to ensure that, as much as practicable, citizens have easy access to the registration centres, taking cognizance of population, diversity, literacy level, income.
So, in my presentation to the FEC, I made it clear that to be able to do so, we considered three options based on the financial layout. The closest to the citizens is at the polling unit, so we thought that we could start the registration exercise at that level.
But what are the requirements for doing the exercise at that level? The Electoral Act states that we should register citizens who have turned 18 and provide an opportunity for citizens who had issues with their previous registration to clarify them. This may be in quite a number of ways, including those who registered but could not collect their PVCs, or those who registered and have their PVCs but the commission did not provide them, or those who have damaged their PVCs. To achieve that, we needed at least five registration officers per center; two would handle the machines while others would handle all the matters arising from the previous exercise.
At present, Nigeria has 119, 973 polling units nationwide, and to be able to do so, we require a minimum of five members of staff in each polling unit. Also, we always make provision for 5 per cent in case some are unable to turn up, and issues like that.
We realised that at the polling unit level, the INEC requires 629, 858 staff members, in addition to at least two security personnel per polling unit. On that basis, we require 239,946 security personnel. If we are going to pay them or the ad-hoc staff the sum of N2,000 per day; N1000 as honoraria, N500 for transport and N500 for feeding per day, the commission would require N1.2billion per day in allowance. For security, if we pay them N500 per day for feeding, we would require N119, 973 million per day.
In addition, you have what we call variable cost; that is the cost of consumables like ink, paper, forms, and then, we need to do publicity. For these activities, we require N4.1 billion. For data processing and publicity, we require N129 million for takeoff.
Then we have what we call the one-off cost; we have to buy direct data capturing machines (DDCs) equal to the number of polling units and for the exercise at that level. Given the number of polling units we have, we require 125, 972 DDC machines at N1million per set. A set means the computer, the printer, the fingerprint scanner, the webcam and other accessories.
We need power generators for each of the polling units at the unit cost of N300, 000 per generator, and that will come to N2.6 billion. So the total cost for the take-off of the exercise at polling unit level is N137.4 billion. The total budgetary provision this year for INEC for continuous voter registration is only N1.2 billion. So clearly, the financial layout for deploying all-year-round at the polling unit level is prohibitive. We looked at the second option, which is to register citizens at the ward level.
At present, we have 8, 809 wards nationwide, and we need 46,247 staff to deploy at that level. At N2,000 per day, that will come to N92.4 million in allowances.
For security personnel we need 17,618 staff, and at N500 per day we need N8, 809,000.
For the variable cost, we need N437.1 million, and for the one-off cost -the DDC machines, power generators and training, we require 17,618 machines. At N1 million per machine, that would be N17.6 billion. So the cost at RA level, just for the takeoff, is N21 billion, and based on the budgetary provision for this year, that one is also impossible.
So we looked at the third option, which is to start at the local government level. There are 774 local government areas nationwide, so we calculated the amount we require per quarter for the first three months of the exercise and it came to N463.2 million for the entire quarter at that level. This is because we require 464 staff members, and we have INEC workers, so they will work at the local government level without us having to pay them anything because they earn monthly salaries. We are also going use the same security men that secure our offices, so there is no cost in that respect.
But we have cost for consumables and power generators. We have the machines from the last exercise, so we don’t require additional machines. That now came down to N463.2 million. That is why we have chosen to start at the local government level, continuously on quarterly basis. This will continue until close to the next general election as provided by the Electoral Act.
What are the challenges you have encountered so far?
First of all, let me point out that before the commencement of the exercise, we discussed with all the relevant stakeholders. We had a meeting with the political parties, the media and civil society organisations, including security agencies.
There are challenges, even with the preferred option. The local governments are not close to many of the communities. Some of the local government headquarters are separated by considerable distance, so it becomes difficult for some of the prospective registrants to access the centres. Secondly, the machines we are using were the machines the commission purchased between 2010 and 2011. They are seven years old.
The average lifespan of a computer is four years, so they are very slow and epileptic. The registrants are complaining that sometimes it takes a long time to get registered.
Thirdly, we have the issue of power. Most of the local governments are not connected to the national grid, so the computers operate basically on generators.
We are also grappling with the problem of difficult terrains. Some of the places we deployed resources to are not easily accessible, so it becomes difficult for people to come from relatively inaccessible places to the local government headquarters for registration.
In some of the places, we have infrastructure problems. Our offices have been blown off, either by acts of thuggery or insurgency in some parts of the country, such that you have to hire canopies, tables and chairs for the purpose of the registration exercise.
Then there is the challenge of awareness. Because Nigerians are used to the registration taking place as elections approach, many people might have assumed that this is a fresh registration. So, some of them who registered before are coming to register again. We need to get this message across, that this is not a fresh registration. Anybody who registered before the 2015 general elections needs not register again. It is only for those who have not registered. So we need to step up on our publicity issues.
We also have overcrowded centres. Some of the centres are located in urban areas with large populations, so it takes quite some time to register.
We recognise these challenges and decided that instead of suspending the process, we should address them and continue for the first six weeks, after which we would convene a meeting of all our field staff to do a mid-quarter review of the exercise. Accordingly, we are doing the mid-quarter review on Wednesday this week in Kaduna. We are going to have a whole day retreat, at which we will harvest all the issues, the complaints, challenges from the field and chart a way forward.
With the challenges you highlighted, what do you think is the way forward?
We hope that in the first and second quarters of next year, we would have the resources to deploy to the ward level nationwide. After the mid-term review we will be able to look at how we would move further.
During a visit to the Chief of Air Staff, you requested for assistance to enable you airlift materials to some local government areas in Borno State. How successful would you say the exercise has been in areas affected by insurgency?
It has been very successful, in the sense that it does not apply to all the local government areas of Borno State. Initially, we thought only five local government areas were affected, but now, it is six. We approached the air force to help us airlift our staff and personnel to those places where the internally displaced persons have returned, but the retreating insurgents are mining the roads, so it is unsafe to drive there. The Air Force has been air lifting our staff to those places, but not every day. When they airlift, we do the registration for a period of one or two weeks and they go and bring them back. The Air Force is also helping us with supplies like paper, ink, computer toners, and faulty printers if we need replacement. The Army also helped to escort our staff to the local government areas that are accessible by road and to provide a measure of security at the polling units because a large number of people congregate in a particular place and they may be easy target. So far, the exercise is good in Borno.
Aside Borno State, how would you assess the exercise generally?
The exercise has been going on as well as it can at the local government level. The good thing is that we haven’t had incidents of disruption. The numbers are increasing by the week, but not as high as what we would have recorded if we had devolved to lower levels like the wards and polling units. But it is going on pretty well despite the issues and challenges I earlier highlighted. It is not going to end this week or next; it is a continuous exercise.
It was alleged that Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State engaged in double registration; can you throw more light on this?
We have already issued a statement on the incident and there is nothing more to add at the moment. Our Kogi office is investigating the role of our staff in the matter. The commission is awaiting the outcome of the investigation for further action.
But is there any likelihood that he would face prosecution at the end of his tenure?
This is not something one can comment on because it is dependent on whenever his tenure ends. For now, this is the action we have taken. Our constraint is that we cannot prosecute a serving governor. Let me reiterate that it is illegal to register more than once.
Apart from the Kogi State governor, have you had other cases of multiple registrations?
No, we haven’t. But at the end of the exercise we are going to have what we call d-duplication, where we would compare the data coming from the field with what we already have. It is only when we do this that we can authoritatively say some people have registered more than once. This one was detected because he is a high profile personality and it was on the internet.
When are you going to display the preliminary voters register for public scrutiny at the registration centres as statutorily required for claims and objections?
As part of the programme for this exercise, we said we would do the registration for three months; that is one quarter continuously. But the Electoral Act provides for a display of those registered between 5 and 14 days for claims and objections. We have dedicated the last week of each quarter for the display before we do the d-duplication and print the PVCs. So it is going to be on a quarterly basis. The last week of each quarter will be dedicated to claims and objections.
How are you handling the issue of internally displaced persons, considering that some of them were registered, but because of insurgency they lost their PVCs?
We have advised our staff in places where you have displaced persons not to register them again. First, they should go with the register and tick those whose names are already on the register but have lost their PVCs. All we need to do is to reprint their PVCs because they are already in our database. They are doing that in a number of places, particularly Borno, Yobe and parts of Adamawa.
How many Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) are yet to be collected by registered voters?
Unfortunately, we still have about 7.8 million PVCs uncollected.
-dailytrust
