Is Jega aware of the 2011 rigging?

The rigging starts in earnest at the collation centre of the ward, where the collation officer at that level often times inserts whatever figure he likes irrespective of the figures that the polling booth INEC staffer gives him. These collation officers do not care that it is easy to trace the openly declared and published […]

The rigging starts in earnest at the collation centre of the ward, where the collation officer at that level often times inserts whatever figure he likes irrespective of the figures that the polling booth INEC staffer gives him. These collation officers do not care that it is easy to trace the openly declared and published results from the booths because they know that the old and especially new electoral acts ensures that once INEC accepts and announces an election result, (right or wrong one), only a court of law can renounce that result and given the Nigerian Legal System, it is often a long convoluted activity that is mired in carefully laid obstacles that takes up to four years to finish adjudicating electoral cases. This perfidy of vote inflation or deflation continues on a larger scale at the collation centres of the LGA, Federal Constituency or Senatorial District. The rigging is perfected at the state collation centre of INEC where the vote results manipulated at the various levels of collation are now given an official stamp and announced. Hence forth, only a long and tedious court action can renounce such a result after taking 2 – 3 years to determine.

The remedy to this intricate problem is to reduce the human / Nigerian factor problem by effectively cutting out or shackling these middle men at the collation centers by:

1.      Instructing INEC officials manning the polling booths to publicly enter the results of each booth into a laptop or Direct Data Capturing Machine which transmits the result of that booth to data base shared by all the collation centres at the WARD, LGA, Federal Constituency/Senatorial District, INEC State HQ, INEC HQ at Abuja, Civil Rights Societies, Human Rights groups, International Community and the General Public.

2.      Giving a print out from such laptop/appropriate machine to each polling agent of political parties at the booth present.

3.      Ensuring that such machines cannot be manipulated to amend the results once they have been entered and printed out.

4.      Ensuring that no one at the collation centre level can alter, adjust or delete any such result as entered from the booths.

5.      Installing a camera at every booth (as promised) so that any cases of malpractice can be captured and if reported can be verified and then INEC can agreeably cancel such a booths results.

6.      Such data base can collate, analyse, total and produce installmental and overall results.

7.      INEC collation officers will be there to formalize the results only and announce only what the data base stores and presents.

This way the often times ugly whims and caprices of the collation officers are completely neutralized and expelled from the electoral process. One of these men alone can inflict irreparable damage by giving 100,000 extra votes for any candidate of their choice to sway a Gubernatorial, Presidential, NASS or State Assembly election the way the officer wants.

Once these collation officials are neutralized, the Nigerian electoral process can be cleaned out completely to world class standard.

Prof Jega surely understands that this in no way violates the laws prohibiting electronic voting because voting has been manually done and completed before results are entered into the laptops / appropriate machines unless he wants to be economical with the truth. Besides his fear that there are people standing by to sue him to court, cannot compare to the fear of thousands of litigations waiting to unleash from candidates who will claim electoral robbery as they are doing now. Furthermore, no right thinking person, even if they are not honorable will go to contest in court that a just impartial means of safe guarding and delivering true results have been used. Any judge, no matter how immoral, will easily through such a case out.

There are strong indications that some state governments have completed preparations to heavily rig the elections on the April 26, 2011 by compromising the collation centre officials as they did in the case of the NASS Assembly elections where they was tried with varying degrees of success. For example in Owerri and Orlu senatorial district elections APGA and ACN were respectively defeating PDP in a landslide fashion but the later reversed the trend by heavily compromising the collation officers. The collation officers at all levels have been bought over by the government there.

Professor Jega had promised this transmission of results to collation centres via laptops or DDCM’s earlier before the elections. He had also promised cameras in all the polling booths as we recommended above. Why did he not supply and use them as he promised. Was it a grand design to favor a party or some people?

Indications are strong that the gubernatorial elections are going to be explosive in the do-or-die fashion, especially in Imo, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Nasarawa States. Human lives and property can be saved if these measures we outlined above are urgently employed in the gubernatorial elections on the 26th of April 2011.

What is more, if they are done this way, then Nigeria will join the comity of developed nations where elections are free and fair and a reflection of the true will of the people.

Ghana has just done it. There is no reason why we cannot do same. The ability is here and present with us.

Furthermore Prof. Jega will in this way conduct an election far better than the widely acclaimed freest election in Nigerian history – the June 12, 1993 elections.

Ugwu writes from Agbani Road in Enugu State.