Is INEC’s voters’ registration being bungled?

Widespread reports of the bungling of the ongoing continuous voters’ registration (CVR) are totally unacceptable if, actually, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is going to live to deliver the forthcoming critical election.

INEC should help this country to conduct a credible election in the interest of peace and tranquillity. The numerous hiccups informed the call on INEC to extend the deadline for the registration so as to accommodate millions of potential voters who are eager to register for the election.

The presidential flag bearer of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has reportedly called on the electoral body to extend the voter registration exercise across the country as the deadline for registration of new Permanent Voter Cards draws close.

Obi reportedly made the call via his Twitter handle last Thursday after acknowledging that voter registration across the country and especially in the South East had been impeded by bureaucratic bottlenecks. There seems to be a deliberate attempt to frustrate millions of potential voters in the Labour Party strongholds for an obvious reason which is to disenfranchise them.

“Information reaching me indicates that voter registration across Nigeria, more so in the South East, is dogged by inertia and bureaucratic bottlenecks. I respectfully call on INEC to facilitate speedy registration of Nigerians to enable them to exercise their voting rights,” Obi wrote.

INEC had earlier extended the deadline for online registration for new PVCs from May 31, 2022, to June 30, 2022. However, the electoral umpire maintained the deadline for all registrations on June 30. As the 2023 general elections draw nearer, many Nigerians have lamented the difficulty in getting their PVCs within the timeframe provided by INEC.

Last Thursday, thousands of Igbo traders in Alaba International Market and other markets in Lagos, who shut their businesses to register, were reportedly attacked by hoodlums and miscreants in parts of the metropolis who prevented them from getting their voters’ card. It looked like a premeditated attempt to stop the traders from registering. INEC should investigate the ugly incident and ensure that everyone is free to register for the election.

The Labour Party presidential candidate called on INEC to facilitate a speedy registration of voters for them to be able to exercise their constitutional rights. There is a need to get the election right from the outset since the success, failure or rigging of the poll begins with compromised voters’ registration.

The hiccups are not unexpected because general elections are not organized in a hurry. Not even in a war situation is the fire brigade approach adopted in organizing an election. The pressure in the concluding months on INEC is enough to destabilize the process. There seems to be practically no planning or early preparation and that is why there are problems. Everything is being done in a hurry to meet impossible deadlines. How far we can go is a matter of conjecture.

The hitches that have bedeviled the votLuke Onyekakeyahsequence of failure to plan ahead. More troubles should be expected from now till the end of the election proper in March 2023 because the whole process is being muddled. The call to extend the already fixed deadlines would put INEC in a dilemma. Having extended the date of the presidential primaries in favour of the APC, equity demands that the voters’ registration deadline extension requested by the Labour Party presidential candidate should be considered as well. Disenfranchising millions of potential voters is a more serious issue.

Nevertheless, any extension would require adjusting the tight INEC timetable. That means more pressure on the commission. But should INEC choose not to extend the date, millions of eligible voters would be disenfranchised. INEC is therefore in a dilemma of a sort.

Nigeria is used to muddling through virtually every national assignment. We will always wait until the last minute before taking action on important matters. Our budgets are not passed on time to enable implementation to begin in earnest. Horse trading, undue politicking, threats and innuendoes would normally dominate the process of budget passage. Even after passage, a fight and show of power between the two chambers of the National Assembly over which should host the presentation could stall the entire process. There is practically nothing that is done at the right time in this country. The problem is systemic.

Therefore, rather than blame INEC, we should blame the anomie and corruption in the system. It could as well be another agency. What about the last national census in 2006? Was it not the same hitches and hiccups all through the census period? Was the date not extended? Was the National Population Commission (NPC) not lambasted for fumbling? And, by the way, which election in Nigeria’s history has been conducted smoothly without recriminations?

It is unfortunate that critics are already lashing out at INEC as the cause of the voters’ registration problems? Anyone criticizing INEC may be right in one way but totally wrong in another way. For me, the blame should go to the warped Nigerian system where nothing seems to work. And even if anything wants to work, some unpatriotic people would do everything to thwart it. That is the system in which we are.

The question is should we continue to languish in failure and frustration perpetually? Can’t something be done to correct the anomie in the system? Can’t someone start the turnaround for a better Nigeria, even if it has to start with election registration? That is where the INEC chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu comes in.

Professor Mahmood inherited Professor Atahiru Jegas’ voters’ register, which is being updated since 2015. The issue became more complicated when it became clear that registering new voters would require buying a new set of data capture computer machines to carry out the exercise. This is where corruption comes into play. It is in an effort to get new computers and data capturing machines that INEC requested a whooping N305 billion for the 2023 general elections. INEC plans to register 90 million voters in the ongoing continuous voter registration.

What is not clear is whether or not INEC has acquired all the needed machines for the elections to avoid hitches at the polling centres. For me, that is where the problems will culminate. It would be disastrous if the machines start malfunctioning at the polling booths during the election. The machines should meet all the required specifications.

There should be no malfunctioning of the machines on Election Day as that would not augur well for the election. Nigerians would be enraged. The machines could be assembled locally. Nigerian digital companies and engineers should be challenged to produce the next generation of direct data capture (DDC) machines for the 2023 general elections.