Mahmood Yakubu, the
chairperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Monday,
delivered an address at the Chatham House in United Kingdom.
The address was titled ‘Nigeria’s
2023 Elections: Preparations and Priorities for Electoral Integrity and
Inclusion’.
See the full text of the address
below.
INTRODUCTION
I am highly honoured to lead
this discussion today and to share this illustrious platform which has over the
years welcomed exceptional intellectuals, celebrated public servants and
renowned statesmen. Today is exactly thirty-nine days to the next general
election in Nigeria, which I have both the privilege and challenge of leading
its proper delivery.
Elections in Nigeria have
become events that attract extensive international attention and concern, not
only because of the sheer size of the deployment, which usually draws
extensively on both national and international resources, but also because of
the importance of Nigeria in Africa and particularly the West African sub-region.
Although it is true that
elections should normally be routine, programmed events, each election in
Nigeria invariably presents its own unique context and therefore distinct
challenges and prospects. Overall, therefore, there are enormous expectations,
both within Nigeria and internationally, about the conduct and management of
elections in the country.
The 2023 general election is
no exception. These expectations place a great responsibility on the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), a responsibility that we do
not take lightly. We appreciate that there are challenges and concerns. But we
also realise that there is enormous goodwill and support, both in Nigeria and
beyond.
Consequently, we believe that
by forthrightly sharing our experiences and discussing the challenges openly,
we can surmount them and ensure that each succeeding election in Nigeria shows
marked improvement over the preceding ones. This is what I hope that the
exchanges we are going to have here today would achieve.
The general election will
start on Saturday 25th February 2023 with the national elections, i.e. the
Presidential election and elections for the two Houses of the National Assembly
– the Senate and House of Representatives. On that day, legislators for 109
Senatorial Districts and 360 House of Representatives constituencies will be
elected. The State elections, i.e. election of Governors, as well as 993
members of the State Houses of Assembly, will hold two weeks later, on Saturday
11th March 2023. Only 28 out of 36 Governors will be elected on that day. The
other eight do not fall due because of past electoral litigations that
misaligned the tenures of the affected Governors.
Given the geographical expanse
of the country, the number of registered voters, electoral constituencies and
polling units, conducting a general election in Nigeria is a huge undertaking.
The delimitation details are staggering: 93,469,008 registered voters expected
to elect their representatives for 1,491 constituencies in 176,846 polling
units.
Based on the figures we
compiled from the websites of various Electoral Commissions and Interior
Ministries in West Africa, Nigeria’s current voter population is 16,742,916
higher than the 76,726,092 registered voters in the other 14 countries put
together. This means that a general election in Nigeria is like conducting
elections in the whole of West Africa and beyond.
Since 1999, Nigeria has been
conducting regular general elections following the restoration of civilian-democratic
rule governance after many years of military rule. The 2023 general election
will be the seventh consecutive general election in Nigeria. This fact makes
this the longest period of electoral democracy in the country’s history.
Previous periods of electoral democracy were relatively short, repeatedly
truncated by military interventions.
However, the quantity of
elections is one thing, but their quality is another. As Zavadskaya and Garnett
aptly note, the question of integrity of elections is relevant for “all
elections, whether in new democracies or jurisdictions that have held election
for decades“, because they are all “vulnerable to malpractice.” However, good
elections are not only about curbing malpractices, but also about ensuring inclusivity.
Inclusive elections constitute an essential part of democracy.
This is the reason why in our
Commission we regularly speak of our commitment to free, fair, credible,
transparent, verifiable and inclusive elections. To be sure, credible and
inclusive elections in the final analysis depend on adequate preparations and
my main preoccupation today is to share with you how we are preparing for a
general election of high integrity and inclusiveness in Nigeria in 2023.
LESSONS FROM THE 2019 GENERAL
ELECTION
Preparations for the 2023
general election are largely being concluded and preliminary deployments are
already underway. Indeed, our preparations began quite early, learning from
some of our experiences in 2019, particularly the sore experience of having to
postpone that election a few hours before it commenced.
One important lesson from 2019
is that great planning and preparations are important, but unfortunately these
are often at the risk of what Pippa Norris calls “simple human errors, technical
malfunctions and logistical failures”. However, early preparations provide
opportunities for adequate planning, resourcing, and testing of systems that
will reduce these risks to a minimum.
A second lesson from 2019 is
that early choice of election management tools, especially the main election
technology. Their proper pilot-testing and deployment are exceedingly important
for a successful election. For election technology, early decision is central
to maintaining its integrity, popularising it among voters and addressing any
challenges that could arise. We know that political actors often try to
undermine the process by attacking the technology, casting doubts on its
suitability, bypassing its use or indeed seeking to undermine its security.
This informed the early choice
of a new voter accreditation technology using an electronic device we call the
Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). We have tested it in several
bye-elections and off-cycle Governorship elections. In addition, the decision
to make polling unit election results available for public viewing, which has
always been a major demand by citizens and election observers, falls into this
early choice of election technology.
The INEC Results Viewing
(IReV) portal is a dedicated web portal for the public to view polling unit
results as soon as they are finalised on election day. This has been employed
in several elections conducted by the Commission in the past few years. In
particular, the uploading of Polling Unit results on the IReV portal has been
deployed 105 constituencies where the Commission conducted off-season elections
since August 2020. The result can still be viewed on the portal, making the
IReV an invaluable repository of elections results in Nigeria.
A further lesson from the 2019
general election, which is helping us immensely in our preparations for the
2023 general election, is that an early finalisation of changes to the
Electoral Act, the principal legal basis for elections, is critical to proper
organisation of elections.
In the build-up to the 2019
general election, there was an unending back and forth between the Executive
and Legislative arms of government on the Electoral Act, and in the end the
amendment of the Act was stalled. One consequence of this was that INEC could
not conclude work on the Regulations and Guidelines for the election, which are
meant to derive from, and be consistent with, the Electoral Act as early as we
intended. Since the Commission has no say as such in the passing of the Act, it
had to wait for a final document to emerge from the process, which ultimately
did not materialise.
The several recommendations
that the Commission made to the National Assembly to include in the amended Act
to improve the quality of elections, such as the strengthening of the use of
technology, early conclusion of candidates’ nominations, as well as timely
funding of elections, never became law. It is noteworthy that this time around,
the Electoral Act 2022 was passed in good time, and it has addressed some of
these issues.
The last noteworthy lesson
from the 2019 general election is that adequate funding and early release of
funds to the Commission is also very important to well-organised elections.
Partly because of delays in finalising the electoral legal framework for the
2019 general election, finalising the budget for the election and arranging a
good schedule of fund releases to the Commission was rather tardy and
challenging. To add to the pressure on the Commission, there were over 14 million
more voters to cater for in 2019 compared to 2015. It required painstaking and
prolonged engagements between the Commission and both the Executive and
Legislative arms of government.
Given that practically all the
activities for the elections depended on funds, from printing of ballot papers
and results sheets to hiring of election staff and transport providers, the
Commission could not meet many of its targets in preparing for the 2019 general
election.
PREPARATION FOR THE 2023
GENERAL ELECTION
Election Planning
Learning from all these, the
Commission has worked with all concerned government agencies and stakeholders
to ensure that the challenges of preparing for the 2019 general election are
minimised this time around. A great deal of forward planning and engagements
has been done, and many aspects of our preparations attest to that.
First, we concluded a new
four-year Strategic Plan and Strategic Programme of Action (SP & SPA), as
well as the 2023 Election Project Plan (EPP), over 18 months prior to the date
set for the election. The 2023 EPP identifies all the specific activities to be
implemented for the general election. Each of these activities has a specific
timeline based on which it is implemented and tracked.
Among other things, the Plan
reflects the new technological innovations that will be used in 2023, the
increase in the number of voters from 84,004,084 to 93, 469,008 as well as
increase in Polling Units from 119,974 to 176,846, following the Commission’s expansion
of voter access to Polling Units in 2021.
ELECTORAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Elections are essentially
anchored in law. Unlike the case with the 2019 general election, new Electoral
Act was signed into law on Friday 25th February 2022 exactly one year ahead of
the general election, giving time for both the Commission and all stakeholders
to fully acquaint themselves with any changes in their responsibilities and
functions.
As an affirmation of our
readiness for the general election, the Commission released the Timetable and
Schedule of Activities the following day, Saturday 26th February 2022. The new
law contains some very important changes that hold potentials for improving the
quality of Nigeria’s elections. Perhaps the ten most important provisions in the
new law are:
1. Early appropriation and
release of funds. INEC to get its funds at least one year to the general
election.
2. Early release of notice of
election. INEC is now required to issue the Notice of Polls 360 days to the
general election. This also entails an early release of the Timetable and
Schedule of Activities for general elections by the Commission. When these are
added to the fixed dates for general elections established by INEC, which is
the 3rd Saturday in the month of February of the election year for the national
election and State elections coming two weeks later, stakeholders now have
ample time for forward planning, which will greatly benefit the quality of
general elections in Nigeria.
3. Use of electronic device
for accreditation of voters. The debates over the legality or otherwise of the
Smart Card Readers now appears to be settled by Section 47 of the Act which
empowers INEC to use the Smart Card Reader or any other device for
accreditation.
4. Early primaries by
political parties. They must now complete their primaries and submit the names
of candidates 180 days to the general election. This gives the Commission
enough planning time to produce the materials for the elections, particularly
the sensitive materials.
5. Type of Primaries. There
are now three types of primaries in the law namely, Direct, Indirect and
Consensus, giving political parties a wider range of options for selecting
their candidates.
6. Electronic transmission of
results. The Act now empowers INEC to determine the form of transmission or
transfer of election results.
7. Ensuring inclusive
elections. INEC is now mandated to ensure that persons with disabilities and
other vulnerabilities are properly assisted to participate in the process.
8. Election finance. Various
new limits have been set for amounts of money that political parties and
candidates can spend in elections, as well as the amounts that can be donated
to them.
9. Redefinition of over
voting. Unlike the 2010 Electoral Act which defined over voting in terms of
registered voters, the new Act defines it in terms of accredited voters. This
will greatly reduce the challenge encountered by the Commission whereby
elections are easily declared inconclusive because they were tied to the number
of registered voters, even where turnout is low.
10. Power of the Commission to
review results. The law now empowers the Commission to review the result of
elections to ensure that declarations are made voluntarily and that results
emerge in accordance with the law, regulations, guidelines and manuals for
elections.
Related to the Electoral Act
are the Regulations and Guidelines which derive from them. These Regulations
and Guidelines, together with the Electoral Act and Constitution, constitute
the core of the electoral legal framework. The early passage of the Electoral
Act enabled the Commission to finalise the Regulations and Guidelines for the
election. The review of the Regulations and Guidelines brought them in line
with the Electoral Act. The Regulations and Guidelines will subsequently form
the basis for the actual operational deployment for the general election,
training of electoral staff and managing the entire election.
VOTER REGISTRATION AND
PERMANENT VOTERS CARDS (PVC)
The has been a major component
of our preparations for the 2023 general election. The law in Nigeria requires
the Commission to conduct voter registration on a “continuous” basis. However,
the law also provides dates for suspension of the process to prepare for
general elections. Consequently, the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), as we
call it, recommenced on 21st June 2021, following its suspension for the 2019
general election.
The CVR continued until 31st
July 2022 when we again suspended it for the 2023 general election. In the
one-year period of the CVR, 12,298,944 new voters were registered out of which
9,518,188 were validated after a thorough clean-up of the data. We believe that
the enthusiasm, especially among young people, was partly driven by the
innovation of online pre-registration introduced by the Commission.
This enabled intending
registrants to commence the process online from a dedicated portal, book an
appointment on the same portal and finally appear in person at an INEC office
to have their biometrics taken.
The clean-up of the register
was painstakingly conducted by the Commission because the Automated Biometric
Identification System (ABIS) that we used to check the data, detected many
multiple registrants. It seemed that many voters, probably out of ignorance,
re-registered when they were already in the register from previous CVR.
For two weeks from 12 – 25
November 2022, the Commission displayed the entire register online and
physically in the 8,809 Wards and 774 Local Government Areas for “claims and
objections” as provided by law. This included identifying persons who should
not be in the register and making requests for various corrections.
It was the first time the
Commission would be displaying the register online for this purpose and it
yielded fruits. Many claims and objections were made by citizens, which the
Commission addressed, such as cases where many alien and unusual names were
identified in a Local Government Area of the country.
Expectedly, several other
claims could not be backed by evidence for verification, as provided by law,
thereby making it difficult for the Commission to take any further action.
However, the Commission believes that it has a solid register for the election,
which remains that largest database of Nigerians in existence.
In any case, in every
jurisdiction, improvement of the voter roll is a continuous process, and ours
is no exception. Once the backbone is already there, as it is at present,
future claims and objections will continue to perfect the register.
Nigerian electoral law
provides that voters require voters cards (Permanent Voters Cards – PVCs) to be
able to vote. Following the clean-up of the register, the cards of new voters
and old voters who transferred their voting locations or made corrections to
their personal details such as names, dates of birth, addresses etc. have been
reprinted and made available for collection.
The collection of PVCs
commenced on 12th December 2022 and is scheduled to terminate on 22nd January
2023. It commenced at the 774 Local Government Areas of the country between
12th December 2022 and 5th January 2023. Thereafter, we devolved it to the
8,809 Wards across the country to run until 15th January 2023.
Then from 16th January, we
returned to the Local Government Areas, and this will last until 22nd January,
when collection will be suspended for the election. However, given the
enthusiasm of registered voters to collect their PVCs and the concerns
expressed about the procedure and duration of the exercise, the Commission
announced an extension of the collection at Ward level to end on 22nd January
2023 and subsequently revert to the Local Government level until 29th January
2023.
State offices of the
Commission have also been directed to review the procedure and remove any
bottlenecks and deal with sundry allegations of extortion by staff, inducement
of officials by registered voters seeking to collect their cards and
discriminatory issuance of PVCs.
ELECTION TECHNOLOGY
In order to avoid the usual
challenges with the application of new election technologies, the Commission
introduced and tested our innovations for the election early enough. There are
three critical components namely, the INEC Voter Enrollment Device (IVED) for
improved registration of voters, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS)
for both voter accreditation and e-transmission of results for collation and
the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal to offer the public access to view
Polling Unit results.
The IVED has been deployed for
recent registration of voters, which saw the inclusion of 9,518,188 new voters
in the register of voters after a thorough clean-up, thereby bringing the total
number of registered voters for the 2023 general election to 93,469,008 of
which 37,060,399 (39.65%) are youth between the ages of 18 and 34, closely
followed by 33,413,591 (35.75%) middle aged voters between 35 and 49.
Together, they account for
70,473,990 (75.39%) of the total number of voters. Already their PVCs, which
every voter requires for identification on election day, have been printed and
are being collected nationwide. The collection of PVCs will end on 29th January
2023.
For the BVAS and IReV, we
initially deployed it on pilot basis in several bye-elections and off-cycle
governorship elections. The IReV was used in the governorship elections in Edo
State (September 2020) and Ondo State (October 2020).
A combination of both BVAS and
IReV was used in Anambra State (November 2021), Ekiti State (June 2022) and
Osun State (July 2022). The BVAS was also used in the Area Council elections in
the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in February 2022.
Deploying this technology in
these major elections afforded the Nigerian public and the Commission
opportunities to get acquainted with the device and to review its performance
with a view to enhancing it towards the general election. For the
Commission, several lessons have been learnt from these deployments and we
believe that we are ready to deploy these technologies for the general
election.
EXPANSION OF VOTER ACCESS
TO POLLING UNITS
Election is about actualising
the fundamental democratic right to vote. However, if one has the right to vote
but has nowhere to vote, then that right is only nominal. This was the
principle that made the Commission to work with a broad range of stakeholders
to expand voter access to Polling Units in 2021.
At the end of the exercise,
the first in 25 years since 1996, Nigeria now has 176,846 Polling Units as
against 119,974 previously. However, recent governorship and FCT elections
indicate that voters did not take advantage of the establishment of these new
Polling Units. There are still many crowded and sparsely populated Polling
Units, sometimes in close vicinity of each other. The Commission has worked out
modalities for addressing this problem.
When the Commission embarked
on the programme of expanding voter access to Polling Units, one of the
objectives was the relocation of the Polling Units to better facilities, where
necessary and available. Prior to this exercise, some Polling Units were in
forests, shrines, dilapidated buildings and the homes of “big men”. This
oftentimes curtailed access for certain politically-targeted voters. Many of
the locations were also unsuitable for people with disability. I am glad that
most of these problematic Polling Units have been relocated and voters will
have a much better voting experience in 2023 than before.
INCLUSIVE ELECTION
Our Commission remains fully
committed to making Nigerian elections inclusive. Over the years, we have
worked with various stakeholders to increase the participation of young people
and women. The work that the “Not too Young to Run” movement did in reducing
the age requirement for contesting in some electoral positions has been
underscored by the Commission’s youth policy.
In addition, the Commission
produced a Gender Policy to serve in 2012 as a guide to a fairer working
environment for women in the Commission and to increase the role of women in
the electoral process. We remain committed to these policies.
Apart from young persons and
women, the Commission continues to work with the community of persons with
disability to ensure that they are fully part of the electoral process. For
instance, over the last two electoral cycles, the Commission has been working
with partners such as Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) and The Albino
Foundation (TAP) to provide braille ballot guides for visually impaired voters
and magnifying classes for albino voters.
Just last week, the Commission
met with the community of persons with disability. We are working together for
the launch of a data dashboard that captures all registered voters with
disability in all Polling Units nationwide, disaggregated by type of
disability. This will further ensure that we are able to better serve this
community of voters.
ELECTION STAFF RECRUITMENT
AND TRAINING
This is essential to the
success of any election. For the 2023 general election, the Commission requires
at least 707,384 Presiding and Assistant Presiding Officers, about 17,685
Supervisory Presiding Officers, 9,620 Collation/Returning officers, as well as
530,538 Polling Unit security officials, making a total of 1,265,227. These
are not staff of the Commission and must be painstakingly recruited and trained
to ensure that they are both fit-for-purpose and non-partisan.
However, the greatest number
of election officials in Nigeria are these temporary or ad hoc staff recruited
principally from the among young Nigerian University and Polytechnic graduates
enrolled in the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC),
students of tertiary institutions, staff of federal agencies and university
lecturers.
Preparing them adequately for
their roles as polling officials, supervisors and result managers is central to
a successful election. This has become even more critical given the growing
deployment of technology in our elections. It has consistently been observed in
previous elections that some ad hoc staff were unable to use devices for
accreditation and result management.
As a Commission, we continue
to explore more effective and efficient ways of training this very diverse
group within the usually short period of time available. Therefore, we have the
Electoral Institute of the Commission, which is dedicated to election staff
training. They have already finalised the training methodologies and manuals
for the election to ensure that training commences early.
INTER-AGENCY COLLABORATION
AND SUPPORT
What other agencies do in
support of the Commission is very important to the quality of elections. In its
work, the Commission depends a lot on especially the judiciary, security
agencies and media organisations. Inter-agency collaboration and support are
therefore key in the conduct of the 2023 general election.
To this end, INEC has
established a long-standing collaboration with key agencies. We interfaced with
different levels of the judiciary in the run up to the 2019 general election, and
that engagement was very fruitful. For the last three electoral cycles, the
Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) has been in
existence and has supported the Commission.
A lot of progress has been
made in recent times through ICCES, especially regarding the production of a
common code of conduct for security officials during elections, establishment
of common situation rooms, expanding the Committee to include other agencies,
the most recent being the involvement of agencies working on financial crimes.
In addition, the Commission
holds regular interactions with political parties, civil society organisations,
the media, security agencies and development partners. Such engagements,
collaborations and partnerships are critical to the success of the general
election.
The most recent inter-agency
stakeholder initiative of the Commission relates to the problem of vote selling
and vote buying at polling units on election day. The Commission, in
conjunction with security agencies, anti-corruption agencies, media regulatory
agencies, political parties and the civil society organisations launched this
major initiative in December 2022. The aim is to ensure a more robust
monitoring and reporting of the illegal business of vote buying and to
strengthen control and enforcement.
ELECTORAL OPERATIONS,
PROCUREMENT AND LOGISTICS
This is proceeding
satisfactorily. On 4th January 2023, we received the final batch of the BVAS to
be used for the election. That puts us on course to perform functional and
integrity tests on every BVAS to be deployed for the election, which has been
concluded in many States nationwide. In addition, we plan to conduct a series
of mock trials of the BVAS with actual voters in real-time in parts of the
country to further ascertain their functioning in actual election
situations. Other sensitive materials, such as the ballots and result
forms, are being printed. The Commission is progressively taking delivery of
them and deploying them to location across the country.
Logistics has often been a
major Achilles heel of elections in Nigeria. We are determined to solve the
challenge. We have established a Logistics Management System, which uses an
Android application and web dashboard to track election materials from
procurement through storage to delivery. For the first time, we have a
comprehensive Election Logistics Framework (ELF) to guide logistics for the
general elections from planning, through deployment to retrieval. This is the
first deployment of an end-to-end logistics framework for elections.
On election day
transportation, the Commission recently signed a new Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with the umbrella bodies of road transport and marine
unions. We are presently working with the unions to deal with all the noticed
bottlenecks to ensure a more efficient and timely delivery of materials to
Polling Units.
The Commission is happy with
the extent of preparations for the 2023 general election. This is borne out by
the timelines in our election timetable of which 11 of 14 activities have been
accomplished. However, despite our extensive preparations, there are still some
outstanding issues and challenges of concern, some of which are beyond the
remit of the Commission, to which I will now turn.
INSECURITY AND ITS IMPACT ON
THE ELECTION
The perennial insecurity in
many African countries remains a source of concern to election managers.
Recently, heads of Electoral Commissions from nine countries in West and
Central Africa, including Nigeria, met in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (7 – 9
December 2022), to discuss the impact of insecurity on elections and measures
to mitigate the risk to election personnel, stakeholders, materials and
processes.
For many years, Nigeria has
been grappling with its own insecurity. In the North-East, the long-standing
Boko Haram insurgency has continued, albeit with attacks now more intermittent
than regular. In the North-West and the North-Central, banditry, terrorism and
the herder-farmer conflicts remain major challenges.
In the South-South, the threat
of renewed insurgency by groups demanding more share of petroleum revenue to
the Niger Delta continues to simmer. In the South-West, although an earlier
surge by a group demanding independence for the region has considerably
dissipated, recent violent attacks on places of worship, rise in the activities
of violent cults and kidnapping groups, as well as a history of violence
involving groups seeking to control markets and motor parks remain strong.
In the South-East, the
lingering agitation for separatism championed by the Indigenous People of
Biafra (IPOB) pose a major security threat. Not only have violent attacks by a
number of armed groups increased, the long-standing weekly lockdown of the five
States in that geo-political zone, continue to disrupt social and economic
activities.
There is no doubt that
violence and threat of violence are major challenges to credible election in
2023. Violence makes deployment for elections difficult, particularly where
some of the attacks are targeted at the electoral process and participants.
However, the Commission has been working with security agencies and other
stakeholders to establish mechanisms to understand, track and mitigate security
challenges.
We are working collaboratively
in the context of ICCES, and we also have the Election Violence Mitigation and
Advocacy Tool (EVMAT), which is a research and diagnostic tool for predicting
and mitigating election violence prior to elections. In addition, there is the
Election Risk Management Tool (ERM), which tracks and reports general risks to
elections. In all, we feel assured by the actions we have taken and our
collaboration with the security agencies. The 2023 general election will
proceed as planned. There is no plan to postpone the election. A more pertinent
issue for the Commissio9n is the fate of displaced voters.
In 2015, an estimated 2
million voters were displaced by conflict in the North-East and North-Central
part of the country. In response, the Commission worked with the National
Assembly to amend the Electoral Act to support voting by Internally Displaced
Persons (IDP). This entailed making additional provisions for enumeration of
IDP voters and for voting in their camps.
In response to the IDP
problem, the Commission recently revised its Policy on IDP Voting, which it has
been using since 2015, to cater for new realities of displaced populations.
Unfortunately, in some States it is difficult to identify the IDPs because they
are not in camps but rather settled among extended family members, relations
and good Samaritans within safer communities where they are not registered
voters.
As a result, it is very
difficult for the Commission to provide necessary electoral services to such
IDPs. However, those in camps within Nigeria will be catered for in line with
the Commission’s policy.
ATTACKS ON INEC FACILITIES
Related to the problem of
insecurity is the rising attacks on INEC facilities, materials and staff. In
four years (2019 – 2022), the Commission experienced fifty attacks on its
facilities, mostly in the form of arson and vandalisation. In these attacks,
buildings, election materials and vehicles were destroyed. Sometimes, these
attacks have even targeted staff. For instance, during the Continuous Voter
Registration (CVR), some staff of the Commission in Imo State were attacked,
resulting in injuries and death.
However, the 2022 attacks
constitute the deepest concerns for the Commission. This is so not only because
they are increasingly happening closer to the general election, but also
because some of them seem to be coordinated. Detailed account of these attacks
has been published on the Commission’s website.
The implication of the attacks
is that facilities must be rebuilt and several election materials must be
replaced. Further, the Commission and security agencies must have to increase
the number of their personnel to these facilities. Nevertheless, the Commission
is determined to continue its preparations for the general election despite
these attacks.
So far, all the destroyed
facilities will be rebuilt, or alternatives found, and the materials lost are
being replaced. However, the Commission has repeatedly called for more
concerted efforts to control the attacks. In December 2022, the National
Assembly (House of Representatives) held a public hearing on these attacks, and
we hope that authorities now have them under control since they appear to have
abated.
CAMPAIGN VIOLENCE
One important provision of the
new Electoral Act is the extension of campaign period from 60 to 180 days
before the date of election. Campaign periods have traditionally seen increases
in violent actions by political actors. These range from verbal attacks, hate
speech, destruction of campaign materials by opponents such as billboards, to
overt violence, sometimes leading to fatalities. We have seen some of these
during the ongoing campaigns.
Although the situation appears
to be under control, yet the concerns still exist as we come closer to election
day. The Commission believes that a peaceful electioneering campaign heralds a
peaceful election. That is why we continue to engage with political actors and
the security agencies to ensure that violence on the campaign trail does not
snowball into major violence on election day or afterwards.
Partly in consequence, the
Commission issued specific guidelines on the Conduct of Political Rallies,
Processions and Campaigns in November 2022. We are also closely monitoring and
tracking compliance as we come closer to election day.
A major contributory factor to
violent campaigns is also a high degree of disinformation, misinformation and
fake news. During the recent Ekiti and Osun Governorship elections held in June
and July 2022 respectively, many observers noted the rise in fake news and
disinformation. This has also been noticeable in the general election
campaigns.
Deeply worried about this, the
Commission has been engaging with civil society organisations, media
executives, oversight bodies, law enforcement agencies and owners of social
media platforms to track and curtail the spread of fake news.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE AND VOTE
BUYING
This is one important
undermining factor of our elections to which the Commission is increasingly
turning its attention. The Nigerian Constitution gives the Commission enormous
responsibilities to oversight campaign fundraising and expenses of both
candidates and political parties.
The Electoral Act, in turn,
specifies various limits to campaign spending and also empowers the Commission
to set other limits. Experience however shows that political parties and
candidates often observe these limits in the breach. Consequently, INEC is
working on strengthening enforcement of these limits, including the use of a
web-based application and dashboard for political parties to submit their
expenditure for verification.
Working with one of our
development partners, we have developed the Political Parties Financial
Reporting and Auditing System (PFRAS) for this purpose. We shall be deploying
it soon and will train both our staff and political parties on its use. In the
past, the reporting system had been tardy and unorganised, making it difficult
to effectively oversight campaign finances.
Vote buying or voter bribery
by political parties and candidates provide a different, but related, set of
challenges. It is not only illegal within the electoral legal framework, but
also affects election administration. In the past, vote buying has been linked
to disruption of elections at the polling units and even violent conduct.
The practice takes several
forms, one of which is the so-called “mark and show” technique in which a voter
marks his/her ballot paper and shows it to the party agents present and later
goes to an agreed location to collect the payment. In response to this, the
Commission reorganised the Polling Units to ensure that the voting cubicle and
ballot box are placed away from the party polling agents such that they are
unable to see the marked ballots.
In reaction, the vote buyers
modified their approach to “mark, snap and show”. This time around, a voter
takes his/her cellphone to the voting cubicle, marks the ballot, snaps it with
the camera of the phone for presentation later for payment. Again, the
Commission responded by banning the use of cellphones at the voting cubicles.
However, voters are allowed to take their cellphones to the Polling Units, but
they are not allowed to take them to the voting cubicles while marking their
ballots.
ELECTORAL LITIGATION AND
ADJUDICATION
While the Commission has the
core responsibility to conduct free, fair and credible elections based on the
law, the Judiciary is responsible for the interpretation of the law and
adjudication of electoral disputes. In the discharge our responsibilities, few
public institutions in Nigeria are subjected to more litigations than INEC. In
the 2019 general election, the Commission was involved in 1,689 cases, made up
of 852 pre-election, 807 post-election and 30 electoral offences cases. The
Commission is committed to the rule of law without which democracy cannot
thrive.
Towards the 2023 general
election, the Commission has been joined in 791 Court cases as at Friday 6th
January 2023 involving intra-party elections and nomination of candidates by
political parties.
These are not cases involving
elections conducted by the Commission or litigations initiated by it, but
purely intra-party matters involving candidates and their political parties
mainly due to the absence of internal democracy within parties. In fact, the
Commission is only a nominal party in these cases but nevertheless has to be
represented by lawyers in all court proceedings.
The Commission will continue
to obey clear orders of Courts because of the plethora of conflicting
judgements from Courts of coordinate jurisdiction on the same subject matter,
particularly those involving the leadership of political parties or the
nomination of candidates for elections.
PROSECUTION OF ELECTORAL
OFFENCES
Although the Commission is
empowered by the Electoral Act to prosecute electoral offences, it lacks the
power and resources to make arrests and thoroughly investigate electoral
offences.
While we will continue to
cooperate with the law enforcement agencies for the arrest, investigation and
prosecution of electoral offenders, most of those that are arrested, tried and
convicted so far are the foot soldiers rather than the sponsors of electoral
violence and other violations. Efforts at mitigating electoral malfeasance can
only become effective with the arrest, prosecution and sanctioning the “mother
spiders” to end their reign of impunity.
It is for this reason that
INEC supports the establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission and
Tribunal imbued with the responsibility of prosecuting electoral offences as
recommended in the reports of various committees set up the Federal Government,
notably the Uwais Committee (2009), the Lemu Committee (2011) and the Nnamani
Committee (2017).
This will enable the
Commission to focus on its core mandate of organising, supervising and
conducting elections and electoral activities. While appreciating the
considerable work already done, the Commission once again appeals to the
National Assembly to expedite action on the conclusion of the legislative work
on the Bill. It will be another enduring legacy of the 9th Assembly that will
strengthen Nigeria’s democracy just like the passage of the Electoral Act 2022.
DIASPORA VOTING
Voting by millions of
Nigerians living outside the country remains a recurrent issue for the
Commission. Nigeria is said to have one of the largest diaspora communities in
the world. Our quest for a fully inclusive electoral process in Nigeria will
not be complete as long as these Nigerians are unable to vote. However, the
Commission only acts in accordance with the electoral legal framework, which
remains the main reason why we cannot implement diaspora voting for now.
Both the 1999 Constitution and
the 2022 Electoral Act provide that voters can only be registered and vote
within the country. For instance, Section 77(2) of the Constitution provides
that “every citizen of Nigeria, who has attained the age of eighteen years
residing in Nigeria at the time of the registration of voters for purposes of
election to a legislative house, shall be entitled to be registered as a voter
for that election”.
Sections 132(5) and 178(5) tie
the eligibility to register and vote in executive elections (Presidential and
Governorship) to the requirement of residency as in the case of legislative
houses. The Commission hopes that these legal obstacles will be cleared at some
point to enable Nigerians in the diaspora to vote in elections.
CONCLUSION
We have promised Nigerians and
friends of Nigeria that the 2023 general election will be free, fair, credible
and inclusive and we have left no stone unturned in preparing for it, despite
several challenges.
But all elections, especially
those involving the type of extensive national deployment like we do in
Nigeria, will naturally come with challenges. We have worked closely with
stakeholders and development partners to confront these challenges and we are
satisfied with our preparations so far.
Our Commission does not take
the pledge that we have repeatedly made to Nigerians lightly. We are leaving no
stone unturned in our preparations. Our commitment remains only to Nigerians
and not to any political party or candidate.
That is what the law requires
of us. We cherish the institutional independence and integrity of the
Commission. With the enthusiasm of Nigerians, the goodwill of stakeholders and
partners, and the commitment of the Commission, we believe that the 2023
general election will be among the best conducted in Nigeria.
I thank you very much for the
kind invitation and audience.
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