Ofeibea Quist-Arcton
31 March 2003
interview
Abuja, Nigeria — The Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria, (Inec) held a news briefing in the capital Abuja last week to reassure voters and counter complaints that the Commission is disorganized and will not be ready to hold nationwide general elections next month.
A statement read by electoral commissioner, Alhaji Shehu Musa, said that many such comments "demonstrated either a high level of ignorance, and or mischief, because they came from leaders and candidates who are otherwise well-placed to know basic facts about our (the Commission’s) level of preparedness."
Musa and other senior colleagues at Inec were keen to convince journalists and Nigerians that, as long as there was a climate of security in the country when the polls take place, they were ready to hold elections.
Hakeem Baba-Ahmed is the secretary to the Independent National Electoral Commission. He told allAfrica’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton and Mannir Dan-Ali of the BBC that he hoped the climate of security would be conducive to holding free and fair elections in Nigeria.
How many people in Nigeria are eligible to vote?
Of the 67 million applications returned to us, so far we have processed 64m Nigerians who we consider eligible to be registered as voters. This is the figure we have processed through our electronic process so far. But there is an explanation for the shortfall of slightly more than 2m. Some of these people have been identified as underage or multiple registrants. Those people are not on our voters’ registers.
Some names have not been entirely processed. But we can say authoritatively that we have been able to register about 64 million Nigerians, all of whom - if they wish - can vote on election day. So our voters’ registers include the names of all these Nigerians who are eligible to vote for all the elections starting on 12th April.
So you've disqualified more than two million people who applied. That’s a high figure.
They are real people who came forward, knowing full well that it is illegal to register more than once and went ahead nonetheless to register more than once or others who knew that they must be over 18 and yet went again. They were registered and they were caught out.
The numbers are huge but, thank God, as I said we have a registered number of 64m Nigerians. We still haven’t entirely completed the process of matching fingerprints, but we will continue doing that right up to and during the elections. By the time we have finished matching every thumb print across the country, this figure is likely to come down - the number of people registered - because we are still likely to find a few scores of people whose finger prints match.
We’ve been travelling around some of the northern states and people were complaining that they registered to vote, but couldn’t find their names on the register when it was displayed.
As you know, we had a 10-day registration period. We were advised that the population of Nigeria eligible for registration was 59.8 million. Knowing our society and knowing our country, we went ahead and printed 70 million forms to register individuals. We sent out these 70 million forms and, as I said, at the end of the 10-11 days, we were forced to extend it by another day because, typically, Nigerians all turned up the last minute to do what they should have done a long time earlier.
Such was the demand for an extension that we had to go one extra day. So we registered for an 11th day. In spite of all that, there was still a huge outcry that there were huge numbers of Nigerians that we didn’t register.
We mounted a three-day make up registration notice. But in some of the places we did this registration, we registered only 35 people, in some others 200 people. But it took 3 days and every Nigerian who didn’t register in the first instance had the opportunity to go and register again.
So, we had two stages of registration. We processed these registered names and put up the names of all those registered for five days, because the law requires that we do this. We told Nigerians to please go to the 9,000 ward centres. We put up two lists, two different lists - one for those validly registered and another list of those who were not registered because we had identified them as being under age or guilty of multiple registration.
We asked all Nigerians to please go out and establish that 1) your name is there and 2) if it is not there, there is a procedure to follow and then we put your name on the list. Or, if your name is there, but it’s misspelt or misrepresented or you’re the wrong age or the wrong sex, we will amend it. We went through this period.
Are you saying that no Nigerian has the basis for complaint then?
We think we have given Nigerians ample opportunity to be registered or to let us know when they were not registered and why they were not registered. We went through two stages of registration and through the 5-day period of claims and objections. We went through another 2-day period of hearing claims and objections.
At this moment, this Commission is satisfied that it has availed every Nigerian of the opportunity to register.
Are you ready to hold these crucial elections, because all over the country Nigerians are saying that the Independent National Electoral Commission is not properly prepared and is totally disorganised?
I prefer to deal with this issue in a more specific manner. I wish people could specify the areas of Inec’s non-readiness. As far as the preparations for printing of ballot papers, fabrication of ballot boxes, recruitment of ad hoc staff all over the country, the logistics of it, the funding of it, the preparation and publication of register of voters - we are as up to date as we should be.
So, as far as the Commission is concerned, we are ready to conduct an election starting from April 12th right up to May 3rd. So I don’t know what it is that people mean when they say Inec is not ready.
Then how to explain the perception among Nigerians that Inec is not ready?
I think you’d better ask those people. I don’t know.
But you’re a Nigerian, I’m sure you’ve heard this things being said.
If you’re asking me as a secretary of the Commission how prepared we are, I am telling you that, as far as the Commission is concerned, our state of preparation is as it should be at this stage. We are as prepared as we should be. As I said, we have the balloting instruments, ballot papers, ballot boxes, ink, stamp pads, seals and we’re distributing them.
We have the register ready and are printing it both on paper and on CD ROMs for distribution and we will release that to the states in the first week of April.
So, as far as we are concerned we think that Nigerians should take comfort from the fact that, as far as the Commission is concerned, we are on course to conduct all the elections, from the first one on 12 April until the last one in May.
During the briefing, Dr Baba-Ahmed, you said you expect more selflessness from Nigerians and that they should help make the elections successful...
Yes, I was talking about the integrity of the personnel involved in the ballot. Some 90 percent of Nigerians currently are not involved in the electoral process. They are watching active politicians, or watching the political thugs beat each other up. Most of us are alienated from the political process. If we really care about this country, the challenge is for the middle class, the professionals, the self-employed, the educated people to offer themselves. This is the best way in which you can get involved.
If they don’t come in, and help us to improve the quality and integrity of the people who will collate the election results and declare the results there, there is nothing anybody can do. Those who may want to rig the election may, may be given a chance to do it.
So the biggest challenge for Nigerians is, please, if you really care about this country, if you really care about having an election where your vote counts, if you are patriotic, you’re educated and you’re privileged, you are not too big to come and do election duty.
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