Date Published: 02/02/11

JANUARY 31, 2011 SPECIAL REPORT AND ANALYSIS

Voter Registration complications and failure: A Precursor to the 2011 General Elections!!!

The complications and failures in the ongoing voters’ registration exercise are yet to be resolved despite INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega’s reassurances and promises. And from the way the whole exercise has been going since it started, it appears it has been designed to fail and this confirms our fears that the 2011 general elections may not be free and fair after all and that the people’s will might be scuttled yet again.

This much is true because voters’ registration is the first step in the electoral process and if we all agree that free and fair elections is an essential prerequisite for good governance, and that the Nigerian people have an inalienable right to self determination, then a genuine voters’ register is indispensable and inviolable as that is the only way Nigerians can freely choose their leaders and participate in the democratic process.

But sadly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under Prof. Jega doesn’t seem to share this same aspiration and longing of the people, or how else can we explain the irregularities and inconsistencies that has plagued the exercise so far. The original two weeks earmarked for the exercise was a flop and woeful failure. Prof. Jega claimed they were able to register 28Million Nigerians out of the estimated 70Million or so eligible voters in the two weeks and that the additional week he requested for is enough to register the rest; where he got his statistics from is yet to be seen. How is he even sure that the figures handed him is correct? What modalities did he put in put in place to verify and validate reports handed to him?

From the beginning of the exercise, there have been systems malfunctions such that registration of a prospective voter takes up to 45minutes in some centres. At other centres, the norm is that people will write down their names and get a number so that they can be registered the following day or even during the week as there is no guarantee that they will be able to get registered even if they wait in the queue or sleep at the centre till the following day. Even with the one week extension, the situation is still the same with no improvement. For instance, at the registration centre on Saturday and Sunday, the 29 th and 30 th of April on Allen Junction, Ikeja, Lagos, there were no much queues, yet registering there isn’t easy as the centre has no functional printer. One therefore has to register and come much later in the evening or the next day to collect his or her voters’ card, and that even is not assured. Other centres are not different. In Ijaiye/Ojokoro Secondary School, Ijaiye and several other centres in that precinct, the systems either malfunction or have low batteries (or no backup batteries); and some of them have no printers either, while at Oludegun Street, Ire-Akari Estate, Isolo, Lagos, the registration centres has been suspended for no justifiable reason; there has been no registration there for these two days. This is even as some communities in some parts of the nation, particularly in Ekiti State and Delta State, are yet to start the registration exercise. Other feedbacks we have got revealed that some centres are capturing the data of potential voters with only two or three fingerprints as against the required ten fingers of both hands; there is also the provision where one can opt for registration without the fingerprints. The lack of logistics and remuneration packages for the field officers is another issue that is yet to be addressed with citizens donating generators and offering food to the officials, and some State governments doling out cash to INEC officials. In Kwara State for instance, the government gave INEC officials there a gift of N100Million; Greek gift we will say. This we believe is defeating the very purpose of the exercise as it exposes it to fraud and manipulation.

There is no disputing the fact that the voters registration exercise is failing and if this continues till the end of the one week extension, then we can safely conclude that the 2011 general elections has been programmed to fail by the government. Is this true? Oh yes! It is, and we will prove it further. When Prof. Jega came into office in the wake of the renewed agitation for an overhaul of INEC and a new team to lead it, he said in a news conference, that the extant voters’ register he met on ground was fraudulent and fictitious and that he can only assure a 10% free and fair election with it and that as such, there was need for a fresh voters’ register. Shortly after, INEC fixed January 2011 for the general elections. In the light of this revelation, and the fact that we aren’t ready to take a 10% chance on change, we canvassed for a shift in the elections and a new and genuine voters’ register that will lead to free and fair elections which will culminate in strong democratic institutions. We advocated then for at least four months to do that that; knowing that planning for success must be tempered by reason, for there is nothing in the flow of time that will cure all evils; time can either be used constructively or destructively, and as such, we can’t just walk with the false belief that we will just muddle through. And we pushed for this assuming that all of the equipments and manpower for the exercise was already on ground, and the fact that a large, diverse and pluralistic nation as ours will require nothing less to be able to achieve such a feat. We also pressed for this against the backdrop of the fact that we practically have no information gathering system in this country; no national database, no statistical database from the office of the National Population Commission, no statistical data for births or deaths and no data whatsoever from the nation’s civic registration centre. And we did pushed for this with the knowledge and understanding that we have been carrying out voters’ registration since the colonial era for at least 89years now with no success. And this we did with the hope that Prof. Jega with his antecedents may be able to make a difference and carry out this all important exercise once and for all with enabling technology so that we can have a centralised database that will need only updating with future voters’ in subsequent elections, but our hopes are being dashed again. Prof. Jega and his team had up six to seven months to do that from that time, but the administrative bottlenecks in government in this country would not allow that be; over two amendments to the electoral act in six months, over N87billion and perhaps another N6.6billion, still we can’t get it right. Ours is probably the most expensive election worldwide, as we are spending over $.07billion and still we aren’t sure of a free and fair election. Prof. Jega insisted he needed just one more week, which he has announced. If it took him and INEC to register only 28Million in two weeks, how are they going to register the remaining 42Million in just one week, given the unresolved issues in the exercise?

It is instructive to note that with all of these hitches and frustrations, the Nigerian people have displayed an amazing patience, character and strength of purpose. They have not wavered in their determination to ensure that this time around, there would be a difference; that their voices and votes could be that difference. Thus far, there has been no voters’ apathy; indeed, the people have shown that they have matured considerably politically and socially. There is a growing political consciousness as never before witnessed in this country. In their quest to get registered to vote, many of them now sacrificed their rest and sleep, waking up most times as early as 3.00am to go and queue at the registration centres, and waiting patiently until 8.00am or 8.30am when the exercise starts. The astonishing patience of our fellow citizens is legendary.

One other thing worth mentioning is the fact that Prof. Jega threatened to resign the other day. Could he be under any form of pressure to do that which is against his will and conscience? Are our fears justified? If this is so as we are tempted to believe, we would rather have him come out clean and tell us who or those that are giving him needless heat and pressure, so that the Nigerian people can take up such men, no matter how highly placed. We cannot afford to our let our will be sabotaged again. If he doesn’t do that, and this whole exercise fails, then we can as well forget the 2011 general elections, for they are as good as rigged already as has been shown by the results of the gubernatorial re-run elections in Delta State few weeks ago, which were rigged with impunity, though intellectually and with full presidential backing and approval in favour of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party. That re-run polls is a sign of what to expect in this forthcoming general elections, and that is why we are not very surprised at what is happening in the current voters’ registration exercise.

Eneruvie Enakoko

Editor in Chief and Spokesperson

eenakoko@consciencereports.tv

{Enakoko is also the Chairman of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) in Lagos}.