The Nation Newspaper

Tag: elections

  • 2019: INEC requires 2,600 vehicles for elections in Ebonyi

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday said it requires 2,652 vehicles of different types for movement of materials and officials for the 2019 general elections in Ebonyi.

    INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ebonyi Prof. Godswill Obioma, said this at a meeting between the commission and state officials of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Abakaliki.

    Obioma said effective and timely movement of election officials and materials to designated poling units and voting points was critical for credible, smooth and successful conduct of election.

    He explained that the vehicles would be deployed to the 2, 293 poling units and voting points across the 13 local government areas of the state and INEC state Headquarters.

    According to him, the Transport Strategy Plan (TSP) is an innovation by the state Headquarters of the commission to achieve prompt and unhindered transport arrangement for the 2019 general elections in Ebonyi.

    The REC said it would send the final draft of the transport strategy compiled by the two bodies to the INEC headquarters for approval.

    “The draft strategy plan provides for the deployment of 2, 652 vehicles of different types for the elections in Ebonyi. 1, 326 vehicles will be deployed for the Presidential and National Assembly elections in February 16, 2019 while another 1,326 vehicles will be required for governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections making a total of 2, 652 vehicles,” Obioma said.

    According to the arrangement, Abakaliki will be allocated 131 vehicles, Afikpo North, 92, Afikpo South, 76, Ebonyi 90, Ezza North 99, Ezza South 89 and Ikwo 135.

    Others are Ishielu, Ivo, Izzi, Ohaozara, Ohaukwu and Onitcha local government areas will receive 105, 60, 142,78, 125, and 98 vehicles respectively while INEC state Headquarters will have six haulage vehicles.

  • Leadership, defection, and  elections

    There is an old saying that a people or  a nation deserve  the leadership  it  has. I want to take issues with that statement today. The title of this piece already is a pointer to how I intend to proceed. In  many  nations of the world this week, leaders  have had to face protests  and outright opposition to their leadership  styles from  both  fervent    supporters  and   traditional  opponents alike. This  is more  so  in  Nigeria where lawmakers  from  the ruling party defected to the main  opposition party  for various reasons  of dissatisfaction with the ruling style of the Nigerian president. Also  in  the  US  it has become the norm in the American  media  to call  the present US President  Donald  Trump  a serial  liar  and a former Intelligence  chief  went  further  and asked  that the president be charged with  treason for daring to parley  with  Russian President Vladmir Putin. We  shall  look at these two  events and issues  in  Nigeria  along with  the intervention of the Nigerian Vice President in the traffic chaos  that literally blocked  access to Nigeria’s  major  port, the Apapa Wharf. We  then look at two  events also  in Asia  indeed, Malaysia  and Pakistan  and  see  what  we can learn  from there in the context  of today’s topic.

    Let  me first  of all make some remarks  that  I  feel  are general to all these issues even though  each  of them  is distinct in terms of its leadership style and context. Leadership to me should be responsive,  firm,  pragmatic, flexible  and decisive. It must be ready to take risks  and be ready  to apologise and  admit  obvious failures in the process of leading  its followership.   Modern   leadership  should  never  be like that of   Frederick  the Great of Prussia who  infamously    once said –‘ My  people and I have reached an understanding which satisfies us both. They  are to say what they  like and I am  to do  as I  wish.’ Of  course Frederick  led  a monarchy which is literally  extinct  or powerless nowadays except  perhaps in Britain and Thailand,   and the   governance  vogue  globally   nowadays is democracy.  But there is no denying that some elected leaders  behave like hereditary  monarchs  once they  have  taken over the apparatus  of power in elective democracies, and that is not only wrong  but pathetically so.  Unfortunately  that  seems to be the situation in Nigeria  and   the defections   from the  ruling party    are a direct  sequence of that. More  of that later.

    In  the US   there is no defection  from  the ruling Republican Party  yet because of what the opposition media led by CNN and New York  Times  have   done  in  successfully  branding the incumbent US president a liar but  there is no denying that such branding  has given a huge dent in credibility  and  respect  both at home and abroad  to  the image of both the US  and  its president   as   unserious entities      who  cannot  be taken  seriously in  the comity  of nations. In  Asia  as I said  before we look  at  the  election  in Pakistan  where  a new PM  is  coming into  office  from  the background of  an  election  so  violent that on election day   a   bomb exploded  and killed  over 30  people  at a polling booth. In  Nigeria  too an    unusual   defection  took  place from the  toothless leadership shown  so far in  controlling   the way tankers and trailers have taken over the traffic  and   bridges   in  the port  city of Lagos when the VP   came   calling  and    gave orders   that  the traffic should flow around  the  Apapa /Badagry   Expressway  and  Lagos,     within 72  hours  and that  really  happened.   Nevertheless   the main commercial  artery   of  Nigeria, the Apapa  Expresway  remains blocked by  a retinue  of trailers   and  oil  tankers  blocking  the entire length of  the three  lane gate way  to Nigeria’s major port. In  a great  way  the  Nigerian VP Prof  Yemi Osinbajo  showed  that Nigerian  leaders can    be responsive    and have empathy    for  the long suffering Nigerian  masses   when   they   want,  and on behalf  of long suffering Lagos commuters, car owners and those who  earn a living by travelling in  the   chaotic  Lagos traffic   daily,  I thank  him  for his yeoman  intervention,  concern  and execution  of the traffic movement  order  which has brought life  peace  of  mind  and  good health in a few  days to many residents of Nigeria’s commercial capital.

    Now   to   Malaysia where we have the oldest leader of  a modern   democracy,    PM  Ahmad Manathir  aged 92  and newly elected, we appraise  his pragmatic  approach  to international  relations and  regional power politics in the Pacific     from  a recent CNN interview.

    We  now go back  to the  defections  from  the APC  in  the Federal Legislature  which is a sign of a sensitive and alert  democracy  and which  the presidency  has described as inconsequential and the new APC Chairman  has waved off as  incapable of  affecting the   party’s  fortunes  at the coming  2019 presidential  elections. Maybe that was why the president called  the defections seasonal. There is no denying however  that some  of the defectors  saw  red and are ready  to leave certainty  for uncertainty because  they  saw  no solution  to their grievances. But  the governments problems known to Nigerians as untreated by the present government  include the Fulani  herdsmen killings, Insecurity, lopsided  federal  appointments  especially  of   the leadership    of our security apparatus  These  are  issues  the ruling party should  address  urgently  to avert  more  defections  as no  leadership  worth its salt  can ignore  protests  from its  fold as that will  be akin to going to sleep  while a  spark  of fire has been seen on a thatched roof.

    In  the case  of the US President Donald  Trump’s leadership  he has shown flexibility on important issues but  is being branded as unpredictable and confused  by his opponents. This week  he met the President of the European Commission and rescinded  his tariffs on steel and aluminium literally, with both sides pledging to a future of free  and fair trade, But  his detractors saw  no merit  in this since he too has called the media the No 1 Enemy  of the people.  Funny  enough Trump’s  core   supporters  have not defected or abandoned him  as even  the CNN polls   acknowledged  but  there is need  for the US president  to be more accommodating of opposing view points especially  when  offered  in good faith.

    In    Pakistan  it  is clear  that  the military  have  taken care  of both the Bhutto  and Nawaz Sharif political  dynasties  and have backed former  Cricket  star  Imran  Khan  as Pakistan ‘s new PM. We  shall  soon see  how long the romance can last.  Even  then the Bhuttos and  Sharifs  have a  long  history  of taking on the military   in  Pakistan  and either returning  to power or getting killed in the process.  Time will  tell  what  the outcome  of this last  election will be.

    On  a CNN interview  Malaysia’s  old PM  Mahathir  Mohamad   made  some  educative  comments on  China and US,  the two  major powers controlling the Pacific region where his nation is located. He said Malaysia is not as strong as China  and must  learn  to trade and make the best  of China’s  bullying on claiming ownership of   the   South  Seas  Islands  of other nations in the area. That  to me is good   diplomatic    pragmatism.  Regarding  his earlier pre – election pledge to hand over to his former pupil  and later opponent,  with  whom  he rallied to  win the last election,   he    nevertheless   promised  to  carry on,  if the people preferred  he should  continue in power,  even  though he had  been elected on a pledge  of handing power over to his   young  ally after two years on account of his old age.  That showed  a veteran  politician’s  love of  power  at  all costs  and   at  any   time.  Which  too is a  defection from  reality which  itself  breeds  ultimate  defection from power  which  seems to  be  sweeping,   in the  legislature, the rank  and file of  the ruling party in Nigeria. Once again long  live the Federal  Republic of Nigeria.

  • Ekiti guber polls: FRSC to deploy 500 men, 24 vehicles

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) is to deploy 500 personnel for the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti.

    The Corps Public Education Officer, Mr Bisi Kazeem, disclosed this in an SMS alert to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.

    Kazeem said 24 vehicles, including 3 ambulances, would also be deployed for the exercise.

    The aim, according to him, is to strictly enforce the expected restriction in vehicular movement, and to ensure there are no crashes before and after the polls.

  • Bayelsa APC, group quarrel over use of cultists for elections

    •Govt blames party leaders for payroll fraud

    A socio-political group, the Niger Delta Peace Initiative (NDPI) yesterday accused the Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state, of recruiting cultists as part of its preparations for the 2019 general elections.

    The group ýdescribed the APC as currently constituted in the state as a party of cultists and alleged that the state leader of the party, former Governor Timipre Sylva was wooing members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join his party.

    The President of NDPI, Diepreye Ayah, in a statement ýsaid Sylva lured the immediate past Commissioner for Youth Development, Mr. Ibarakumo Otobo to join the APC after promising him the ticket of the party for the Yenagoa/Kolokuma/Opokuma Federal Constituency.

    Ayah said the APC leader met with Otobo in Abuja, where he made the promise, just the same way he promised Osonkinme Blankson the same ticket.

    Ayah said the APC leader used similar tactics prior to the last governorship election to woo members of the PDP to the APC after assuring them of juicy positions which was never fulfilled.

    He said based on the assurances, most of the persons, who joined the APC sold their ýpersonal property to fund the governorship campaign of Sylva but later became bankrupt.

    Ayah said that Sylva was exploiting the greed of some members of the restoration government by promising them tickets ýfor various platform to run in the 2019 elections.

    The NDPI President said political appointees in the present administration who were always complaining of no money in the system ýshould stop being ungrateful but rather be contented that they had jobs and were earning reasonable salaries.

    While adding that the APC had nothing good to offer, Ayah called on young people of Bayelsa to be careful of their choices alleging that in the APC leader would only use and dump them.

    But the state Publicity Secretary, APC, Mr. Doifie Buokoribo, described the claims as baseless and irresponsible.

    Referring to the group as faceless, Buokoribo said: “l don’t respond to faceless groups, who make baseless, irresponsible and ungodly claims.”

    Bayelsa State Government at the weekend also blamed the mess in the state’s public sector on the chieftains of the APC.

    The government said the APC leaders created room for payroll fraud, employment racketeering and other unethical practices when they ruled the state especially during the administration of former Governor Timipre Sylva.

    The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, spoke at Twon Brass, Brass Local Government Area, in the ongoing town hall meeting on public sector reforms.

    Iworiso-Markson was reacting to the claims by the Chairman of the APC, Mr. Jothan Amos, that the state government sacked 28,000 workers under the guise of reforms.

    But the commissioner said the style of governance of the immediate past administration created rooms for rot and decay in the public sector.

    He accused the past administration of leaving behind huge debts and over-bloated wage bills which  he said the present administration was addressing through the ongoing reforms.

    Iworiso-Markson said it would be wrong and most unpatriotic for any right-thinking Bayelsan to

    He said: “Bayelsans will not make the mistake of allowing such characters to lead them again as they lack the political will to do what is right to move the state forward”

    ”We are not bothered because the reforms have come to stay and nothing will stop us from implementing them. Because they do not mean well for the state, they have started promising people that they will reinstate the ghost workers that have been removed from the payroll.

    ”It is unfortunate and indeed shocking that the APC members in their delusion are promising those affected by the reforms that if they take over power come 2020, they will reverse the reforms and reinstate them back to work.”

    The Caretaker Committee Chairman of Brass Local Government Area, Mr. Victor Isaiah commended the efforts of the reform team, noting that the council was saving an average of N10million monthly.

     

     

  • Labour to Nigerians: ensure violence-free 2019 elections

    Organised labour has urged Nigerians to reflect on how the forthcoming general elections could be conducted devoid of violence.

    Trade Union Congress (TUC) President Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama said Nigerians should embrace the virtues of personal sacrifices, piety and self denial. He called for dedication, discipline and diligence.

    He said the deficiency of these virtues were the fundamental reasons why countries that we were at par with in the 1970s have all left us behind, noting that the time to look beyond all “artificial social, political and economic divisions, including minor ethnic and religious differences in the society is now,” Kaigama said.

    He implored Nigerians to be patriotic and strictly allow the cardinal principles of their respective religions to reflect in their dealings, as they remain the only way to ensure peace and unity of the nation.

    “We should exhibit oneness to be able to stand strong together through diverse difficulties and challenges. We must focus on the things that bind us together. That is the new Nigeria we want,” Kaigama stated.

    Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) President Prince Williams Akporeha urged Nigerians to spare a word of prayer for Nigeria in the face of various economic challenges as the campaign for the 2019 national elections gathers momentum.

    “On our part, we will strive to do everything within our powers to maintain industrial peace in the country while we urge the government and relevant agencies to guarantee fairness, justice and equity on issues that have to do with workers’ welfare,” he said.

    He, however, called on the Federal Government to ensure that other parts of the harmonised version of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), which has just been passed by the National Assembly, are speedily passed to help recover and maximise the industry’s operational capacity.

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Ayuba Wabba, noted that in view of the divisive political currents flowing all over Nigeria and mainly driven by irresponsible politics, it is important that Nigerians learn that united in love and sharing, the country stands divided in prejudice and hate, it falls.

    He said: “As we gradually approach another election year in 2019, we urge all Nigerians to intensify prayers for national peace and work towards a violence free and credible elections. It is our prayer that in the 2019 elections, the will of the electorate will prevail and be respected.

    “Well, in the midst of harrowing general inflation, Nigerian workers have soldiered on in self-denial, dedication and diligence as partners in the onerous mission of nation building. The government can make workers’ load lighter by quickly approving the demand of organised labour for a New National Minimum Wage,” he said.

  • Polling and elections

    There is virtually no other field of human endeavour where the prediction of outcomes is as critical as in today’s big-budget politics. Polling is specialized research and typically conducted by large consulting firms and academia through telephone surveys and questionnaires that target population samples based on demographic and psychographic criteria.

    Polling most probably started in 1824with “exit” or “Straw” Polls; impromptu interviews conducted by newspapers with voters as they left the polling booth. However, George Gallup, who founded the American Institute of Public Opinion and The Gallup Poll in 1936 is credited as the father of scientific polling. The Gallup Poll was soon followed by The Public Opinion Quarterly of Princeton University in 1937, The Roper and Crossley Poll (FORTUNE Poll) in 1941, and the American Association for Public Opinion Research in 1947. Since then, pollsters have become an integral part of campaign teams, notably, Louis Harris (Harris Poll), in General Eisenhower’s campaign in 1952 and Dr. Richard Wirthlin who became the first semi-official pollster when he joined President Reagan’s White House staff as an adviser. More recently, UK’s YouGov was founded by Stephan Shakespeare and NadhimZahawi in May 2000.

    Besides the well-established global research firms such as Gallup, YouGov and Pew, universities like Quinnipiac and Monmouth and broadcast media such as Reuters/Ipsos, ABC News/Washington Post, CBS/Tech Republic and CNN have large research consultancies or partner themselves to run polls.

    The need for polling in politics was underscored by Abraham Lincoln (U.S. President, 1861-1865) when he famously declared, “What I want to get done is what the people desire to have done, and the question for me is how to find that out exactly.” Polling focuses political discourse on a topical issue and helps politicians assess public opinion and guide policy. In advanced democracies, the ballot routinely incorporates polling for so much public opinion on other issues that it can be rightly considered a national or state referendum. In the U.S. General Elections of 2016, voters were polled on other issues ranging from the economy, terrorism and Supreme Court appointments to gun control, immigration and abortion.

    Polling creates the avenue for public participation and a sense of involvement in governance especially when leveraged by an honest politician such as Abe Lincoln in the preceding paragraph. In fact, polling and freedom are so inseparable that dictators never risk independent opinion surveys.

    Besides its obvious application in the development of campaign strategy, polling is useful for formulating political ideology and public policy in a nascent democracy such as ours, and because they can be conducted for any purpose, they are a veritable tool not only in politics but also in business.

    Polls provide raw data that Predictive Analytics and Audience Insight tools analyse to understand the preferences and motivation of consumers and voters. Although Cambridge Analytica has been scandalized for its unauthorized mining and unethical use of personal data, the benefit of its technology in politics and commerce is hard to ignore. An online poll can reach a wider audience than traditional telephone surveys. With mobile devices and the internet, an online poll is just as easy to send to respondents in China as in Europe. This is of particular advantage in the global economy age where companies looking to expand into a new market would like to test public reaction to their product first.

    Political polling generally follows the sophistication of electoral systems and communication infrastructure of a country. Nigeria as an independent country is only 58 years old and our democracy is even much younger having been truncated for the larger part of those years. Our electoral system is still manual, and our telephone and postal systems were too poor to support traditional research methods of telephone surveys and questionnaires until about 2002. Our manual electoral system was further compounded by widespread irregularities and outright fraud so that ballot papers were not only unreliable by inaccessible to psephologists for any meaningful post-election analysis.

    Consequently, Nigeria did not begin to benefit from polls and surveys until the Internet and telecom boom which really began in 2002. With improved ICT infrastructure and the growth of social media, several organisations have contracted research firms to conduct online surveys mostly for purposes of testing new products and markets but the political polls niche is still untapped. Media organisations often run snap or call-in polls on topical political issues of the day to augment their news coverage but these are opaque efforts that do not show any relationship between the few participants and the larger populace from which a general trend may be gleaned.

    PollBook is a new platform to run polls, debate and vote on topical issues and mobilize support for popular action. It leverages the Internet and New Media to generate public interest in politics especially among the millennials and then translate that interest to actual participation in the ballot and real actions that force policy and change. Replicating the electoral system of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to capture details such as age, gender, religion, political affiliation, educational standard, occupation, state of origin, state of residence etc, it is able to predict a candidate’s chances at the General Elections with more reliable intelligence.

    Currently, voters are restricted to fixed locations on Election Day but the platform is deliberately more inclusive to generate the data required for a sustained and robust political discourse. For the candidates, analysis of the results narrows the field to gain the intelligence required for political strategy and where more reliable data is required, can verify a representative sample of voters through email and phone calls.

    Traditional polls have been long suspected of manipulation because they’re not so transparent with their results, choosing to present them only in vague percentages with no indication of either their sample size or selection criteria. But by creating an online Voters Register and mounting a sustained effort to drive participation, PollBook seeks to demystify polling.

     

    • Eyoma, a pollster wrote vide mfoneyoma@yahoo.com.

  • Elections and the graffiti of posters

    Sir: Politics accounts for the high number of campaign posters, paintings and sign boards within the environment especially during electioneering periods. No political party will want to be left out in the contest. Everyone is trying to prove a point ahead of the general elections come next year. Printing presses are springing up due to the high demand of politicians and their respective parties. They spend huge sum of money on posters and sign boards to be able to present something that can be appreciable by the public. Posters are used to showcase candidates or to promote an individual or party.

    The question on people’s mind is how safe and hygienic are these political posters and sign boards to the environment and its inhabitants. Almost all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are loaded with campaign posters. For instance, walls of public buildings are covered with posters and one may ask when walls of schools, electric poles, street and traffic light become places for placing posters for campaign.

    Mounting huge posters and bill boards in major roads especially round about pose a serious danger to commuters using the road. Roundabout take up to four major route where vehicles meet and take the appropriate way to their destinations. What I want point out here is; when roads are covered with huge posters and signboards, they become a source of distraction to the road users as their attention may be diverted while driving in such a busy road. Accidents could occur because some of the posters obstruct drivers’ views.

    The issues arising with these campaign posters and sign boards are enormous because those responsible do it without putting into consideration the need to keep the environment clean and safe. We have beautiful cities with good architectural designs but in times of election campaigns, the cities are often deformed with posters. From doors of people, electricity poles, traffic lights, trees and every space available are taken up in a graffiti of posters.

    Worse still, these posters are not removed after the campaigns are over thus living towns and cities bearing what becomes the ugly mark of politics. It is our environment that suffers in the long run. It is hoped that laws can be made to curb the indiscriminate use of posters and boards during elections.

     

    • Bdliya Daniel Miti, 300 level student Department of Mass Communication University of Maiduguri.

  • APC: elections’ll hold into all offices

    •Party to retain zoning formula

    There will be elections into all offices during next month’s congresses and convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party said yesterday.

    The party will retain its zoning formula, its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, told The Nation in Abuja.

    The party, he said, overruled Adamawa State Governor Jibrilla Bindow’s suggestion that there would be no elective congresses.

    According to him, there will be no tenure elongation for any officer.

    He said there was no cause for alarm on the notice sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) about congresses and convention.

    There was anxiety over a letter by National Secretary Mai Mala Buni which indicated that the congresses and convention were meant to “fill the existing vacancies.”

    Abdullahi said: “There will be elections in all the ward, local government, state and national levels.

    “APC members will exercise their right to vote for the officers to lead them at all levels.

    ”I am sure you are aware that the Governor of Adamawa State, Jibrilla Bindow had a meeting with the State Executive Council that there will be no elective congresses. But the National Working Committee (NWC) has cautioned him and overruled him that there will be election into all the offices.”

    “As to the letter written to INEC, I asked from the National Organising Secretary, Senator Osita Izunaso, on why it was couched like that and he said ‘this is the way such letters are written. The use of ‘effusion of time’ is a language that the tenure of the party officers has expired.

    “Naturally, there are some vacancies in the party at different levels as a result of death, political appointment or even defection

    “It is therefore misleading to talk of a fresh crisis or any plot for tenure elongation. Maybe it fits into the usual narrative of some people and some media.”

    Abdullahi added: “The election may not hold in a few states like Ekiti where the dates for congresses have coincided with their primaries for governorship election.”

    He said the National Executive Committee (NEC) decided that the party should retain its zoning of all offices.

    “The zoning arrangement will be retained. That was the decision of NEC and not the NWC.”

  • INEC: Private sector to fund elections?

    Sir: At the end of a three-day conference on the Opportunities and Challenges in the use of Technology in Elections organized in Abuja recently by electoral management bodies from west (and southern) African countries, one of the pleas from communiqué was the call “on the private sector to assist in funding elections because the cost of elections are too high for the government to bear” (see, Punch, April 12).

    Methinks we shouldn’t outsource the funding of our elections to private sector; they can collaborate as equipment providers or suppliers and provide us with election logistics services as the case may be as secondary stakeholders in elections. But for private sector to fund elections in a highly charged context like Nigeria would most likely compromise a lot of things since most of our politicians (the politically exposed persons) are more often than not the beneficial owners of most of our thriving businesses. Fortunately, unlike most other poor African countries, Nigeria can fund its elections without begging anybody as evident from all the five general elections conducted so far under the current fourth republic.

    For example, for 2015 general elections, the total funding supports and other technical assistance from all the development partners and donor agencies put together for INEC could not be more than five percent (at most) for its entire budget. It however serves as an important contribution for civil society organizations to deepening civic engagement in Nigeria’s electoral democracy.

     

    • Tunde Salman, Convener, Good Governance Team, Lagos.

  • Elections budget

    •National Assembly should expedite action on it because time is of the essence

    It is particularly worrying that the National Assembly’s  delay in passing the budget for the 2019 elections may ultimately affect the planning and running of the elections.

    The Commissioner for Voter Education, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Solomon Soyebi, gave an insight into the situation:  ”We have less than 330 days to the elections and time is running out. We expect the budget to have come out at least a year to the elections. We have less than a year and we should not be talking about the budget now, but implementation…So, it gives us concern because we don’t want funds to hamper the elections in 2019… If we had had more funds, most of the problems associated with this Continuous Voter Registration would not have occurred at all.”

    It is indeed a cause for concern that the elections budget is not getting the attention it deserves. INEC’s electoral activities are timetabled, meaning that schedules will be affected if funding is delayed open-endedly.

    The National Assembly’s role in this delayed funding leaves much to be desired. It is relevant to note that the federal legislature is also yet to pass Nigeria’s 2018 budget, four months into the year. The delay has been extended by the conflict between the executive and legislative arms of government over INEC’s election schedule for next year.

    According to INEC’s plan, the presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on February 16, 2019, while the governorship and state legislative elections will hold on March 2, 2019. Those opposed to this schedule in the National Assembly want the 2019 polls to begin with the National Assembly election, followed by the state houses of assembly, governors and the president. The opposers reportedly fear that if the presidential election comes first, there could be a bandwagon effect that would be to their disadvantage. It is, therefore, self-serving opposition.

    It remains to be seen whether the National Assembly will carry out its threat to override by a two-third majority President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to sign into law the Bill amending the Electoral Act which, among other things, seeks to change INEC’s sequence of elections. We hope their apparent desperation will not prevail.

    So, the issue of delayed passage of the elections budget is compounded by the issue of election sequence. At issue in court is whether the legislative powers vested in the National Assembly by the Constitution empowers or imbues it with the right, liberty or authority to control or dictate to INEC the way and manner it should organise, undertake and supervise elections, including fixing the sequence and dates of the elections into the offices of the president and vice president, governor and deputy governor of a state, membership of the Senate, the House of Representatives and the House of Assembly of each state.

    Since the elections will be based on the Electoral Act, it is important to resolve issues pertaining to the enabling law with a sense of urgency.

    As things stand, the extant Electoral Act that informed INEC’s elections budget and original timetable remains valid because it has not been legally amended and the elections sequence has not been legally reordered.

    The electoral commission should not be a victim of the conflict between the legislature and the executive. INEC’s role and responsibility must not be in abeyance while the conflict lasts. It is a delicate situation because how the conflict is resolved will be a big factor in how next year’s elections would be organised; but this should not mean that INEC’s activities will have to wait till the issues are resolved.

    In the final analysis, what needs to be done to get INEC well prepared for the 2019 elections should not be neglected by the National Assembly based on narrow motives and interests.