From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The performance index of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the year 2024 will definitely attract different interpretations from different Nigerians.
For some, the electoral umpire has performed creditably well and above board, by, at least, successfully prosecuting all the electoral activities it lined up as part of its annual engagements for the year, particularly the two off-cycle governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States respectively, and many other bye-elections.
The bye-elections include two senatorial districts, four federal and three State constituencies in nine States. The commission equally conducted Continuous Voter Registration in both Edo and Ondo ahead of the governorship elections, resulting in updating its register with 119,206 new voters in Edo and 58,708 new voters in Ondo State.
In his assessment of the Edo governorship poll, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the commission’s chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, said: “Our Edo State office was severely flooded, but this did not affect preparations for the governorship election. The commission prepared extensively for the off-season elections.
“There were wide consultations with various stakeholders, extensive voter education activities, customised trainings for ad-hoc staff and early deployment of non-sensitive materials. This had positive impact on Election Day, polling units opened early, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) functioned optimally, and results were promptly uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
“The commission also partnered with the National Peace Committee, which organised the signing of the Peace Accord to which all contesting candidates subscribed,” he noted in a chat with Daily Sun.
Commendably, the electoral umpire did not just stop at conducting the elections, it also had effective robust engagements with all the relevant stakeholders through its quarterly consultative meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), media owners and managers, the security agencies, and more importantly the leaderships of all the registered political parties.
The electoral umpire equally had very vigorous fruitful deliberations with both chambers of the National Assembly through their periodic interactive sessions to push the boundaries of electoral reforms and to strengthen certain grey areas in its determination to perfect the conduct of elections in Nigeria.
In fact, the year had started on a pleasant note for INEC with Liberia National Elections Commission (NEC) conferring an honorary award on the Chairman for the pivotal technical support he and the commission rendered in establishing a workspace and bolstering the electoral process in Liberia.
NEC Liberia Chairperson, Madam Davidetta Browne Lansanah, who presented the award at an impressive ceremony in Monrovia, expressed gratitude for what she described as; “the indispensable contributions made by Yakubu and INEC Nigeria in sustaining Liberia’s democratic journey.”
Again, a 12-member delegation of its counterpart from the neighbouring African country, the Republic of Benin, spent over one week in Nigeria recently just to understudy the commission’s secrets in consistently delivering successful elections.
And announcing the feat triumphantly, INEC Chairman, said: “Early last month, we received a letter from Commission Electorale Nationale Autonomie (CENA), Benin Republic, indicating its interest to undertake a study visit to INEC Nigeria as they prepare for what they described as their most complex election in 2026.
“In particular, CENA is interested in the legal framework for elections in Nigeria, the design and printing of election materials and forms, the recruitment and training of poll officials, election budgeting and mode of payment to different service providers, security during elections, the use of technology, the accreditation of local and international observers, engagement with electoral stakeholders and other aspects of Nigeria’s electoral experience,” he said.
Speaking further, Yakubu said: “In response, the commission has drawn up an elaborate programme for the visit covering all aspects of the electoral process. Various Departments within the commission are scheduled to brief the visitors. Peer learning and support will help to strengthen processes. I want to assure CENA that we will fully share our experience and make available relevant documents that will enrich your understanding of our processes,” he promised.
While blowing its trumpets louder in testifying that it is such a glorious year for the commission, the electoral umpire boss also jubilantly announced that one of its near perfect electoral technology architectures exported to Ghana performed wonders during its recently concluded presidential and parliamentary elections.
He also claimed that Ghana’s current approach to managing results at the constituency level was inspired by Nigeria, arguing that the method improved the efficiency of the electoral process during the election.
Yakubu said: “The second thing for me is the lesson that Ghana also learned from Nigeria in the area of managing constituency election results. Until the last election in Ghana, all results came to the Electoral Commission’s headquarters in Accra, both parliamentary and presidential.
“Although Ghana is not a federal system, they learnt from Nigeria, where you have returning officers who announce results for parliamentary elections in various constituencies around the country. Only the presidential election results came to Accra.
“In Nigeria, this is what we have done, and they borrowed a leaf from us, and this is the second time they are implementing that. That is why the declaration of the presidential election result was a lot faster than it used to be in the past,” he claimed.
INEC, early this year, also released the report of the 2023 general elections, comprising 13 chapters spread over 526 pages, enriched with 60 tables, 14 boxes and 10 graphs.
However, on the flip side, according to Oyekanmi, the commission also witnessed some misfortunes over the year. “In July, protesting youths set the commission’s office ablaze in Ukum Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State. In August, we lost our Ogun State REC, Mr. Niyi Ijalaye.
“There was also a fire incident in our Ika Northeast LGA office in Delta State. About two weeks ago, fake news merchants circulated a story about the purported death of the INEC Chairman. A rebuttal was promptly issued,” he noted.
Interestingly, many Nigerians have been very critical of the commission in its conduct of major elections this year. They described the electoral umpire as a monumental failure, especially in the conduct of the off-cycle governorship elections, particularly in its alleged failure to perfect the application of the game-changer, IReV, which facilitates the uploading of election results into its portal.
For many of them, the alleged clinical rigging during Edo State off-cycle governorship election where security agents denied many agents of the participating political parties’ access into the collation centres was the height of INEC’s unimpressive performances this year.
Again, despite its operational working relationship with the security agents and directives on non-usage of telephones inside the polling booths, Ondo State electorate had allegedly turned the election into cash harvest by capturing their ballots to collect their money in the unprecedented volume of vote-buying that characterised the election.
While commenting on the claims, Oyekanmi told Daily Sun that; “there were reported cases of vote buying and post-election interference during the Edo governorship election, which were eventually resolved. There was marked improvement in Ondo State governorship election in terms of delivery and distribution of election materials and reverse logistics.”
Assessing the commission further, many political analysts insisted that the commission, particularly under the current chairman, has greatly improved electoral architecture with technologies like BVAS, IReV portal.
They also praised it for meticulous release and religious implementation of election timetable and schedule of activities, and tenacious delivery of sensitive and non-sensitive election materials, but they however noted that its major challenge has always been the willpower to implement these lofty technological innovations.
But in his assessment of the commission’s performance this year, National Secretary of Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), High Chief Peter Ameh, scored it abysmally low, hinging INEC’s failure on its inability to tackle the problem of human interference of people allegedly changing the results and blocking the supplying of materials requested in the court of law.
Speaking to Daily Sun in a chat, Ameh bluntly claimed that; “INEC deliberately failed Nigerians. The enthusiasm and excitement from the youth population, which accounted for the greater percentage of registered voters, died when INEC intentionally orchestrated the plan which undermined the integrity of our electoral process.”
He said there should be a national board of inquiry where the opposition political party would nominate people to look at the server, saying “INEC cannot audit itself and tell Nigerians that what happened during last year’s presidential election was a glitch.
“Curiously the Amazon it hoisted its server with never issued a public certificate over the glitch which affected only the presidential election alone and worked perfectly for the National Assembly. It promised that BVAS would be used. Form EC8A will be uploaded into the IReV, and people will use data from there to collate but will not announce.
“We can see what happened in the Ghana election because the Vice President saw the collated results after the election and congratulated the winner. Nigeria does not need collation centres because that is where they change the results. INEC is complacent in the criminality that is reducing the integrity of our electoral system.
“The 2023 presidential election should be investigated; there should be an open inquiry to that result collation centre to establish what happened to that machine. We cannot spend N350 billion on the election we don’t have trust in it,” he said.
Asked why neighbouring countries are copying INEC’s models despite his damning verdict against the commission, the former Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) fumed: “It is not true that Ghana learnt any electoral system from INEC. Ghana was ahead and they were the first to establish IPAC, the model we have today.
“The political parties in Ghana were allowed to even see the serial number of the ballot papers. It is not the one we tell agents to go to the CBN. What is certain is that Nigeria has near-perfect electoral architecture developed by the best brains and there is no doubt about it. But our problem is human interference where people change the results and even go ahead to block the attempt to provide the materials requested in the court of law.”