At NGE Forum, INEC Chairman Assures 2023 Election Will Be Freest, Fairest

The INEC Chairman said the involvement of technology by the commission has led to inestimable improvements in the electoral process in Nigeria, eliminating ballot snatching, inflation of figures and ballot stuffing, among others.

Professor Yakubu, who spoke during Editors’ Forum organized by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in Lagos, on Friday, said the Electoral Act has empowered the commission to overcome various complecities and organise a credible election come 2023.

Yakubu insisted that, “Apart from being free, fair, transparent and credible, next year’s election will have an additional feature, it will be verifiable.”

In particular, he highlighted the advantages of the electronic transmission of result as spelt out in the Electoral Act, dismissing the claim by the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), which alleged through its spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, of the existence of fictitious names in the INEC voter register.

Yakubu described the claim as total falsehood, wondering where they got the so-called register of voters when INEC is still cleaning up the register and therefore does not have any valid voter register at the moment.

The INEC chairman said the business of organising election in Nigeria, disclosing that 97 million voters had been captured in the INEC database.

He said this number is huge compared to the number of voter registers in other countries in the ECOWAS sub-region.

He said the cumulative voter register of the other 14 countries in West Africa, apart from Nigeria, stands at about 70 million, far short of Nigeria’s 97 million voters.

On the cost of election, the INEC Chair said at $9 per voter, Nigeria is not among nations with highest cost of election.

INEC budget for 2023 election, he said, is N305 billion, adding that, this is only 1.8 per cent of the federal budget for the year which is lower than the value in many other African countries, singling out the recent Kenya election as the most expensive in Africa.

On the allegation that there was a secret court action to stop the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, in the 2023 general elections, the INEC Chair said the commission was yet to be served any court paper to that effect.

But he added that should such case come up and the commission served, there is enough legal leverage in the Electoral Act to nullify any such move.

To further buttress the hugeness of elections in Nigeria, he said at least 1.4 million personnel (adhoc and regular staff) would be needed to conduct the 2023 elections in which 18 political parties would be participating.

In his remarks, the President of the Guild, Mr Mustapha Isah decried the menace of vote-buying, warning that if not checked, it will undermine the credibility of the election.

According to him, “Vote buying has become a threat to our democracy. The Guild sees it as one of the manifestations of the weaponization of poverty in the land. Poverty could make some Nigerians to offer their votes for sale for a paltry sum, not minding the devastating consequences on good governance. Why do politicians buy votes now? The answer is simple. Votes are beginning to count due to the reforms introduced by INEC.

“It’s obvious that Nigerians are now more confident in the electoral process. The registration of 10. 48 million new voters ahead of the 2023 polls is another testimony to this.”

Isah said the confidence of Nigerians in INEC was greatly boosted with the recent conduct of the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections. He urged INEC to repeat the same feat.

He appealed to INEC: “Nigerians want a repeat or an improvement in the 2023 polls. Please, don’t disappoint them. I’m happy that the commission has maintained its position that electronic transmission of results has come to stay. The Guild is with you on this. We are prepared to fight any attempt to take Nigeria back to the dark days of writing election results in hotels and beer parlours. The people’s will must prevail at all times.”

“They might try hacking your systems to influence the results. The Guild calls on the commission to take serious steps to safeguard your systems and prevent hackers from doing any damage.”