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 Commissions) 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 allAfricas 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. Thats 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 havent 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.
Weve been travelling around some of the northern states and people were complaining that they registered to vote, but couldnt 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 didnt 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 didnt 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 its misspelt or misrepresented or youre 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 Inecs 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 dont 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 youd better ask those people. I dont know.
But youre a Nigerian, Im sure youve heard this things being said.
If youre 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 were 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 dont 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, youre educated and youre privileged, you are not too big to come and do election duty.
If you want to siddon [sit down] look, then siddon look while they burn your country down. That is the bottom line.
Dr Baba-Ahmed, there are areas of Nigeria facing violence - in the oil-rich Delta region for instance, between rival local communities. Militant Ijaw youths fighting the rival Itsekiri community have warned that they will make their part of the country 'ungovernable unless the authorities redraw electoral boundaries. Where does that leave Inec? Could you hold elections in such circumstances?
Wherever there is violence we dont conduct elections. If there is imminent violence or actual violence on the ground - and we are advised by security agents regarding the level of violence of the safety of our men or material - we dont conduct elections there.
I cannot comment on threats to make the country ungovernable. What I can tell you is that if, between now and the elections, we have peace in that area all our preparations are targeted towards conducting an election in all parts of the country. If there is no peace and there is any threat to the conduct of the elections, or to the persons who will do that, we will not have an election there.
This would not be the first time we would not conducted an election in selected parts of the country. In the past we have conducted elections later in some parts of the country.
But surely that would be a blow to democracy in Nigeria?
Well, again, I can only comment about our preparations to conduct an election. What I am telling you is that as far as we are concerned, wherever there is peace and there is no threat to our men and material - or the persons who have come out to vote - we will conduct an election.
You were very passionate during the press brief about placing the onus on Nigerians themselves to ensure that all goes well.
Yes, as I said, one of the sad elements about the political process here in Nigeria is that there are too many people alienated from the political process. There is a huge middle class, there is a huge professional group, the private sector, self-employed persons, patriotic serious-minded, responsible citizens of Nigeria who are not part of the hustle and bustle of politics.
They are bitter about the manner in which they see the political process sometimes being abused by those who are in the mainstream of it. But these people are just not willing to come out and do something about it. And there is a golden opportunity for them to do something about it.
They can come to us and serve as polling officials. They would improve the quality and the integrity of the officers that we entrust to count votes, to announce results, to collate results and to determine whether we actually produce a government that is validly and properly elected.
Those people have been challenged. We have put out advertisements in newspapers and we are asking them to show their commitment to this country, to exercise their privilege and to pay back Nigeria for what it has given them - the education, the privilege, the skills that they have.
We are saying "Come out and do this work. It wont pay you much, but in terms of its return for the survival of democracy in this country, we are looking forward to the professional group - the bankers, the insurers, the accountants, the private sector people, the media people - for those few days to come and serve this country; please do so." We are saying they should help us to reduce the traditional sources of the ad hoc staff that we use, because those guys are a major problem. The quality is low and their integrity is not very high.
And what response has there been to your requests for assistance so far?
Quite good actually. I dont know how many of them we can get. The numbers we are looking for are huge - 600,000 people. We think that if we are able to get 100,000 professionals that would be fantastic. We are looking for bankers and other professionals, people in the middle class who can put everything aside and just say "hey, I want to help;" they have got the education and capacity to conduct an election, they can withstand the pressures that you normally face being an election official.
We dont know how many we can get, but the more we can get the better for the electoral process.
When you hear criticism of Inec, the Independent National Electoral Commission, how does that personally make you feel - all the talk of Inec being disorganized and unprepared to hold elections?
It depends who is making the criticism. We have a forum here called the Inec Political Parties Consultative Forum. We meet very frequently and we avail the parties of information relating to what we do.
Im referring to ordinary Nigerians -
- thats why I said it depends on where the criticism comes from. If the criticism comes from the political parties - like what happened during the one-day stakeholders meeting when the political leaders stood up and said "cancel the elections because Inec doesnt have a register and Inec is not ready" - that hurts. It hurts because it is coming from people who should know better, because they have access to everything we do.
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If the criticism comes from what you like to call 'ordinary Nigerians', then it hurts me, because I wish the people were more informed than they are. I realise that one of our weaknesses is that we dont put ourselves out as much as we should. And Nigerians are entitled, as a right, to know everything that we do.
So, Im not very happy when ordinary Nigerians say were not ready - but I get worried about how they know that were not ready. Im worried about mischief, about people who do know, telling ordinary Nigerians that we are not ready. Thats dangerous.
But Dr Baba-Ahmed, do you think youre communicating enough with the average Nigerian and providing enough voter education nationwide? Have you perhaps concentrated too much on the political parties and political leaders because they make the most noise, at the expense of the ordinary people?
Well Im talking to you because I want to communicate with ordinary Nigerians.
Im talking about the period up till now - just three weeks before the elections.
Well Im assuring the ordinary Nigerian that he or she can put his head on his pillow and sleep in peace. The Commission charged with the conduct of the elections is working hard and we are on schedule.
What is important, however, is to realise that these elections have to be conducted in an environment that has to be prepared by ordinary Nigerians, by political parties, by communities; that environment is very largely going to affect the manner in which these elections are conducted. Its not just our responsibility. We will conduct an election. We will put out ballot boxes, we will have polling officials and we will go through the motions of an election.
But the environment, the build-up to the elections is not giving us comfort. The level of violence is unacceptable, too many people are being intimidated and we are not getting the kind of people we want - especially women - to get involved. We are particularly interested in getting as many women as possible to serve as election officials, but they are being discouraged by the violence that they see manifested on the ground. They are worried about what happens to them on election day, if thugs come to the polling centres and scare everybody.
They are right. These kinds of things are affecting us. We dont want, and are not happy about the kind of talk going around between politicians.
Everyone is on tenterhooks here in Nigeria to find out - assuming the elections are conducted normally - if one civilian government can hold elections and successfully hand over to another duly elected government which will remain in power. How do you feel being at the heart of the democratic process here at the Electoral Commission?
I feel privileged. I feel challenged and I feel privileged. I also see it as my duty as a Nigerian to do that. There is no challenge greater at this stage in this country than to help Nigeria through this very difficult process.
I have faith that it can be done and we must do it.
