From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was understandably the cynosure of all eyes in the year just ended. Coming before 2023, a year for the general election, the attention on the electoral umpire was not surprising. It was the year the commission was burdened with redesigning the future and political trajectory of the country through its various activities.
Confronted with the crucial responsibilities of conducting a credible, transparent, free and fair general election, the INEC did not only issue an amended electoral guideline, timetable and schedule of activities for this year’s general election but also started the per second and minute countdown to the poll.
In line with its resolve to apply precision years and months ahead of the 2023 election, the commission had hit the ground running early in the year with the announcement of an adjusted date for the 2023 polls.
Speaking at the event to announce the adjustment of the timetable and schedule of activities in February last year, the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, had announced that; “the 2023 general election was initially scheduled to commence February 18, 2023 with the Presidential and National Assembly elections, and the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections on the 4th of March, 2023.
“Consequently, the commission has decided to adjust the dates of the 2023 general election to ensure compliance with the provisions of the new law. Accordingly, the Presidential and National Assembly elections will now hold on Saturday, February 25, 2023 while the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday, March 11, 2023.
“Under the law, there are critical time bound activities from the publication of Notice of Election to the conduct of polls which form the timetable and schedule of activities for the elections,” the commission had announced early 2022 and religiously followed till year end.
Ever since then, the commission had made little adjustments, especially due to pressure, legal and logistics requirements, but despite the challenges, it was able to prosecute greater percentage of the activities.
From readjusting the timetable and schedule of activities for the presidential and National Assembly, the governorship and State Assembly elections to the update of voters register, the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, and the lobbying, passage and signing of the amended Electoral Bill into an Act, the commission had a beehive of activities in the just ended year 2022.
Above all, 2022 marked a year the commission consciously embarked on a journey to redirect Nigeria’s political future through perfecting electoral processes to conduct a credible and transparent poll.
As at February 2022, the commission, aware that the passage and signing of the new Electoral Act will come with additional challenges, embarked on providing the necessary facilities that will ensure a smooth electoral process.
To also make the success build up to the 2023 election memorably complete, the commission had continued the diplomatic approach of holding quarterly stakeholders meetings with the security agents, media executives, Civil Society Organisation (CSO), national leadership of political party and essentially its Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) to strategise and restrategise on the best way to deliver an unbiased elections.
With a reduced sizeable number of registered political parties, the commission had used 2022 to perfect the electoral processes with various activities to test run the conduct of a satisfactory general election.
Technology innovations
The year 2022, for the commission witnessed exceptional deployment of technological innovations in the conduct of elections. Such technologies backed by the new Electoral Act include the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Results View (IReV) among others.
Tested during the conduct of several off-season elections in many states of the federation within the year under consideration, the commission had not only expressed readiness to deploy full technology to the conduct of this year’s poll, but also assured that it will be election like no other, going by the near perfect build-up almost all through the just ended year.
Other innovations deployed in the year 2022 to smoothen the conduct of an acceptable poll include the launch of Election Results Analysis Dashboard, an Electoral Act-empowered technology to transmit election results in real time.
And due to assurances by the technology, the year saw a massive increase in youth participation that saw more young Nigerians enthusiastically getting their names on the voter register, by turning out to register and collect their PVCs in readiness to participate in the 2023 general election.
BVAS, other technologies and non-sensitive materials like voting cubicles, were procured and deployed to various states and Local Government Areas (LGAs), in readiness for this year’s poll.
Periodically, almost all through year 2022, the commission had assured the Nigerian electorate of its readiness and determination to deliver an electoral process to ensure the conduct of a credible poll this year.
Continuous Voter Registration
Resentment, anger, disappointment and complaints from almost every part of the country, had trailed the appeals for continuation of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) after the commission’s decision to suspend the exercise across the country.
In many states, the disposition of the new registrants was justified, considering the fact that they genuinely wanted to register but were denied by the discouraging insurmountable teething challenges at various registration centres like malfunctioning machines, equipment, logistics, inefficient and insufficient personnel, and other shortcomings from the commission.
In some places, the antics of the commission’s personnel, deliberate sabotage from resentful elements, and insecurity had combined to deny the registrants the opportunity to effectively and efficiently perform their civic duty of registering to vote for candidates of their choices in this year’s general elections.
But, despite the controversies and certain legal battles over the duration of the CVR, the commission entered the annals of history with the successful inclusion of over 12 million new registrants into the voter register, confirming that the exercise cannot be regarded as a failure.
According to INEC’s statistics, over 95 million voters will be participating in this year’s general elections, with North West, and South West leading the pack.
Among the eligible voters, according to INEC, the Northwest zone, comprising seven states, Sokoto, Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna and Jigawa, topped the table with 22.67 million. Southwest zone with six states, Lagos, Oyo, Ondo, Osun, Ogun, and Ekiti, trailed with a total voting strength of over 18.3 million.
Prospective voters from the two geopolitical zones account for 41.7 per cent of the total number of registered voters. North Central came a distant third position with 15.68 million, South-south with 15.29 million; Northeast with 12.82 million and expectedly the Southeast with 11.49 million.
Challenges of insecurity, attacks of offices and facilities, litigations
However, despite the assurances and arrangements, the commission had continued to battle multiple endemic challenges, ranging from attacks of its offices and facilities in many states, the unending security threats in almost every part of the country and endless litigations affecting its timetable and schedule of activities.
According to the statistics released recently detailing the attacks on its offices across the country, the electoral umpire revealed that it suffered more than eight attacks in the year 2022 alone, with an unquantifiable level of damages especially the printed uncollected Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and facilities.
In almost all the geopolitical zones, the hostile and intolerant political situations were the same. The deliberate attacks hoodlums and political thugs unleashed on the opposition was on the rise,; escalating cases of kidnapping, banditry, and insurgency equally posed threats to the conduct of smooth election.
In almost all his official functions on election security in 2022, chairman of the commission, never failed to acknowledge and highlight insecurity as one of the biggest challenges facing the conduct of this year’s general elections.
Yakubu had constantly acknowledged that; “ensuring the safety and security of voters, election personnel, materials, candidates, party agents, observers, the media and transporters are enormous. This responsibility has become more challenging in the context of the current security situation in the country.
While expressing further concerns over the threat insecurity posed on the polls, he said: “Beyond vote buying, there must also be decisive action against negative mobilisation, incitement and violence during the electioneering campaign.
“Since the commencement of campaigns by political parties, the incidents of physical attacks on supporters and destruction of campaign materials across the country is worrisome. At our consultative meeting with leaders of political parties in Nigeria, they also complained about denial of access to public facilities and exorbitant charges in some states for the use of such facilities for the dissemination of their campaign materials, messages and rallies.
“These attacks and denials are a violation of the Electoral Act 2022 and ominous signs of what will follow as the campaigns enter critical stages. They may also be a prelude to violence on Election Day and beyond. We should tackle the smoke before it snowballs into a major inferno,” he charged the security agents.
He was not alone in expressing such apprehension over security threats to the election. To underscore its gravity, National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, also warned that the violent dimensions of electioneering campaigns, characterised by attacks on campaign rallies, campaign offices and uncomplimentary remarks, uncouth utterances among politicians, was a serious concern.
“I commend the tireless efforts of all security agencies in maintaining peace and order during the ongoing electioneering campaigns across the states. However, the violent dimensions of electioneering campaigns which characterise attacks on campaign rallies, political campaign offices as well as passing of uncomplimentary remarks and uncouth utterances among politicians witnessed in some states signal potential threats to the smooth conduct of the forthcoming elections.
“Accordingly, while security agencies strategise new measures to counter the rising wave of violence in the polity, the second phase of the signing of ‘Peace Accord’, by the National Peace Committee (NPC) scheduled for January, 2023, will be fruitful in deescalating the violent trend,” he said.
In what looked like complicating the already frightening situation, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, revealed ordering the heads of police formations across the country to fortify securities around their areas.
“We will begin immediate counter-terrorism incident simulation exercise codenamed ‘Operation Darkin Gaggawa’. The police force hereby reassures Nigerians, all other residents and visitors in the country that it will effectively review the US Embassy in Abuja’s security advisory issued recently,” IGP however, assured in a statement issued by the Force spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi.
Equally, another issue of concerns that played out in 2022 to shape the year for the commission include handling several pre-election litigations, election conflict mitigation, management and resolution.
And decrying the disturbing rate of cases in the law court, the electoral umpire chairman, had confessed that; “the commission has been inundated by numerous pre-election cases arising from the conduct of primaries by political parties for the poll.
“So far, 334 pre-election cases were filed at various divisions of the Federal High Court across the country by aspirants challenging the nomination of candidates or their exclusion from the list submitted to the commission.
“Although these are purely intra-party issues, the commission has been joined in all these cases. Sadly, the issue of internal democracy in political parties remains a sore point in our electoral process. The commission will continue to engage with political parties while standing firm against any transgression by strictly enforcing the provisions of the law and extant regulations and guidelines,” Yakubu had noted.
Lamentably, as at the end of the year, the commission has replaced a total number of 340 candidates participating in this year’s election due to various court orders. It further disclosed that candidates for Senate seats, House of Representatives, Governorship and House of Assembly were all involved in the replacement carried out in the first and second amendments involving almost all the political parties.
The spate of attacks on INEC’s facilities and offices in many states was another incident that characterised the year for the commission. No fewer than eight of such facilities and offices were callously burnt and vandalised in cruel circumstances within a spate of four months last year.
Each of the incidents came with an unquantifiable level of damages, ranging from electoral materials like voting cubicles, ballot boxes, to official cars, office furniture, and countless numbers of uncollected PVCs.
From Ogun State where thousands of uncollected PVCs were consumed in the inferno, Osun State where movable and immovable facilities were reduced to rubbles, to several states in the South East of Imo, Ebonyi, Enugu and Abia, where the attacks heightened to disturbing magnitude, the commission writhed in pains and agony over the helpless situation confronting it.
In the Ogun incident, considered the most impactful attack, the main building and all the movable assets in the office were destroyed. In all, 904 ballot boxes, 29 voting cubicles, 30 megaphones, 57 election bags, eight electric power generators and 65,699 uncollected PVCs were among other items destroyed.
While appearing at the National Assembly recently, the commission’s chairman, Yakubu, issued a fresh warning that the attack is posing a serious threat to the conduct of this year’s polls.
“The attacks have far-reaching implications on preparation for the general election. First, the facilities that are destroyed, especially offices, would take time to rebuild. They are not like items of procurement that you can procure off the shelf. So, an alternative arrangement has to be made.
“In some of the states, in addition to these malicious attacks, other matters were as a result of fire and flooding. Several materials lost would have to be replaced. In the recent attacks, some of the PVCs, for instance, were lost. For the PVCs, we have instructed our state offices to send the Voter Identification Numbers of the lost PVCs so we can reprint them. We can, from our database, quickly regenerate and reprint the cards so that citizens are not disenfranchised,” he promised.
Apart from the incidents enumerated above, the face-off with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over the safe keep and security of electoral materials was another issue of concern in 2022.
It was a fallout of the involvement of CBN Governor in the electoral process, contesting the APC presidential primary which triggered wide protest over the validity of the electoral materials kept in the CBN vaults.
Although it was later resolved, the incident certainly created some credibility doubts and even placed a moral burden on the commission in the minds of the Nigerian electorate over the integrity of this year’s poll.