The Anambra State gubernatorial election has come and gone, with the then incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) sweeping the polls, as he won in all the 21 local government areas of the state. The candidate of the ruling party at the centre, Oseloka Obaze of the All Progressives Congress (APC), came a distant second, while the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Tony Nwoye, came third. The fears that had heightened over the poll on account of the threat of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to stop the election and the hard fight between the contestants for the seat, came to nought as the election was conducted peacefully and all the stakeholders played their roles as expected of them. Instead of the fears of a disruption of the poll and of violence, the polls went well. The candidates and all their supporters conducted themselves after the fashion of decent men and women. The security agencies were not left out as they all also did their jobs creditably and there was no room for crisis of any kind. Although there were reports of some parties providing food for those who came out to vote and some inducing voters to vote with money, the entire exercise went well, with the results released on time.
The Anambra poll was one in which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) gave a good account of itself. It managed the entire logistics for the election in a manner that allowed for a seamless exercise. There was no need to either postpone the poll and the election was, mercifully, conclusive. By Sunday morning, the day after the poll, many results had already trickled in and the direction the election was going was clear.
The success of the Anambra election is good news for the country. It is an indication of what Nigerians can expect in the coming 2019 general elections. It is an indication that INEC can, indeed, deliver a seamless poll that will be conclusive and generally accepted as credible by the majority of the people and even international election monitors who monitored the exercise.
INEC, in particular, deserves commendation for the selection of its ad hoc staff and result collation officials who handled the election. The ward collation officials were reportedly brought in from Calabar and highly respected professors were involved as collation officials. The politicians were not allowed to have a field day in the collation process which led to the problems with some of the elections conducted by the electoral agency in the past. The conduct of the poll was such that even the losers have come out to congratulate Obiano and there is no serious attempt so far to challenge the result of the poll. Beyond the widespread acceptance of the poll result in the country, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) have validated the poll result. The two international organizations, alongside the US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), partnered with the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA) on a project called Watching the Vote (WTV). They used what they described as a parallel vote tabulation methodology to compare the results they got with the results INEC came up with and declared that the INEC result is “consistent with the YIAGA WTV estimated range.” They, therefore urged Nigerians to have confidence in the result.
The group also gave other statistics on the poll, which showed that 92 percent of the units were properly set up. Only 13 per cent of the polling units were said to have concluded accreditation and voting by 2pm, while 82 per cent concluded it by 3pm. The coalition, however, said that only 75 per cent of the polling units were open by 10am while 98 per cent had card readers, to the credit of INEC. The card readers, however, only functioned in 77 per cent of the units, while there were attempts to intimidate, harass an influence polling officials at only four per cent of the polling units. This is a marked improvement on some of the polls that have been conducted in the country in the past. YIAGA’s findings were, however, based on reports from 243 polling units from a representative statistical sample of 250. The group, however, urged the electoral agency to address the challenges in the distribution of election materials.
I congratulate the people Anambra, INEC, the police, the contestants and their supporters on the success of the election. Let INEC build on the success of this election in subsequent polls until elections are conducted in a seamless manner and without apprehension in the country. It is only then that Nigeria’s democracy can be said to have matured. Elections should not be a cause for fear and trepidation in the country.
The electoral agency must always be on top of its game to ensure that our elections reflect the true will of the majority of the voters as has happened in the Anambra poll.
Good news from PENCOM
The National Pension Commission (PENCOM) warmed the hearts of many of the nation’s beleaguered pensioners last week when it announced a plan to increase the amount of pensions paid to retirees on programmed withdrawal who have accumulated significant growth in their Retirement Savings Account. The good news affects those who resigned between July 2007 and December 2014 and opted for programmed withdrawal under the National Pension Scheme. The effective date of commencement of the enhancement of the pensions is said to be December this year. The affected retirees have been advised via an advertisement in the Daily Sun of November 23 to contact their respective Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) to complete the required documentation.
It is, indeed, cheering that pensioners under programmed withdrawal of the pension scheme will be paid higher pensions. At the moment, the amounts paid are so low as to be almost inconsequential. The current situation in which pensioners who retired with as high as ten million naira in their pension accounts end up collecting pension of 50,000 per month is very bad, no matter the situation, even though it is said that a percentage of the sum would have been paid as gratuity to the pensioner.
I commend PENCOM for obtaining the approval of the government for the enhancement. It should, however, also ensure that the enhanced pensions are paid as announced as one of the PFAs to which some pensioners have gone have said that the enhancement is a Federal government affair that they have not been briefed about. This should not be the case if the enhanced pensions are to be paid from December 2017, which is just two days away. PENCOM should also clear the air on the information that all pension payments will cease as soon as pensioners turn 70 years. It should not shy away from coming clean on this issue which is said to be provided for in the PENCOM Act, but which pension officials have been avoiding talking about.