Meet Nigeria’s teeming unregistered masses
He was in addition persuaded this time around he says partly because of the way discussions about the country’s poor leadership has suddenly taken the front seat in debates about the country’s future and partly because he believes the present leadership of INEC, the nation’s electoral body has been sending out signals that it could […]
He was in addition persuaded this time around he says partly because of the way discussions about the country’s poor leadership has suddenly taken the front seat in debates about the country’s future and partly because he believes the present leadership of INEC, the nation’s electoral body has been sending out signals that it could be trusted to conduct credible elections.
But after spending hours that gradually spread to days in the queues at the registration centres, he was not able to register despite the extensions granted by INEC to allow those who could not register to do so. Now, he is seething.
He told Weekly Trust: “I will say I was denied of my fundamental human right to be registered as a Nigerian. I spent hours and days on queues trying to make sure that I got registered but all with no positive result. Anytime I go back to the centres I was told another list was being made thereby rendering the previous ones null and void. The INEC officials were not also helping matters as they always gave complaints that there was no ink or light to work with. I walked all the registration centers in Karu, Abuja trying to get registered but to no avail. To think that I missed out days of my work and still did not get registered is very annoying and disheartening. If I should say, this is the first litmus test for INEC and I think they have disappointed. As long as my vote will not count then I see the elections as already being rigged and manipulated.”
While Fidelis’ new found confidence in the system might have crashed so suddenly, just as quickly as he has imbibed those beliefs, his ordeal is mostly as a result of a combination of technical, organizational and human resource failure than one that borders on integrity, which was his past apprehension.
The integrity test comes in April when the 63.9 million Nigerians who were able to brave the queues and get registered will be casting their votes and hoping that the results that will emerge will be a true reflection of their choices. And probably not wanting to be blamed for starving INEC of funds and thereby giving the commission excuses, the National Assembly granted the commission’s request of 87 billion naira for the DDC machines to be used in the voters’ registration process. A one week extension requested by INEC to further register more voters gulped an additional 6.6 billion naira. This will go down as the most expensive voters exercise ever conducted by the nation’s electoral commission. Despite this, the success of the exercise falls short of the projected number of eligible voters who were expected to register. Though in fairness to the commission, the turn-out was unprecedented and the enthusiasm very high. And since the commission is yet to publish the results of the exercise, the jury is still out as to whether the much it has been able to conduct is good enough to see the nation through a successful general election.
It would seem the long and sometimes acrimonious debate over the zoning of the presidency to the north or south which raged fiercely within the ruling PDP might have helped enormously in doing the advocacy campaign for INEC, who in the past have to run campaigns urging voters to come and vote. Now, religious, regional and community leaders have joined the chorus of those calling for participation in the electoral process. It is an election whose outcome many political analysts say will change the equation of power in the nation, especially among regions.
But with high expectations and interest sometimes come big disappointments. The hitches are familiar: some machines not functioning well or arriving late, some areas too remote for access and a generally large area to cover, a huge workforce involved in the exercise (about 300,000), some of whom approached the job poorly and in some instances unethically. In response to these failings, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman Kayode Idowu said in his written submission on the outcome of the exercise, published yesterday that the commission “has taken full responsibility”.
He said: “The turnout of registrants for the just-concluded exercise was massive-pleasantly assuaging the fear of voter apathy harboured before the exercise commenced. But some people would fault the exercise for the reason that they couldn’t get registered within the 24 days allotted. This, without doubt, is unfortunate; but again, it isn’t for INEC not trying. And the challenge is to take the exercise in context. About 70 million registrants were projected by the commission for this exercise, and little short of that number have been registered at the end of the selective mop-up which ended on Monday. INEC’S strong desire to accommodate all registrants who turned out had informed the seven-day extension to the 15-day regulation time and the subsequent two-day selective extension in heavily populated areas. Unfortunately, the time available to INEC ahead of the April elections is inelastic.”
Despite the commission’s defence, the lamentation of those who couldn’t get registered is instructive of how things could go wrong in the future if left unchecked, especially the way the process is organized by the commission and those it employs to carry out the job- their commitment, competence and integrity. A water seller, Haruna Doma, 24, for instance believes he was denied registration in Abuja because of the spitefulness of INEC officials engaged in his area. He says: “I tried to register but they always looked down on me asking me if I knew the essence of the voting process and that even if I register my card will be bought and so many other things. Even when I go to sell my water and come back, it is either there is no ink or they have closed. I even tried going back home to register but it was even worse there as I was asked to pay some amount of money before I can be registered and even after paying I still could not be registered as everything turned to a hide-and-seek game with the person that collected money from me to be registered.”
Nancy Akinremi, 30, blames her failure to register on INEC’s insistence that prospective voters must register where they intend to vote. Even though she had the opportunity of getting registered in the south-east where she travelled, she had to wait until she came to Abuja where she resides to register, by which time the queue was way too long. “Can you imagine waking up as early as 3am to go and take a number and staying up there till 5pm only to be told that you have to come back the next day and the same process happens again for a whole week?” she asks bitterly. “No! This is definitely absurd and uncalled for. We are Nigerians and we deserve better than this.”
State governments in places like Lagos State showed active interest in the exercise and tried to enact ways that will ensure all eligible voters got registered, but even then there were those who couldn’t get registered. At a time the Lagos government ordered the closure of all markets in the state for a day between the hours of 7am and 2pm so that market people can go and register. Three days before then, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state had ordered its members to stop work and go and register.
However, Weekly Trust observed that out of about 18 million people in Lagos (according to the state government’s figure) more than half of this number did not register their names during the just concluded voter’s registration exercise not because they lack interest but because of various challenges.
Mr. Akinrole Lawal is a 49-year-old civil servant in Lagos who blamed his inability to register during the just concluded voter’s registration on inadequate number of machines made available by INEC for the densely populated area where he resides. Lawal is a resident of Ayobo, a surburb of Lagos in Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Lagos state. He said the first day he queued to register in his area, he was given the number 98 and, as a civil servant, he could not wait for his turn to register because he has to go to work.
Mr. Ogundipe Olanrewaju, the Chairman National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Lagos Area Axis says hundreds of thousands of students in Lagos who are eligible to register and vote during the April general elections were disenfranchised because of the DDC machines and limited time by INEC. “Let’s take effectiveness of the DDC machines into consideration,” he says, “it makes registration extremely difficult for us. The registration exercise was muddled with numerous problems within the first nine days of the exercise. The one week extension did not solve the problem. It is obvious so many people have been disenfranchised because they missed the registration.”
Despite the massive turnout in the registration exercise there are apathy among voters. Fatima Babagana, a married woman in Maiduguri said she did not register. “Even the one I got in 2006 is still with me but I have never used it,” she says. When asked why she is reluctant about elections, Fatima says, “The votes hardly count at the end of the day.”
The likes of Fatima are many. Kanna, Lami, Falmata, Yaganaram and Hajja, all of them housewives did not register. They say their husbands said there was no need for them to join long queues.” Isma’ila Salisu, a water vendor says he did not register because it will make little impact on his life. “Once the raining season is here, I would travel back to my village,” he says.
Towards the end of the exercise, the Yobe Islamic Centre (YOIC) had to call a meeting where scholars decried the poor participation of married women and grown up girls in the voter registration exercise.
Alhaji Baba Ba’aba, the former secretary to Yobe State government and chairman of board of trustees of the centre said there was the need to encourage men to allow their wives to get the voter’s card. “We observed that thousands of men were reluctant in allowing their wives to register,” he says. He noted that even when the exercise was about to be closed, 75 per cent of the women in rural areas in the state were yet to be registered.
Mrs. Tairat Animasawun, 33, a tailor who resides at 16, Alfa-Nla Road, Agege, Lagos. She says of the registration exercise: “Why should I register? I voted in 2007 here in Agege but rather than to benefit from the dividend of democracy, my business shop was demolished. We were told that if we register, we would be able to ‘determine’ who will be the state governor. But what happens to my effort in 2007? I am not interested in Nigerian politics because I’ve discovered our politicians are not truthful. I saw people coming out to register but it doesn’t move me. The politicians will not fulfill their promise, I’ve had some experience and I am not happy that I am like an unemployed person today.”
It is the likes of Animasaun and many others who have little faith in the system that INEC and its leadership need to bring to mind as they address the shortcomings of the registration exercise and prepare for credible elections in April. Will Nigerians’ faith in the system be renewed or will it be eroded further? With several billions spent so far and more to be spent later, in addition to popular goodwill and support from Nigerians, it seems INEC has no excuses this time.