Jega: NO PVC, no 2015!

The recent suggestion by the Governor of Niger State Dr. Babangida Aliyu that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should suspend action on the issuance of the Permanent Voters Card (PVC), due to what he captures as the inability of the commission to distribute same to all eligible voters in the country, is a topical […]

The recent suggestion by the Governor of Niger State Dr. Babangida Aliyu that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should suspend action on the issuance of the Permanent Voters Card (PVC), due to what he captures as the inability of the commission to distribute same to all eligible voters in the country, is a topical instance. The self-styled Chief Servant of Niger State – the cradle of Nigeria, buttressed his position by enumerating a litany of failures by INEC, which in his opinion have cumulatively compromised the PVC exercise.
While his position may pass off casually as an innocuous expression of frustration over INECs failure, it opens itself for interpretation in some quarters as the tip of the iceberg of a grand design to vitiate the integrity of the forth coming polls, pursuant to its eventual manipulation. Whatever it is however, the kite must be shot down immediately.
In the Nigerian political firmament the attainment of integrity of electoral processes has remained a perennially intractable challenge. Right from the colonial era the manipulation of voter’s card had served as the ‘Achilles Heel’ of the electoral process. In fact, the report of the 1959 elections captured the concern by the British electoral managers over the widespread sale of voters cards, and wondered why any voter would sell his or her card. How little did they know the country!
The implication of voters card manipulation had been recognized as the most significant factor, engendering generations of jaundiced administrations, which this country has been infested with at the various tiers of governance, over the years. Whoever controls the voters cards literally owned the electoral process and dictates who gets into whatever office. Simple. Should we then look further for the root of the worrisome culture of impunity, that is today ravaging our society?
The dividends from hijacking an entire electoral process, spawned a cornucopia of voters card doctoring and manipulation techniques, depending on who was interested (and willing to pay), in winning power; when and where. In respect of the craze to secure as much bogus votes as possible, the various tactics of voters card manipulation included ballot box snatching and multiple thumb printing along with parade of ghost names.
On a more elaborate level, census figures – being the building blocks of voter demographics were inflated unrealistically. This fact enjoys attestation by the usually wide discrepancies, between official census figures on one hand, and the results of the systematic, multi-stage, multi-phase demographic enumeration exercises, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and other designated development partners, on the other hand.
The advent of the PVC under the auspices of the current INEC offers the best promise of transforming the Nigerian electoral process from the status quo of manipulated elections to one driven by authentically verifiable protocol. The strategy is simply the adoption of the now available advantages of information technology, to code and track the status and movement of the all-important voter’s card before, during and after any electoral exercise.
The essential attribute of the PVC is its capacity to isolate and identify uniquely, each voter by incorporating the bio-data, biometrics and facial image of same into a format that is connectable online and real-time to a central data bank. When fully operational, instances of multiple registrations, impersonations and forgeries will be eliminated.
There is no gainsaying that the present INEC has had more than its fair share of headaches, with respect to its promise through the Chairman  Professor Attahiru Jega to change the story of electioneering in Nigeria. It is also true that Jega, an erudite political scientist with strong grounding in civil society and intellectual activism, was not oblivious of the uncommon challenges associated with steering the ship of the nation’s electoral umpire, before accepting to serve as INEC chairman. Some of the hot potatoes he has handled include the 2010 voter registration exercise, and the 2011 polls which set a new bar for elections in Nigeria in terms of credibility and transparency, even if the process exposed areas that are needy of improvement.
 Others are the yet to be conducted constituency delineation exercise and the polling booths redistribution scheme, which exposed some of the inanities that drive political tendencies in the country. In between all these have been the sporadic occasions when INEC conducted by-elections in designated states of the federation.  It is reassuring that the INEC has acquitted itself in most of these assignments except on instances when institutional pressures have overwhelmed its resolve to hit its own mark. That is why even as the commission may be losing friends among the power circles, most ordinary Nigerians still believe in its ability to turn things around.
Yet none of its previous challenges equates with the issue of PVCs, solely due to the ubiquitous ‘Nigerian factor’ which in essence means the easy recourse, under one dubious excuse or the other, to adopt half measures, instead of striving to do things right. This is where the suggestion of postponement of the PVCs for 2015 by Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State belongs. The suggestion attracts lamentation over the aversion to rigid conformity with law and order, by sections of the leadership class in the country, especially when their parochial interests, which may even be inimical to the national weal, are at stake.
A usually powerful voice in the affairs of the country, Governor Babangida Aliyu appreciates the antecedents of the PVCs and the imperative for them, if the politics of Nigeria must change. By suggesting that the exercise be put in abeyance is he also wilfully recommending a continuity of the status quo, which reeks of questionable electoral outcomes? He can acquit himself by rather leading a campaign of mobilizing encouragement for INEC towards ensuring that the PVC scheme does not fail.
While INEC may not have got its act perfectly, the appreciation of the systemic and environmental challenges facing it, in the light of the country’s developmental circumstances, should attract sympathy for the agency. The stakes over the PVCs are more significant than may be easily realized.
For the promise of President Goodluck Jonathan on electoral reforms, with the twin targets of one ‘man one vote’ and ‘every vote counts’ to succeed, the PVCs scheme must take off. For the country to be rid of the present growing malady of impunity, accountable leaders must come into office only through elections by PVCs.
The PVCs constitute the key to a better future for the country. Hence the successful implementation of the exercise remains a task for every Nigerian. Conducting future elections, starting from 2015 polls without PVCs should be inconceivable.