2011: Can INEC deliver?

Again, hitches recorded during voters’ registration exercise, substitution of some candidates and hasty preparations do not provide assurance of a free and fair election. To put it more succinctly, the coast appears not too clear for INEC to hold credible elections as politicians and even saboteurs within it are hell bent on scuttling the exercise. […]

Again, hitches recorded during voters’ registration exercise, substitution of some candidates and hasty preparations do not provide assurance of a free and fair election. To put it more succinctly, the coast appears not too clear for INEC to hold credible elections as politicians and even saboteurs within it are hell bent on scuttling the exercise. It should also be noted that some of those who helped the former INEC boss, Professor Maurice Iwu, to subvert the wishes of Nigerians are still much around.

Although INEC may have done well under the watch of Jega, ranging from its commitment towards the procurement of Direct Data Capturing (DDC) machines and its firm stand to observe the rule of law in its dealings, most of its problems today are beyond the learned professor. For example, how can INEC address the issue of alleged buying of voters’ card in states like Kwara, Akwa Ibom, Adamawa and a few others? Again, how can the electoral body detect multiple registrations done by some unpatriotic Nigerians during voting? And how can it manage over 70 court injunctions before it? As things stand now, the body does not have the mechanical paraphernalia to tackle this problem thus the election will still be marred by irregularities. How can INEC phase out votes from certain ghost polling units in the country where it recently carried out registration?

Going by the information being bandied in the media and our own personal experiences, the elections may turn out to be business as usual, unless the Almighty God helps us and genuine voters guard their votes jealously.  The nation, it seems, is far from witnessing any credible elections. Credible elections are hard to come by because many Nigerians still suspect that the Residents Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in many states of the federation may also sell out at the end of the day to the incumbents in their respective duty posts. We are all living witnesses to a damning talk given by a former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, at a function in Abuja last year. The former governor gave a graphic picture of how governors compromise RECs as soon as they resume duty in their states.

The same thing applies to many other states of the federation even though Jega warned the RECs against receiving gifts from state governors. True, some of them if not all, were appointed by politicians and they are ready to do the bidding of their employers to the detriment of Nigerian masses. Who then is talking about free and fair elections?

It is also disheartening to hear reports about gunmen snatching away INEC’s DDC machines in Oyo, Plateau and Bauchi States. Although the body and a handful of security agencies claimed to have recovered some of the machines, it has not shown us how it will deal with alleged cases of ghost registration centres found in forests and some palaces and private residences.  As at the time the machines were recovered, many fake voters’ names were already found on it.

Similarly, INEC is tied down by the politicians through a manipulated Electoral Act. Section 81 (9) which gave INEC power to supervise party primaries and disqualify anybody who does not emerge through a free and fair contest has since been expunged and replaced with a dubious Section 31 which states that parties shall submit names of candidates they intend to sponsor and stipulated that  INEC cannot disqualify them for any reason whatsoever.

The envisaged failure of INEC to deliver credible polls can also be predicated on the poor arrangements put in place such as late registration, late release of time-table and lack of adequate data on eligible voters across the country. Others are the desire of some politicians to compound its problems by not following the rules of the game from the onset as well as court injunctions and counter injunctions.

Unless INEC, our respected judges, political parties and voters do the right thing, the April elections will end up the same failure as the one held in 2007.

Oyekanmi Taoheed Opeyemi, is a HNDII student of Federal Polytechnic Bida, Niger State.