The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will make arrangement for 95 million Nigerians to vote in next year’s general elections, although 84 voters voters are on its register at the moment.
At a forum with the Nigerian Guild of Editors on Friday, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu explained that the additional figure is a provision for about 12 million new registrants whose details however have to be verified before being included in the final list, which is due for publication on 12 January, 2023.
He said: “For the 2023 general elections, INEC is making preparations for approximately 95 million voters. Yes, we have 84 million voters now; we have registered 12 million newly. None of the fresh registrants has been added to the register. We are cleaning up the register.
“A few days ago, some people said they discovered so many fictitious names on the register. When I heard that, I asked myself: ‘Which register?’ We have not even compiled it. We are cleaning up the data; so, how come that someone already knows the register, which is supposed to be compiled by the commission? It is a very serious matter for us, because it touches at the heart of credible elections.
“So, some of the people, out of mischief, are talking about what they don’t know. But let me assure Nigerians that no name from the recent Continuous Voter Registration has been added to the register of voters. The law requires us to clean up the data, which we are doing. Thereafter, Section 19, subsection 1 of the Electoral Act says we should throw the register open for Nigerians for claims and objections, so that the citizens can also help the commission to clean the register further.
“This will be done for at least one week in all the 8,809 wards in the 774 local councils in the country. We haven’t done so yet, but we will do that so that Nigerians will have the opportunity to look at the new registrants before we add them to the new register. So, there is no new register as such; we are still in the process of cleaning up”.
Yakubu admitted that there had been a challenge with the collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), which necessitated a meeting between all the resident electoral commissioners and administrative secretaries in Lagos during the week to map out a strategy for a hitch-free distribution of the cards.
He said: “We really want to make it a pleasant experience for citizens. For the new registration exercise, we collected data, including email addresses and telephone numbers for those that have, including those in rural areas. We will reach them either by means of text messages, emails or voice calls to tell them the specific locations where they can pick up their cards.
“We will also activate the portal for the collection of the PVCs. So, those who are savvy can click and know where to collect their PVCs. We are ready to make it a pleasant experience for the citizens”.
He said the commission would deepen the deployment of appropriate technology for the conduct of elections and reassured the citizens that the 2023 polls would be credible.
“Our vision for the 2023 general elections is to conduct one of the best general elections conducted in Nigeria, which are going to be free, fair, credible, transparent, inclusive and verifiable.
“We are not only going to continue to deepen the deployment of technology, but we are going for appropriate technology, because inappropriate technology may create its own problems”, he assured.
Yakubu however identified the security situation in parts of the country, the negative use of social media and anti-democratic tendencies of politicians as threats to the smooth conduct of the polls.
Yakubu stated: “The first one is the security situation in the country. We have to deploy to all nooks and crannies of the country. We have been speaking with the security agencies and will continue to speak with them, because it is their responsibility to secure the environment for the commission to deploy for elections. So, we are keeping our eyes on the security situation in the country. In the last two elections, 2015 and 2019, insecurity was confined to a particular zone – the North East – even so in three states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. This time, it is more widespread. So, the security situation is going to be a big challenge.
“The other one is social media. The events of the last few days have driven this idea home. There was a report that INEC PVCs were found in drainages and inappropriate locations on social media. We set up a committee and they are about rounding up this investigation and there were interesting findings.
“But we ask those who made these revelations to as a matter of patriotic responsibility deliver those allegedly discovered PVCs to any of our 774 local government offices or 36 state offices so that we can look at those cards and make some determinations. We are still waiting on them and we have seen that the clip is mutating with changing locations.
“The third one is the attitude of the politicians. You can’t have a flourishing democracy without democrats. Sometimes I am amazed that when someone votes in an election, immediately he or she loses, he will say that his mandate has been stolen. But power in a democracy belongs to the people; you don’t come with it from your house. So, if you don’t get it, it must have been stolen. So, the attitude of the political class is another big challenge”.
