The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Attahiru Jega

  • 2015: INEC to spend N92.9b

    2015: INEC to spend N92.9b

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may require N92.9 billion for the conduct of the 2015 elections, it was learnt yesterday.

    Elections may not hold in some parts of the Northeast, if insecurity persists, according to INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega, who spoke at a stakeholders’ forum organised by the Senate Committee on INEC, in collaboration with Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Abuja and the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) Nigeria.

    Jega, who spoke on “Preparations and challenges ahead of 2015 general elections”, said it was not true that the cost of the 2011 general elections was high.

    He noted that in preparing for the 2015 elections, one guiding principle for the Commission had been to make elections more cost-effective and to give Nigerians better value for money.

    He added: “Our estimate is that the cost of the election per voter, which is an international standard for viewing the cost of election, is coming down in Nigeria.

    “We project that for the 2015 elections, this would come further down by almost $1- from $8.8 in 2011 to $7.9, representing almost a 10 per cent drop.

    “This compares favourably with some other African countries. However, we are anxious about getting all our funding requirement being met well in advance of the 2015 general elections.”

    Jega said Ghana spent $10 per voter during its last election while Kenya spent between $8.5 to $9 per voter.

    Nigeria has about 73.5 million registered voters.

    The INEC boss assured that “preparations by INEC for the 2015 general election are very good and proceeding in earnest”.

    He added: “As far as INEC is concerned, the 2015 general elections will see Nigeria take its rightful place in the global comity of nations where electoral democracy is being consolidated.

    “However, bringing this about and ensuring a free, fair, credible and peaceful elections is not a task that INEC alone can actualise.

    “All stakeholders have important roles to play; we must change attitudes and mindsets, as well as strengthen partnerships and collaborative endeavours to bring this about.

    “Learning from the experience of 2011, especially regarding the need for early preparations, the Commission has undertaken the task of fundamental restructuring of the Commission, established new policies to guide its work and embarked on far reaching planning of its activities through strategic plan, an election project plan and an election management system.”

    On security challenges, he noted that if there was a generalised systemic insecurity in the country, it may be difficult to conduct a free and fair election in 2015.

    Jega listed specifically insurgency in the Northeast, armed robbery and kidnapping as part of the systemic challenges the Commission would like the Federal Government to address and resolve before the 2015 election.

    He said, “We hope the present security challenges in parts of Northeast will be overcome before the 2015 general elections. But if it persists, we may be compelled to postpone or cancel elections in the affected areas.

    Jega spoke of a vacancy for a House of Representatives seat in Yobe State, but he said INEC had not conducted an election because of insecurity.

    The INEC boss said the Commission, he said, is concerned about widespread absence of moderation among politicians because “even if the management of elections meets the highest standards, insofar as the contestants are unwilling to play by the rules, there will be problems.”

    He said: “The Commission remains deeply concerned about growing conflicts within parties and between contestants.

    “The use of language is in most cases indecorous, encouraging supporters to follow suit with even more intemperate language and ultimately fueling violence.

    “Parties even find it difficult to select candidates, creating a situation in which practically every nomination process in Nigeria ends in a court case.

    “In most instances, the Commission gets either directly or vicariously involved in these conflicts and court cases.

    “Indeed, some of the pre-election court cases in the past threatened to derail preparations for elections.

    “Of particular note is the spate of ex parte injunctions that have been issued the Commission.

    “It seems to me that a primary source of the problem here is lack of internal party democracy, resulting from lack of commitment to party rules.”

    On the review of the Electoral Constituencies and polling units, Jega hoped that Nigerians would support INEC’s efforts to successfully complete the exercise.

    TO him, “the prospects of having remarkable much better elections in 2015 are very bright”.

    “But we habour no illusion that we have accounted for all issues that could pose challenges for the elections. In fact, there are still a number of key challenges,” Jega said.

  • Anambra 2013, shame and INEC

    On Monday November 4, I wrote a piece titled Anambra 2013: What We Expect From INEC. In that piece I reminded that Anambra State is a peculiar state with a peculiar problem, a state where businessmen want to control business as well as government house, a state where cash can be used to purchase anything including government offices, a state where people without brains try to dictate where to go and where not to go, a state where great men have gone to sleep, leaving the political landscape for babies.

    In that piece I reminded Prof Attahiru Jega of the experience of Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswan when he was asked by PDP to come and conduct a delegate congress of the party in Anambra. After the congress, Suswan threw bomb to Anambra people. Hear this: “Anambra people have no shame. I had to bring 326 people from Benue state to come and conduct the congress, nowhere else in this federation would such a thing happen except in Anambra. It is a shame. Anambra is a different issue altogether. They do not want sanity to prevail or anything genuine, the first ugly experience was that some aspirants would offer anything. One even offered to give me 1 billion Naira cash that evening. I decided and even felt angry as such desperation. I can see why nothing seems to be working out here. Once it is 7pm everyone runs to their homes like fowls. There is no place of interest, sightseeing or nightlife. It is very unfortunate”

    This is a very painful indictment to the people of Anambra where I come from and I swallowed the shame and brought it before Professor Jega for INEC to know where they are going. For record purposes let me reproduce here what I told Professor Jega: “Now what will INEC do to succeed in Anambra? From all indications the world knows that PDP is not prepared for the governorship elections in Anambra State. The suspicion that PDP is working with the ruling party, APGA is no longer news. We see nothing wrong in that but the truth is that the opposition parties have to be prepared to face PDP and the full weight of the Federal Government. Another factor that proved our thinking beyond reasonable doubts is the romance between Governor Obi and President Goodluck Jonathan and it is all geared towards the November 16 elections. Therefore we fear that the federal government will use the security agencies to intimidate the opposition and this is our greatest fear. We saw it in Ondo State during the guber elections, as the army, police, SSS were deployed to serve the Mimiko’s Labour Party. Many were injured, maimed and killed. This must not happen in Anambra State.

    Another information we are getting from reliable and competent sources is how INEC officers will deny the opposition strong hold electoral materials and push the material to the strong hold of the ruling party. For example, where there are 600 registered voters in the opposition green zones the officers will bring 250 Ballot Papers just to disenfranchise and weaken the oppostion. The balance are now thumb-printed somewhere else and imported into the ballot boxes of the ruling APGA. This must not happen in Anambra and INEC must ensure it never happens.

    Opposition parties want a free and fair elections and the winner must win honourably and responsibly too. Anything short of this will be unacceptable to the people of Anambra State. INEC has only Anambra elections to contend with on November 16, and it must not fail Nigerians. Police, Army or any other security agencies can be used but they must be there to ensure that law and order is maintained and they must be neutral. I want INEC to prepare for this election because it is going to be a fore-test of what will happen in 2015.

    Now all the things APC predicted at the national level and what I told Jega’s INEC came to pass. Had Jega’s INEC knew the state they were going to probably we would not have been entangled in this electoral mess today. Two days to election a chieftain of PDP from Uga area in the state converted his home in Awka to a voting centre. For two nights they were thumb printing ballot papers and nobody fished them out. Before the elections, associates of some politicians and businessmen who do not like the audacity and courage of Dr Chris Ngige told us in confidence that Ngige will only get two LGAs out of 21. In the evening of Saturday November 16, they started calling us and bragged that they have done what they promised. I want Jega to probe this criminality. We need to scrutinize every single vote cast on November 16.

    To all intents and purposes I am stunned that critical stakeholders, leaders of thought, clerics, the academia, the professionals etc are keeping quiet in Anambra, thinking that the fraud of November will just fizzle out. A story that must be told never forgives silence. I have heard some well-to-do people asking APC to let the sleeping dog lie but we understand this game. Now everybody is talking about peace but nobody is talking about justice.

    Prof. Attahiru Jega owes Nigeria a duty to courageously tell the world what happened in Anambra on November 16. Did INEC prepare very well for the elections? Did INEC officials betray INEC, Nigeria and Anambra people? Was the voters’ register doctored 48hrs before the elections? Did any staff of INEC run away with result sheets? Were voting materials diverted, and to where? Who and who did this to Ndi Anambra? Did the police do their job or did they compromise? I can go on and on but there is no need to continue.

    Lord Stephenson warned that “An election which is conducted in violation of the principles of an election by ballot is no real election and therefore should be declared null and void without any effect”

    INEC must not hide anything for the sake of Nigeria and 2015. If we cannot organize an election in one state out of 36, then something is wrong somewhere. If INEC cannot handle Anambra elections then I can confidently say that it cannot do same even in a local government in Nigeria.

     

    • Igbokwe is interim Publicity Secretary of APC, Lagos

     

  • Can we still trust Jega?

    Can we still trust Jega?

    I wonder what is going on now in the mind of Chief Ifeanyi Uba, the Labour Party candidate in the November 16 gubernatorial election in Anambra State about the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega.

    A few weeks before the polls I asked the Nnewi born businessman/politician who was so confident he would win whether the thought of him being rigged out ever crossed his mind.

    He responded confidently that Professor Jega would never allow anything like that: ” Jega is not an Anambra man, Jega is coming there to conduct election and give life to Ndi-Anambra so that God would remember him.

    So Anambra’s election is going to be free and fair. How can they rig me out? Do you know who Professor Jega is? Did they rig anybody out in Edo? Was Edo election not under Jega? Did they rig anybody out in Ondo? Was the election there not conducted by Jega? Let us be optimistic in Nigeria that at least we have credible people in this country. We would have a peaceful election.”

    But after that sham called election conducted by Jega and his INEC. Chief Uba must be having a rethink about the electoral body and it’s chief umpire. The Labour Party candidate was not alone in exuding confidence about the ability of Jega to deliver a credible election in Anambra. Not a few Nigerians were like him, optimistic. But that optimism has now turned into fear. Fear for the future of democracy in this country as we move towards the 2015 general elections.

    Needless to go over the result of the Anambra election. You all know that by now. I am sure you are also aware that three of the major parties apart from the winner and a few others who could never have won anyway, have kicked against the result, calling for its cancellation and a fresh election conducted. They have advanced so many reasons for this, including the usual disappearance of names of eligible voters for the register, late or even non arrival of electoral materials, insufficient electoral materials, voting after official time, votes buying, rigging, voters intimidation and stuffs like that. And as usual. INEC would hear none of these. To the electoral body the election was ok save in a few places.

    Jega, though has come out to express disappointment at the conduct of some of his people, insists that the result of the election in areas where it was ‘successfully’ conducted will stand and has ordered a supplementary election in those areas where the election was inconclusive.

    Under the electoral law, I think Jega and his INEC are on solid ground to insist that the partial result will stand and a supplementary election to complete the result would take place. Their argument being that only the court or tribunal can cancel the result of an election that had been duly declared by the Electoral Officer.

    But the counter argument here is that what took place in Anambra on November 16 could not in any way pass for an election. Apart from INEC the winner and his party, no other serious group has anything complementary to say about that election. The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Abuja Council that sent a team of independent observers to the election came out with a verdict that called into question the credibility of that result.

    If one could consider the position of the losing parties in the election as being not unexpected, that the result, including the process that produced it were described as sham by the NUJ speaks volume about that exercise and the ability of Jega’s INEC to conduct any credible election in the future.

    Prior to November 16, Jega you would recall promised the Anambra poll was going to be the best ever in the history of elections in this country. But if what happened in that so called election was the best that Jega was promising us, then the future of democracy and election in this country is doomed. And if a University Professor, a one time National President, Academic Staff Union of Nigeria Universities (ASUU) can not organize a successful and credible election in this country, then who can we trust to do a good job in this area for us?

    Jega has surrounded himself with colleagues from the ivory tower, people he could trust, people whose integrity he could vouch for. Yet we keep getting electoral embarrassments like this one from Anambra. The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Anambra and some of his INEC colleagues who were in charge of that election I learnt were chosen from the university and now see the outcome. If the supposed eggheads can’t perform this all important assignment for the nation, who then shall we call upon? Blockheads?

    But beyond the personnel, the question to ask is whether there is something in us that prevents us from having credible elections? Why is it that even if we send a saint to INEC, National Population Commission and similar organisations they end up disappointing us and leaving as sinners? Is it a problem of the system or the personnel? These are the areas we should look at in carrying out a postmortem of the Anambra election and this task should not be left to Jega or INEC alone. Whether Jega should stay or continue should also be considered along. The National Assembly should look into that election to determine what went wrong and what can be done to redress it without prejudice to the provisions of the electoral law.

    Governorship election is coming up soon in Ekiti and Osun States, can we trust Jega to do a good job there? Between now and those elections and even the 2015 polls is a short time and something needed to be done and urgently too to save the rest of Nigeria from the Anambra treatment.

    The complaints about that election should not be dismissed as mere rantings of the opposition. The fact that three strange bed fellows, Senator Chris Ngige of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Ifeanyi Uba of Labour Party and Chief Tony Nwoye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could come together to say cancel the result because someone was wrong with the election should tell whoever cares to listen that indeed something was wrong, and I think INEC should care to listen; Jega must listen. Most independent observers have said so as well.

    If INEC is saying that only the court or tribunal could set aside the result as declared then the candidates disputing the result should head straight to the tribunal without delay. In the meantime INEC could help all the doubting Thomases, and I think there are millions of them by presenting to the public verifiable evidence(s) to show the election was free and fair in those areas where the result was announced. For the sake of his own integrity Professor Attahiru Jega must put all the cards on the table for all Nigerians to see that the election went well in some areas as he claimed, anything short of this, he will go down the route of one of his less illustrious predecessors, the late Justice Ovie Whiskey of FEDECO fame.

    Should the fact of his admission of some flaws or less than satisfactory manner in which the Anambra election was conducted not be enough to tell Jega that that election should and can not stand? After admitting that some of his officials were compromised in the election, what else is needed to convince him to cancel the result or ask court/tribunal to do so?

    Professor Jega should know that the patience of Nigerians with him is thinning out. The performance of his INEC in the Anambra election has seriously shaken our confidence and trust in him and the organisation he leads. We are in doubt as to whether to continue with him as head of the national electoral body or not as we move towards other crucial elections in 2014/2015. How he resolves this Anambra election crisis will determine whether we go with him all the way to 2015 or not. We are watching and waiting. But we won’t wait endlessly. 2015 is too important to be toyed with. Those who put him there should take note.

  • Anambra poll: An opportunity missed

    Anambra poll: An opportunity missed

    The forces malevolently interested in the November 16 Anambra governorship poll were much stronger than the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could withstand or manage. No matter what INEC did, the election was bound to fail; for the stakes in that poll were so high that even if the electoral body had mustered enough administrative acumen and integrity to superintend the election, the political dynamics in both the state and the country had already spawned too many sinister factors capable of undermining the poll.

    Much attention has been paid to INEC’s failings in that election as an explanation for the almost comprehensive failure of the governorship poll. Because of this failure, the INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, has himself been described as a failure. In addition, many have called for the cancellation of the poll since it could not be guaranteed that the pollution and manipulation noticed in some polling areas had not affected the entire process. Professor Jega himself acknowledged that in some parts of the state, his men sabotaged the election. He was thoroughly disappointed, he said, that in spite of all the preparations for that poll, the election still miscarried badly. And though he didn’t quite say it, it appeared that the sabotage he talked about was aimed at the feisty All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Chris Ngige.

    The Anambra poll miscarried for two main reasons. But before considering the reasons, it is important to make one or two observations about the election. First, I think it was unwise of Professor Jega to have drafted so many top level INEC staff to supervise the poll, and also encourage the overwhelming policing of the same poll. By taking these extraordinary steps in the hope that he would deliver a near perfect election, he robbed himself and his commission of the opportunity to know how they would have performed were the 2015 polls to be held all over the country on November 16. In 2015, it is evident that neither the commission nor the security agencies would have the benefit of the number and stature of the officials deployed in Anambra for the inconclusive governorship poll of two Saturdays ago. The poll should have been used as a dress rehearsal for the 2015 polls. Second, by now Professor Jega and the frustrated electorate will have realised that it takes more than an INEC chairman’s well-meaning disposition and the deployment of overwhelming force to deliver a free and fair election.

    The failed Anambra poll can be explained in two ways. First is the simple fact that the Jonathan presidency has no interest whatsoever in ensuring a free and fair poll, notwithstanding its repeated homilies on the sanctity of the electoral process. Judging from the spectral silence of the presidency on the obvious and deliberate sabotage of the poll, and the effusive and exuberant praise of the same poll by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it was clear that from the perspective of the Jonathan presidency, the goal of the election was to defeat Dr Ngige, not to ensure fair poll or give victory to the PDP candidate. The obsession against Dr Ngige is in turn informed by the overall strategic interest of the ruling party to checkmate the rising profile of the APC and stall, if not completely weaken, the opposition’s increasingly shrill and critical voice. This explains why the PDP was eager to endorse the misshapen poll and give the impression of being detached from crass partisanship, though its candidate lost in questionable circumstances.

    As part of this strategy of weakening, stalling or reversing the power of the APC, the PDP will next year attempt to take at least one state from the APC in the Osun and Ekiti elections and ride that momentum towards the 2015 polls. Two main factors underscore the strategy against the APC. One is the fact that Dr Jonathan himself lacks the intrinsic depth and vision to remake the country as a virile, progressive and pacesetting nation. Two is the fact that deliberately or accidentally, Dr Jonathan has managed to assemble a group of Machiavellian advisers and close aides who have gross loathing for principles. They are adept at reading the lips of the president and sabotaging every law and constitutional provision militating against the president’s re-election. Therefore, between Dr Jonathan’s surrender to devious politics and the energetic enthusiasm of his aides to foment trouble, everything, including the laws and constitution, not to talk of elections in particular, is fair game for subversion.

    The second reason the Anambra poll miscarried is the connivance of the state’s elite. No one denies the atrocious manipulations that undermined the integrity of the poll. But to remedy these atrocities, INEC plans a supplementary election slated for the end of this month. While there are calls for total cancellation of the poll from among a not-so-substantial number of Anambrarians and an overwhelming number of non-Anambrarians, the state’s elite have indicated the poll is not so irredeemable that a supplementary poll cannot correct. In media comments and television discussions, as well as jurisprudential expositions, the said elite have struggled to justify the poll and denounce the APC, its candidate, and any other person bold enough to dismiss the election as a sham. It is not surprising that such connivance offers endorsement for the electoral chicanery of two Saturdays ago and also provides adequate grounding and philosophical underpinning for the subversion of the electoral process.

    One of those philosophical underpinnings was the incredulous argument that Dr Ngige represented the face of the Southwest’s expansionist agenda. The state’s ruling party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), was the only surviving Igbo party that must not be humiliated, they said. It no longer mattered that APC’s Dr Ngige was their son, or that he had ruled the state meritoriously and can probably do much better than his rivals, or that his competence could not be doubted at all. The unabashed suggestion that Dr Ngige represented outsiders harked back to the Yoruba/Igbo rivalry of the 1950s and 1960s, and gave the impression that little progress had been made in Southwest/Southeast relationships. To these conniving analysts and amateur philosophers, it does not matter how the APGA candidate wins.

    But such dangerous reasoning carries equally dangerous drawbacks. It shows that the Southeast has learnt nothing, forgotten nothing, and has all along been an impassive observer of the changing dynamics of Nigerian politics and geopolitics. Even though Dr Ngige’s candidature was the best opportunity for the Southwest to build a credible and durable bridge to the Southeast, it was even a much better opportunity for the Southeast to expand its reach nationally and also break the implacable iron curtain that has seemed to divide the Southwest and the Southeast. For a region desirous of winning the presidency in the years ahead, it is strange that the lessons of MKO Abiola’s victory in the 1993 presidential election are lost on them.

    It is also surprising that they fail to understand that while the Southwest intelligently preferred Olu Falae in the 1999 presidential election, Olusegun Obasanjo enjoyed the better crossover appeal which propelled him into Aso Villa. More crucially, it must be understood that the seeming consensus that appeared to produce a Yoruba president in 1999 could not be divorced from the 1993 presidential election annulment. Such a consensus is unlikely to be built again, and each party and ethnic group will have to explore sensible and multipronged strategies to win the presidency.

    If the partial results already sanctioned by INEC are taken into cognisance, and given the way they are skewed against the APC candidate, it is hard to see Dr Ngige winning. If he loses, it will not be because he failed to run a credible and efficient campaign, or because the electorate didn’t vote for him. It will be because he ran against a manipulative and amoral federal government, an unscrupulous Governor Peter Obi who pays only lip service to democracy, a short-sighted and parochial elite anxious to protect imaginary boundaries, and an unconscionable public who can’t seem to understand the fuss over an unfair electoral process or the principle of fighting for and defending truth and justice.

    It is also quite remarkable that some of those who denounce the APC in the Anambra election and turn a blind eye to the corruption that accompanied it come from the Southwest. Their reasons are totally unrelated to the noxious details of the electoral manipulations observed in the Anambra poll by everyone. Indeed, the unusual Southwest support for injustice is merely a reflection of the divisions that have now become integral to Southwest politics, one in which everyone defines progressivism according to his taste and embraces it according to his whim. The bitter political struggle in the Southwest, which always spills over to other parts of the country, will continue for some time to come, for it has become burdensome and discomfiting for those who had associated with Obafemi Awolowo in the First and Second Republics, and long ago passed themselves off as progressives, to mollify the pangs and reproof of conscience triggered by their betrayal of democratic principles.

    Those who suggest that the Anambra debacle presages a catastrophic 2015 are right. The Anambra poll failed because there are fewer people today in the country with the character and principles that conduce to good electoral behaviour. Anambra has probably sealed its fate. But the buck-passers of INEC, the vicious and amoral presidency of Dr Jonathan, and the shallow and sentimental analysts crawling all over Nigeria with spurious logic will guarantee that this long-suffering country, not just Anambra, inexorably moves closer to meeting its fate in two years’ time.

  • Anambra’s poll and an umpire’s tyranny

    Anambra’s poll and an umpire’s tyranny

    Before the Anambra State governorship poll, the expectation was high. Almost everyone expected that by now, a governor-elect would have emerged. But, instead, the election was declared inconclusive, raising doubts about the capability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), writes Group Political Editor Emmanuel Oladesu

    How will the Attahiru Jega, Professor of Political Science and Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), justify the credibility of the inconclusive governorship poll in Anambra State, if his students at the Bayero University, Kano, ask him to analyse the process, using the criteria of democracy, due process, legality and legitimacy?

    How credible was the election? Jega, veteran academic unionist, electoral reform curator and civil society leader, was boxed into anxiety and bewilderment last weekend. He owned up to INEC’s failing, acknowledging that his official compromised himself and soiled the reputation of the agency. He handed the culprit to the police for interrogation. But the commission still went ahead to release some results.

    On post 2011, it was not the first time the commission will make grievous mistakes. In Edo State, Governor Adams Oshiomhole cried foul during the last governorship poll. He alleged that Jega, his compatriot in the civil society, had changed gear. He disputed INEC’s integrity in that period of tension. The commission had tactlessly hired a drunkard as the boat driver. On the high sea, the self-inflicted turbulence led to boat mishap. Polling materials were destroyed. In the Ondo State governorship election, minor hitches were also recorded. Controversy also trailed the recent Delta Central senatorial by-election, with many voters alleging fraud.

    The turn of events in Anambra has created panic in the Southwest states of Ekiti and Osun, both due for governorship elections next year. Will the electoral terrorism repeat itself in the Fountain of Knowledge and State of Living Springs? Will INEC dare the electorate by declaring disputed figures, while the spin doctors ask the aggrieved candidates to go to the court?

    Many agree that democracy is under threat in Nigeria. The ballot box is not insulated from peculiar assault. Therefore, popular rule is in jeopardy. The way out is electoral sanity anchored on ‘one man one vote’ in a peaceful atmosphere. These elements were absent in Anambra, which many had perceived as a litmus test for 2015 general elections.

    INEC had enough time to prepare for the poll. Yet, the procedure fell short of expectation. According to observers, the usual vices assailed the process. The list of irregularities is endless: ballot snatching, double thump printing, lateness of materials to polling units and absence of polling officers and materials at the units. There were also cases of police rascality, hostility of polling officers to observers, display of campaign posters and absence of result sheets.

    Curiously, the commission disclosed to political parties that it would “clean up” the voter’s register, ahead of the poll. Jega assured the stakeholders that the agency will abide by the Electoral Act. He also promised that the procedures will be transparent. However, on poll day, the hope of the voters were dashed. Many people were excluded from voting as their names disappeared from the register.

    There was also a curious electoral coup in Idemili North and Ihiala councils. In some units, INEC officials and materials were no where to be found. At 1 pm, voters were restless. Due to the late arrival of voting materials, accreditation was delayed. This also led to the extension of voting. The residual voting was scheduled for Sunday. The Christians shunned the exercise. They went to the church service.

    Unlike previous elections, polling officers developed cold feet when they saw the election observers. Many of them refuse to give information to the monitors. The monitors concluded that the polling officers were not trained. In fact, following the friction between the INEC officers and observers, policemen were deployed to intimidate the accredited observers. They were arrested and detained for few hours.

    Critics have argued that the specific electoral malpractices and fraud in the election were deliberate. Many Anambrans agreed that Idemili North and South councils, which were denied polling materials, is the stronghold of one of the strong contenders. Thus, the voters there believed that it was an attempt to subvert their mandate. In some units, people refused to vote when it was clear that the processes had been breached and INEC could not offer convincing explanations.

    Many indigenes of the state alleged that voting materials meant for specific local governments were diverted by the INEC officials. Insufficient polling officers were reported in some units. Thus, to make up for the lapses, “assistant polling officers” were hurriedly recruited to fill the shortfall without prior training.

    In some local governments, INEC officials did not raise eyebrow when chieftains of the ruling party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were offering money to polling officers, fake observers and voters to woo them.

    The perception of the rightness or wrongness of the decision of the INEC to declare the results of the inconclusive exercise has created credibility and legitimacy crisis. The election has paled into a foul play and the integrity of the umpire is at stake.

    Many have argued that the redress of the electoral injustice in Anambra will restore the hope of Nigerians about electoral sanity. But, if this option is jettisoned, an illegitimate leadership may ride on the flawed election to power. Then, the polity will brace up for the eclipse of popular rule in a component unit of the federation.

  • Taxpayers’ body seeks fair poll in 2015

    Taxpayers’ body seeks fair poll in 2015

    A group, the Tax Payers Association of Nigeria (TAPAN), yesterday urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that the 2015 presidential poll is free and fair.

    TAPAN, which spoke in Abuja, decried the irregularities at Saturday’s poll.

    The group’s President, Mr. Phillip Ilokhulo, in a statement, also enjoined INEC to ensure proper handling of the review of voter register to prevent cases of missing names.

    It hailed the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, for actions taken against those allegedly involved in malpractices and advised parties to educate their members and supporters on electoral matters.

    The association, which decried calls by some parties for the cancellation of the exercise, urged the aggrieved to participate in the supplementary elections.

    “We don’t think cancelling the exercise will be sensible because tax payers foot the bill. People have a right to be aggrieved, but since areas with problems have been listed for supplementary elections, they should participate. But if they are still aggrieved, they should seek legal redress.

     

     

  • Mistakes INEC must avoid in future poll

    Mistakes INEC must avoid in future poll

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is under fire. Its Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, is on the weighing scale. Unlike 2011, when Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief from severely flawed elections, the nation is in a nightmare. As the people of Anambra State agonise over the bungled governorship elections, fears about 2015 polls have become heightened.

    The next general elections is a litmus test for the umpire. Two years ago, it had shown an improved capacity for restoring public confidence in the electoral process, judging by its performance in the 2011 general elections. But now, it has failed woefully in Anambra State to manage the achievement and sustain the tempo.

    INEC has a historic duty to live up to expectation, as it prepares for the governorship polls in the two states in the ‘wild wild Southwest’ – Ekiti and Osun – next year. The governorship elections are now somehow scattered, owing to the mistake of the 2007 by the INEC under Prof. Maurice Iwu. In Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun states, where the Appeal Court restored the stolen mandates to the deprived winners, the people have to contend with new electoral timetable.

    To conduct a credible and transparent exercise in Ekiti and Osun, the commission must avoid the ‘Anambra pitfalls”. It must tighten the loose ends and correct the mistakes that have boxed it into the crisis of integrity. In 2011, the electoral agency was about to wreck a monumental havoc on democracy before Jega that had to cancel the first leg of the general elections. Critics have argued that, If the polls were not abruptly stopped and postponed, it would have resulted into an avoidable electoral calamity.

    Shortly after the last general elections, activist-cleric and politician Pastor Tunde Bakare distinguished between free and fair elections. He said an election can be free, and yet be fraudulent. He said, while election, as experience has shown in this dispensation, has been free at the level of voting and counting at the polling booths, it can be fraudulent at the level of collation of results.

    In Anambra, the collation was flawed. In some polling units, there were no result sheets.

    INEC also failed the elementary test of credibility when its officials reported late for the assignment in many local governments. Where the officials reported for the exercise, they did not show up with the non-negotiable polling materials. Voters were disillusioned. Many returned home in protest. Although the poll was postponed till the next day in some units, voters did not show up because it was on a Sunday. The most critical material is the voter’s register. The names of many voters were omitted from the register. The implication was that many were disfranchised. In Ondo State, when voters complained that their names were omitted from the register, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Akin Orebiyi, quickly rose to the occasion by providing the comprehensive data and the voters exercised their voting rights.

    In 2015, INEC will face more challenges. The elections will raise some questions about the environmental dimension of the exercise. There are trouble spots in the North, where people fret under the menace of the Boko Haram. If INEC cannot conduct a free poll in an atmosphere of relative peace, how will it cope in the tensed areas? Also, since the general elections would be holding in the creeks of Cross River, Rivers, Edo and Bayelsa, there is the need to rise to the challenge of movement of men and materials on waterways. During the last governorship election in Edo, INEC was said to have hired a drunkard to navigate a boat full of polling materials. The end was catastrophic.

    Voters usually raise objections to the late accreditation and voting in many states. The late arrival of polling officers and electoral materials is worrisome. Many voters returned home without voting because their names were not found in the voters’ register. Uncouth electoral officers have always been giving INEC a bad name. A dispirited INEC chairman had to even hand over a polling officer to the police for interrogation in Anambra.

    Elections have become a burden in Nigeria. Rather than being perceived as an opportunity for political choice and change, election periods are usually dark moments when the polity is submerged in a tremor of wild politicking, do-or-die contest, thuggery and violence, which often make the critical contest a sort of war. Governorship election, more or less, is a higher local election posing greater challenges to the electoral commission than the presidential and National Assembly elections. Incidentally, the fear of democratic election at the state level has contributed to the fragility democracy in the country.

    The commission owes it a duty to halt the pollution of the ballot box. One man one vote is not guaranteed when many people are excluded from voting due to INEC’s mistake. The practice of voter register display and verification, ahead of the election, tends to be fading. The penchant for doctoring the results by the combined forces of unscrupulous politicians, unpatriotic security agents and electoral commissioners aptly captures the illusion of democracy. In subsequent elections, these should be nipped in the bud by the electoral agency.

    INEC should also be ready to invoke the various provisions in the constitution against electoral malpractices. Electoral officers who act in concert with politicians and the police to commit atrocities against the ballot box should be prosecute The expectation that the ruling party must always have the upper hand at every democratic contest could spell doom. When it is evident that the ruling party is no more popular, INEC should not assist it to unnecessarily prolong its stay without legitimacy.

    Electoral violence has also become a feature of periodic polls. Thugs and cultists, who are armed with sophisticated weapons beyond the reach of the police, are often recruited by desperate politicians to create panic, molest voters, scare away electorate, invade the polling booths, snatch ballot boxes, inflict pain, maim and kill, in the interest of the highest bidder, and in expectation of a fat reward for unleashing terror. INEC and security agents should not sleep – to avoid the floodgate of litigations that trailed the 2007 electoral foul play.

    Ordinarily, a credible election is a panacea for violence. In earlier dispensations, rigging provoked popular revolt. In the Western Region, malpractices was perceived as a colossal rebellion against the people. It led to the burning of houses and mass killings in the First Republic. The scenario was repeated in the Southwest States of Oyo and Ondo States In the Second Republic.

    Domestic monitors and international observers have described the 2007 elections as a national tragedy. The presidential threat of do-and-die was carried out and the INEC gave its nod. These vices may still resurface, if the exercise is characterised by the late arrival of electoral officers and polling materials, shortage of ballot boxes and papers, ballot stuffing by thugs, violence, falsification of results, bribery and corruption.

    In Anambra, election observers were arrested and briefly detained. There should be a better way of accrediting and identifying the monitors next time, instead of subjecting them to ridicule while on a national assignment.

    After the 2007 polls, the rot stared the country in the face. Petitions flooded the election tribunals and courts. Many of the stolen mandates were retrieved back at the courts at greater costs to the opposition parties. The courts decried the electoral horror and terrorism. The poll created a hollow in the record of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a citizen of the world. It was the nation that suffered the debilitating effects. The country’s image was dented. The Anambra scenario has rekindled the memory of the electoral horror.

     

  • Jega’s image at stake, says Ubah

    Labour Party candidate, Dr Ifeany Ubah on Saturday  said the integrity of INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega was at stake for the shoddy election he presided over in Anambra State.

    Ubah said the election should have been a model and a shinning example of what to expect in 2015.

    Addressing newsmen on the outcome of the election in Awka  Ubah said Jega should toe the part of honour by canceling the total election in the state.
    He said he was ready to surrender his victory which he said he secured in Nnewi.
    The election in Nnewi, which he said met all the standards required of good election, should be used as a yardstick to judge the election and on the basis of that, be declared the winner since election in other parts of the state fell short of expectations.
    “Nnewi election would have been used as the yardstick for other elections in the state. The integrity of Jega is at stake now. It is either he toes the part of honour and cancel all the election or he should declare me the winner of the election.
    “I believe that Labour won landslide but n other areas, they disenfranchised people and removed the names of even a party candidate from the voters register”.
    Ubah hinted that the three candidates of the All Progressives Congress ( APC), the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) and the LP will soon address a joint press conference condemning and calling for the cancellation of the whole  election as a result of the irregularities associated with it.
  • APC: Results unacceptable without voting in all local govts

    APC: Results unacceptable without voting in all local govts

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday warned that it would not accept the results of the  governorship election  if  ”voting does not take place in all local governments, especially in the party’s strongholds of Idemili North and South as well as Akwa South.”

    The Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement, also condemned INEC for “its apparently-contrived logistic nightmare that has left thousands of voters unable to exercise their franchise.”

    It demanded the ‘immediate removal’ of the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Anambra, Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukogu, for allegedly aiding and abetting irregularities in the election.

    The APC said it was “totally astonished to learn that INEC has confirmed that materials meant for Idemili North Local Government, which has 180,000 voters, have been hijacked, without saying who hijacked the ballot papers and why and without explaining why the materials meant for APGA and PDP strongholds were not hijacked.”

    The party said equally astonishing was ”the fact that the voter’s registers for Idemili South, the direct Local Government of the APC candidate, Dr. Chris Ngige, did not contain the names of voters in the local government, despite the assurances by INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega.

    It said: ‘’Before the election, political parties were given voter’s registers that largely contained the names of most voters. However, about four days to the election, Prof Jega said at an interactive stakeholders’ forum that there were problems with the registers, which would be rectified before the election.

    ‘’However, when the supposedly-corrected registers were brought back, most of the authentic names in them have disappeared, without explanation.’’

    Recalling the REC’s performance in the 2011 election, the APC said:’ ‘In 2011, when Prof. Onukogu conducted the general elections in the state, he was very partial.

    “During the Onitsha South 2 House of Assembly constituency and Idemili South House of Assembly polls, he declared the results of both inconclusive, only for him to announce the results at 12 midnight. After we challenged the results in court and a rerun was ordered, we won both constituencies.

    ‘’We subsequently petitioned INEC and the Commission assured us that the same person will not be allowed to conduct subsequent election.

    “Alas, he was left in place to do another damage to INEC as an institution through his glaring incompetence and partiality, which have seriously affected the credibility of this governorship election.’’

  • IPAC urges free, fair poll

    IPAC urges free, fair poll

    Jega: 20 million permanent voter cards delivered

    INDEPENDENT National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof Attahiru Jega has said 20 million permanent voter cards (PVCs) have been delivered into the country.

    He said the commission would soon begin a voter and civic education programme for specific groups, such as traditional institutions, religious groups, faith-based institutions, labour unions across the country.

    Jega spoke yesterday at the Geo-Gold Hotels in Awka, Anambra State, at a workshop by Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC), in partnership with INEC.

    The workshop was organised to sensitise voters on Saturday’s election.

    INEC chairman’s address was read by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Delta State, Dame Gesila E.O. Khan.

    He said with the PVCs, irregularities and challenges would be addressed.

    Jega said INEC was being restructured in five strategic directions, including providing electoral operations, system and infrastructure.

    The IPAC Chairman and National Chairman of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Dr. Yunusa Tanko, said they were only interested in a violent-free election, adding that they abhorred ballot box snatching, blackmail and mudslinging.

    He said the Anambra election was a litmus test for INEC, parties and Nigerians, adding that the indigenes should show the world that a credible poll could be conducted in the state.

    The Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Inter-Party Affairs, Senator Ben Ndi Obi, said based on the attitude of Anambra indigenes, the election would be free, fair and credible.