The third quarterly meeting of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and political parties threw up issues with profound implications for representative democracy. First was the disclosure by INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu that Nigeria’s voting strength now stood at 93.5 million. The figure was arrived at after successful registration of 12.29 million Nigerians in the recently concluded continuous voter registration exercise.
Its breakdown showed that of the 12.29 million newly registered voters, about 8.7 million representing 71 per cent are youths between 18 and 34 years of age. The statistics also showed that about 2.4 million of those successfully registered are between the ages of 35 and 49 while the number of women was higher than that of men.
The new voters’ strength is as interesting as it is a veritable statement on the perception of Nigerians of what the coming elections hold for their future. For one, it shows increased civic awareness and determination by youths to have greater say in the affair of the country.
They may have come to terms with the reality that the surest way to enthrone good governance is to exercise this basic civic right during elections. This is particularly so for the younger population to whom the future largely belongs. And given the events of the recent past, it is little surprising that the youths posted a very impressive record of 8.7 million voters in the last continuous voters’ registration exercise.
It does not only denote increased interest by the youths to influence the direction of affairs in their country but also an expression of dissatisfaction with the way the ship of the nation had hitherto been piloted by leaders past and present. The serial squandering of vast opportunities and huge resources of this country has had the net effect of alienating the youthful population while sowing seeds of serious resentment and frustration.
They seem determined more than ever before to take their collective destinies in their hands. If this enthusiasm is a measure of their burning desire for genuine change, then there is hope for the future.
For this optimism to be fully realized, the youths must rise above primordial predilections by focusing on developmental issues with higher prospects of extricating the burgeoning population from debilitating poverty and hopelessness. This enthusiasm should reflect in the choices they make of the policies and programmes of political parties that offer the greatest prospects of promoting common good.
But for them do this, their votes must count. And that takes us to the other key issue raised by Mahmood during the session with the leadership of the political parties. He had told his audience that after a rigorous clean-up of the data using the Automated Biometric Identification System, ABIS, that more than 2.78 million names were identified and removed as ineligible registrants.
He said the commission identified 23 of its registration officers for sanctions for engaging in multiple registrations. Some of them were said to have even made more than 40 attempts to enrol a single ineligible registrant. That is how far some officials went to compromise the voters’ register.
Read Also: 2023: INEC strategises, finetunes modalities amidst concerns
It is good a thing INEC was able to clean up a whopping 2.78 million fake names from the last registration exercise. This figure consists of double/multiple registration, underage persons and outright fake registrations.
Given the high number of the names delisted, it would appear somewhat curious that only 23 officers were identified for such infractions. It is highly improbable that only 23 staff members could register 2.78 million of the removed names. INEC may have other reasons for this ambiguity.
It is also amazing that INEC remained silent on the motive of the offending officials. Were they acting for themselves or induced to do what they did for pecuniary promptings? That brings in the issue of collaboration. Since the said officials are not contesting elections and may not be from the areas they sought to bloat the voters’ register, it is safe to conclude that they did it at the behest of some interests.
Identifying those interests and what purposes they intended to put the fake registrations to are equally important in getting at the substance of the matter. Definitely, the officers were not acting alone. INEC should get at the root of those who influenced and financed the fake registrations.
Before INEC came out with its findings on fictitious registrations, the spokesman of the Coalition of United Political Parties CUPP, Ikenga Ugochinyere had alerted that the national voters’ register is filled with fake, fictitious and foreign names. He had said at a press conference that some of the names were sourced from foreign countries while some registrants were captured from passport photographs and other event-related pictures in the public space.
He had fingered Imo State as a typical case of states where fake registrations took place. Imo State government denied the accusation and called for the arrest of the CUPP spokesman. But the reaction of INEC was somewhat different.
INEC spokesman, Festus Okoye commended the group for their concern but cautioned against such interventions being done in a manner to create doubts and diminish the integrity of the electoral process. Okoye clarified that INEC will only add new names to the register after conducting ABIS clean-up of the registration data which it was yet to do at the time CUPP spoke.
So when the commission later came up with the high figures removed from the register, identifying 23 of its compromising officials for sanctions, it became obvious that the CUPP was not just crying wolf. It was on a voyage on whistle-blowing for which it should be commended.
The electoral law also mandates the commission to publish the register for public viewing; identification of errors and corrections. So the voters’ register is a public document that should ordinarily be available to all and sundry.
Curiously, Ugochinyere is now alleging an attempt to arrest him for speaking out on the monumental infractions in the voters’ register. In a trending video, he alleged a plot by the police in Imo State to arrest and arraign him for the source of his information on fake registrations before INEC cleaned up the register. He is piqued that the police are more interested in probing the source of the information rather than those who perpetrated the fraud.
If it is true that the law enforcement agencies are more interested in unravelling the source of the information leak rather than the perpetrators of the fraud, then there is something to worry about.
And we ask: when has credible whistle blowing become an offence? The essence of the intervention of the CUPP was to sanitize the voters’ register by ensuring that duplicitous manoeuvres are kept off it. That task is a patriotic one as its overall goal is to enhance the credibility and integrity of elections. Turning around to hound those who volunteered credible information sends wrong signals of official compromise.
It is important that we get at the root of the fictitious names and their sponsors given that politicians go at lengths to compromise the outcome of elections. INEC has serious work to do to ensure the overall credibility of the coming elections given the high interest it has generated. The sanctity of the voters register is vital but not the only source of election compromise.
Much would still depend on logistics-the deployment of voting materials and conduct of security officials on the day of election. Even with the enthusiasm in the capacity of technology and direct transmission of election results to enhance outcome, all will still depend on the adequacy, timely deployment of materials and the functionality of the BVAS during elections. Nothing should be done to compromise the collective will of the electorate to determine leaders of their choice this time around.