{"id":31009,"date":"2014-09-08T15:21:32","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T14:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=31009"},"modified":"2014-09-08T15:21:32","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T14:21:32","slug":"another-look-distribution-new-polling-units-inec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/another-look-distribution-new-polling-units-inec\/","title":{"rendered":"Another look at the distribution of new Polling Units by INEC"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi<\/span>

Have you heard the scream? It must have got to you since the yell which<\/span>
emanates from the south-east reverberates even in the remotest part of<\/span>
Kano State. By the scream, I’m referring to manner in which parts of the<\/span>
country gained and were cheated in the distribution of additional 29,129<\/span>
polling units carried out by the Independent National Electoral<\/span>
Commission, INEC. Of a truth, the inequality is one that is screaming for<\/span>
attention.<\/span>

Had it been that it called for attention, this column wouldn\u2019t have been<\/span>
distracted from focussing on other troubles our nation is inundated with.<\/span>
But then, it elected to scream for attention. Hence, you cannot deny to<\/span>
have heard it even if you are located around Nigeria\u2019s border with Niger<\/span>
Republic. Though understandably prominent in the south-east, this shout is<\/span>
further re-echoed from other flanks of southern Nigeria as well as those<\/span>
patches of the north inhabited by northerners whose sense of objectivity<\/span>
is still very much alive.<\/span>

From my perspective, INEC\u2019s creation of the additional polling units is an<\/span>
ambush. It is akin to what Steve Nwosu of The Sun Newspapers would have<\/span>
included in his list of acts that amounts to \u2018tactical manoeuvring.\u2019 It is<\/span>
rightly so because a good number of us by virtue of the commission’s<\/span>
earlier clean-up of the voter register had passed a vote of confidence on<\/span>
Jega\u2019s INEC to the extent that we all went to bed. Unfortunately, that was<\/span>
when the commission chose to take us unawares; coming like a thief in the<\/span>
night! Whether this was an orchestrated act or another instance of our<\/span>
public servants advancing out the vague public interest, we shall get to<\/span>
find out as we progress.<\/span>

Let’s begin with a backgrounder: The electoral body, as earlier pointed<\/span>
out, went about vetting the nation\u2019s voter register- a procedure which<\/span>
helped it detect millions of ghost-voters.\u00a0The endeavour yielded so much<\/span>
success such that our voter register which in 2011 had some 70 million<\/span>
names as registered voters in Nigeria depreciated to a figure below 60<\/span>
million. This was all that was needed by most Nigerians to surrender all<\/span>
to INEC and go to sleep. By the time they woke, they were greeted with the<\/span>
new reality that the number of polling booths in the country, which they<\/span>
knew to be 119,973, has now climbed to 150,000.<\/span>

The furore and disquiet that ensued had nothing to do with INEC spiking<\/span>
the number of polling units. Rather, it had everything to do with the<\/span>
manner in which the booths were distributed among the major divides of the<\/span>
country. It also had a lot to do with the fact that the number of polling<\/span>
units handed the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, surpassed the number of<\/span>
polling booths that the entire south-east got! Note that I’m not referring<\/span>
to Enugu State alone, but the five states of the south-east put together!<\/span>
Pray, what justification can be given for this, even if the rest of us<\/span>
were fools? I bet you can now remember hearing the yell for attention.<\/span>

How I hate to discuss any issue that would warrant me pitching one<\/span>
division of the country against the other. But, INEC left people like me<\/span>
with no choice. Perhaps, I should just call up the data showing how many<\/span>
of the new polling units were ‘zoned’ to each geopolitical zone in the<\/span>
country lest I be accused of being mischievous. You want facts? Here you<\/span>
have it:<\/span>

Out of the additional 29,129 Polling Units, PUs, created by INEC, the<\/span>
north (including the Federal Capital Territory) got 20,715; while a meagre<\/span>
8,414 of the sum went to the south. And this is how it was shared among<\/span>
the geopolitical zones: The north-west cornered 7, 906 of the new PUs;<\/span>
north-east 5, 291 and north-central 6, 318, conversely south-west 4, 160,<\/span>
south-south 3, 087 and south-east 1, 167 while the Federal Capital<\/span>
Territory (which is still a part of the north) getting 1, 200.<\/span>

Little wonder the delineation is screaming for attention. The perceived<\/span>
regional bias inherent in it is accentuated by the following home truths:<\/span>
the allocation of 7,906 PUs to the north-west approximates to the 8,412<\/span>
which the whole of southern Nigeria got. Similarly, each of the north-east<\/span>
and north-west zones got more polling units than the whole of south-west<\/span>
inclusive of Lagos, which is considered the state with the highest number<\/span>
of eligible voters nationwide.<\/span>

And then the most inciting of the short-change is that the allocations of<\/span>
the new PUs that accrued to the FCT exceeded what went to the entire<\/span>
south-east! The apparent advantage the most recent creation of PUs gave<\/span>
the northern part of the country is without respect to the fact that an<\/span>
earlier clean-up of voter register led INEC into discovering more<\/span>
fictitious voters in the north than it did in the south.<\/span>

Zamfara State used to have 2,045,131 registered voters. The clean-up<\/span>
exercise revealed that 1,130,245 of these were ghost-voters, meaning that<\/span>
as much as 44% of the names in the Zamfara voters register were bogus.<\/span>
With this as the case, why would INEC then go ahead to award more PUs to<\/span>
states like this in a fashion that amounts to taking one step forward and<\/span>
two backward? Let’s try to check out the explanations INEC has given for<\/span>
this awkward arrangement.<\/span>

According to Kayode Idowu, who is the chief press secretary to INEC<\/span>
chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega, \u201cThe whole purpose of the exercise is to<\/span>
enhance the access of voters to PUs and align the Nigerian system with<\/span>
global best practices. It is also intended to minimise the cost of<\/span>
elections.” I hear!\u00a0 Let’s try to remember that while announcing the<\/span>
creation of the additional polling units, the INEC director in charge of<\/span>
the commission’s secretariat, Ishiaku A. Gali, informed that the creation<\/span>
of the additional PUs was in fulfilment of the electoral umpire’s pledge<\/span>
to decongest polling units across the country in order to make it easier<\/span>
for voters to cast their votes.<\/span>

And then I asked, is it that people of the north love casting their ballot<\/span>
so much that their PUs are always congested as against those in the south?<\/span>
It is probable that people of the south are so passionate about voting<\/span>
that even if there is just one PU per local government area, they will<\/span>
still persevere through the jam till they have voted for their preferred<\/span>
candidate, hence INEC saw no need in wasting logistics.<\/span>

Then again, it may be that the people of the north are not wont to coming<\/span>
out to vote on election days, therefore as an incentive, INEC is merely<\/span>
trying to lure them out by bringing the booths closer to them. All these<\/span>
supposition would be incomplete without this last one. It is already said<\/span>
in some quarters that INEC is merely playing out a script from what the<\/span>
controversial Femi Aribasala termed #Bring Back Our Northern Domination.<\/span>

Hear the columnist, “what the North lost by the removal of the fictitious<\/span>
ghost-voters was then re-awarded by the allocation of additional<\/span>
polling-units. For example, Zamfara that was discovered to be the<\/span>
guiltiest state in the inflation of its register with over one million<\/span>
ghost-voters was then awarded 1,000 more polling-units. Given the fact<\/span>
that each polling-unit has a maximum of 500 voters, this means Zamfara was<\/span>
awarded additional 500,000 potential voters as compensation for its loss<\/span>
of ghost-voters.<\/span>


“It also means INEC compensated the North with 10, 807,500 potentially new<\/span>
voters; as opposed to 4,206,000 in the South. This is more than enough to<\/span>
swing any election to the Northern advantage,” he posited.<\/span>

Meanwhile, INEC is not yet done in the defence of its contentious award of<\/span>
polling units. According to the electoral body, \u201cthe defunct National<\/span>
Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) created the present structure of<\/span>
PUs in 1996. The present commission undertook a verification of the PUs<\/span>
nationwide and their location in 2010 and ascertained 119, 973 units.<\/span>

“A substantial number of these PUs are located in public buildings. But<\/span>
there are some PUs located in public open spaces; and yet some others in<\/span>
the premises of traditional rulers, places of worship, frontage of private<\/span>
houses and, indeed, inside private compounds,<\/span>

\u201cInternational best practice is that classrooms or halls of public<\/span>
schools\/institutions should be used as polling units. This makes access<\/span>
control and crowd management at the PUs much easier,\u201d INEC explained.<\/span>

I took my time to present you this explanation from INEC so you can help<\/span>
me decide if it adequately justifies the favouring of one part of the<\/span>
country to the detriment of another\u00a0in the distribution of polling units.<\/span>
This is because from where I stand, their postulations are sheer<\/span>
balderdash. It is so because I expected them to rather throw more light on<\/span>
that scientific means they used which supported the award of more polling<\/span>
units to parts of the north where insecurity has decimated the population<\/span>
there as against the relatively safer south. They should have also told us<\/span>
how on earth an FCT came to be in a position to get more PUs than the<\/span>
whole of south-east. Basically, the commission should have been more<\/span>
interested in straightening out all the obvious odds surrounding the PUs<\/span>
instead of the lame justification it is putting out.<\/span>

Not until they give us a better explanation or correct this screaming<\/span>
anomaly, I would want to believe that INEC is merely trying to tilt the<\/span>
scale in favour of the north ahead of the 2015 election. President<\/span>
Jonathan had better intervened by working for a more equitable and<\/span>
balanced redistribution of the PUs for his own sake.<\/span>

In a manner of speaking, Ndigbo are to be held responsible for this<\/span>
cavalier treatment their zone got from INEC. This is because their actions<\/span>
and inactions violated the native wisdom which suggests that the more<\/span>
likely your zone is to deliver close to 100 per cent votes for Jonathan in<\/span>
2015, the less number of polling booths you will get. Ultimately, this<\/span>
remains their Ebele Azikiwe’s battle to fight. I’m just saying!<\/span>

For your reactions:\u00a0<\/span>ug.ugovester@gmail.com<\/a>
To follow me on twitter: @ugsylvester<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ugochukwu UgwuanyiHave you heard the scream? It must have got to you since the yell whichemanates from the south-east reverberates even in the remotest part ofKano State. 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