Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega yesterday gave an insight into the number of Nigerians expected to be registered in the new voters’ registration underway.
He said the commission is targeting over 70 million registrants. Nigeria’s population stands at about 140 million.
INEC may conduct the two-week fresh voters’ registration between the last week of October and the first week of November.
Jega who spoke with journalists in Abuja also explained how the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) were redeployed, stating that the deployment was mostly done to avoid cultural alienation and truancy among the electoral commissioners.
“If we deploy all the equipment and all the logistics that are required, in two weeks we will have the capacity to register up to 70 million registrable voters. This is the planning we have made,” he said.
The INEC chairman said further: “So, the challenge now is to have the money and to give the contracts and get everything ready before or latest by the third week of October. Of course, this is not a formal announcement but for planning purposes that is what we are working on. If we are able to have a procurement process and say that by the first or second week we have all the equipment deployed, obviously we may want to do it earlier. I don’t want to start reading headlines tomorrow that INEC will do registration of voters on so, so date.”
Also, the commission said it would require another N10 billion to cover hazard and sundry allowances for the voters’ registration exercise, bringing the total to about N82billion that the nation may have to cough out for the exercise.
This latest financial request is contained in the official bulletin of the commission.
According to the bulletin, the money will cover the funding gap of almost N10 billion in the commission’s budget for voters’ registration.
Sundry expenses such as hazard allowances were not captured by the budget and INEC leadership apparently glossed over the allowances, which are obligatory
Even the N10 billion may not be sufficient, the INEC bulletin said, as it still has to be augmented.
Jega said in the bulletin: “If this is provided, we will do a credible election.
The INEC chairman told journalists: “It will cost as much to do a clean-up of the voters’ register and produce a fresh one. If we are doing a cleaning up and to do it credibly, it will still be costly but it will be slightly less costly than a fresh voter’s registration.
“But if we are going to spend so much money to clean up, why don’t you do a fresh one. That was why as a commission we decided that the best option is a clean, fresh voters’ registration. It may cost as much but certainly it will cost more to do a fresh voters’ registration.
“But the difference is so slight that you may as well go fresh. Taking this timeframe of the 9th of November being the final date of actual conduct of registration, we decided that we will do the exercise in the last week of October and the first week of November. It means that all the equipment we need must be available and must be deployed before the fourth week of October. If we deploy all the equipment and all the logistics that are required, in two weeks we will have the capacity to register up to 70million registrable voters.”
Accordingly, Jega said: “That is the planning we have made. So, the challenge now is to have the money and to give the contracts and get everything ready before or latest by the third week of October. Of course, this is not a formal announcement but for planning purposes that is what we are working on. If we are able to have a procurement process and say that by the first or second week we have all the equipment deployed, obviously we may want to do it earlier. I don’t want to start reading headlines tomorrow that INEC will do registration of voters on so, so date.”
He also said: “I have no doubt that given this extension we’ve got, which means that registration can now go on for up to four months from now, we will now be able to undertake a fresh voters’ registration exercise, which will be much more credible than what we have presently. “
The INEC boss added: “As I said, it is a Herculean task to achieve both goals with the available time. However, we have to do it because of the provisions of the law, which we have sworn to uphold. If the law changes to give us more time, it would be better.
“But until that happens, we shall continue with our planned schedule. Let me tell you that we are determined to succeed if we have the necessary funds on time. From the Executive ,we got very favourable indication about the willingness to give us all the funds that we require on time for the conduct of a fresh voters’ registration and I have had a follow-up with the Minister of Finance and they have obtained the details of what we needed and how soon we need it.
“And I left that meeting greatly encouraged that all our needs will be met and if and when that is done I think the issue of funding will be adequately taken care of. By my interaction with the Executive arm, I must have the money by the second week of August.”
On the deployment of RECs, Jega said the commission posted the commissioners to states where they would not need much time to acclamatise while also not sending them to their states of origin.
“We decided that since we are going to embark on fresh voters’ registration, it does not make sense to post RECs to states where they would have some, if you like, cultural alienation where it would take them time to acclamatise to get to know people, to get to understand the office and processes and to be able to anticipate problems and deal with them.
“And you know, they will be dealing with challenges of accommodation, bringing their families and getting schools for their children like many of us are facing now. And if their minds are focused on that, they cannot give their full attention to preparation for the voters’ registration, which is more immediate, not to talk of elections itself.
“So, we agreed that while we will not take people to areas where it will take them a lot of efforts to adjust, we will also not take them to their states of origin. So, as much as possible, we said we would post RECs to their own zones and as much as possible even in their own zones, not to states that are contiguous to their states of origin.
“That is also to avoid truancy. If somebody is from Kebbi and you post him to Sokoto, for all practical purposes if he has a house in Kebbi, he may decide to be coming to work from Kebbi and you cannot get optimal work from such a person.
“If it is from a state that is not contiguous to his, he or she may minimize how frequent he or she makes trips and so on. You will also deal with the problem of pressure if you post people to their own states. It is speculated widely in newspapers that many of the RECs were probably nominated by state governors. So, you will also run into a problem by taking people back to their states. Even if they have integrity and are above board, they will still come under enormous pressure. So, we decided we will post people to their zones as much as possible and to states not contiguous to theirs.
“So, these are the parameters that we have used in posting. The person that people are talking about was in Ekiti. Originally, she is from Ogun State. So clearly she cannot be taken back to Ekiti or Ogun. If she is taken to Lagos, it will be contiguous to her state of origin. So, the only way visible for me was to post her to Ondo and I posted her to Ondo.”
On the deployment of the controversial Ekiti REC, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo, Jega said: “As far as I am concerned, Ondo is not Ekiti, it is a different place. But then people are saying well INEC is conniving with PDP and it is now posting people to a state where there is opposition so that this Lady who was alleged (a wild allegation yet to be proven) to have done some dirty work in Ekiti now is being taking to Ondo so that she can do allegedly another dirty work against opposition.
“What I can tell you is that nobody has spoken to me to request for the posting of any REC. I am very glad that nobody did so because I had already resolved that whoever requested for posting, I will never do it. So, I have done this posting given the framework we established as much as possible and to the best of my ability within the discretion that I have.
“As far as I am concerned really, all the apprehensions and fears are neither here nor there. The issue is whoever is posted to a state if they do something wrong, it should be reported and that will be a basis upon which we can assess their performance in their states. Really, as far as the issue is concerned, we have done our best; we will continue to do our best. If problems arise subsequently we will see how we can deal with them.
But I can defend the posting that I have done for RECs. There is no malice intended, it was done very rationally, if you like even very scientifically, because certain parameters have been taken into consideration in doing this.”
Meanwhile, Jega has put the funds required by the commission to conduct credible voters registration exercise at N74 billion instead of the earlier figure of N72 billion.
He also said the equipment purchased for voters’ registration during the tenure of the former INEC Chairman Prof. Maurice Iwu were substandard.
Jega told the Senate Committee on INEC during an interactive session yesterday that credible results from the 2011 polls is dependent on the timely release of the fund, preferably by August 11 to enable the commission prepare adequately for the task ahead,
"The big IF is getting the resources when we need it; if we don’t, then, forget it,” Jega told the Senator Isiaka Adeleke-led committee.
He explained that off-the-shelf purchase of 120,000 data capturing machines from the manufacturers for the elections would cost $2,000 per one, amounting to about N32 billion, but that the manufacturers were insisting on going through their distributors, which according to him, would cost about N52 billion.
Jega also said an additional N22 billion was needed for training, voters education, logistics and allowances, bringing the sum total to N74 billion.
He, however, told the committee that the commission was still working on the possibility of securing direct purchases from the manufacturers with a view to saving cost, adding that it was in order to be on the safe side that their budget was taken from the angle of middlemen prices.
On the existing register, Jega said: “The voters register is simply incredible; equipment purchased in 2006 are substandard; the computers have outlived their life spans; the best thing to do now is to plan procurement of 120,000 registration machines, it is not a waste because registration is continuous.”
He also informed the committee that he was yet to ascertain the correct figures of available machines as some were allegedly donated to schools, organizations and individuals including staff and that the commission was currently conducting an audit of the equipment.
The committee, however, assured the INEC team of Senate’s cooperation, urging them to always come for consultations and assistance where necessary.
No comments:
Post a Comment