A
new Chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, and five National Commissioners of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), last week, scaled the Senate
screening.
MAHMOOD-YAKUBU
The
National Commissioners are Amina Bala Zakari, who was acting INEC chairs
as representative of the North-West; Dr. O Taiye Okoosi (Kogi),
North-Central; Alhaji Baba Shettima Arfo (Borno), North-East; Dr.
Mohammed Mustapha Lecky (Edo), South-South; and Mr. Soyebi Adedeji
Solomon(Ogun) South-West.
The
nominees appeared before senators at the red chambre where Yakubu pledged
to Nigerians some of those things he will do as the chief electoral umpire.
Excerpts from the question and answer session with the new INEC Chair.
The success of elections
depends on the ability of the electoral body to plan and in
advance. But in this country, we have this culture of last-minute rush. And, as
a result, things are not done early. If six months is the time limit
under the law at present, definitely we will look at the possibility of coming
back to the National Assembly for an appropriate amendment of the Electoral Act
to enable us have longer period of time that will allow longer period of
preparation.
Coming
to consolidate
Prof. Jega has done a marvelous job
in reforming the electoral system of this country. I’m not coming in for
experimentation. I’m coming for consolidation.
Will
power
In the service of this country, I
can’t be intimidated. It is too late. I have the character of doing the right
thing.
On
e-voting
It is desirable and inevitable. If
you look at the trajectory from the last 10 years, the voters register comes in
an electronic form. Initially, it was just a register, then photographs were
added. And in the last elections, photographs and biometrics were added.
So, it is inevitable that one day, we
will go into electronic voting. But the experiences of other nations show that
we have to tread cautiously. It is technology, if untried, untested, we may get
bugged down. Is it pure electronic voting or electronic voting paper like they
do in Venezuela?
We are still grappling with the
problem of infrastructure either for simple ICT use in our institutions or in
our places of work and homes. So, it’s desirable, inevitable, but we need to
think through the implications of what we do. Otherwise, we may rush into it
and just get bugged down.
There must be no room for
experimentation. As far as I’m concerned, something happened in this country in
2015. And we need to consolidate on that rather than to begin new
experimentation with longer span of testing the validity of the process.
Fortunately for us, at governorship
level, we have staggered election by default. Very soon, it will be Kogi and
Bayelsa. Thereafter, we will have Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Edo and Anambra.
There must be a guiding principle:
The workability of the technology and adequate consultation with stakeholders,
the tested card reader and the challenges. Anything that is not tested will
come up with challenges. The problem of technology is that it always comes with
challenges.
On
diaspora voting
That is inevitable. As a student of
history, I know that there was a time in this country in the First
Republic when political parties had branches overseas. And we have a large
number of Nigerians overseas, one estimate put it at 15million.
They remit $20billion annually in
returns to the country. So, it’s desirable to have diaspora voting. We
have to quicken the process for Nigerians in diaspora to vote.
On
direct and indirect primaries
I will like to see a commission
which consults widely rather than a commission which sits in judgement.
There are mechanisms for consultation with the parties through quarterly
meetings and the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC).
So, instead of making a commitment on
direct or indirect primaries, we will throw that up for consultations
with the political parties, at the end of which we will come up with what best
method we should adopt. I have a problem with international best practice
because we can’t adopt the experiences of other jurisdictions, we can only
borrow.
On
PVCs
About 70 million Nigerians registered
for the 2015 elections. 56.3 million PVCs were distributed, 500,000
unprinted at the time of the elections, while 12.3million were not
distributed. Instead of finding fault on why they collected PVC in Borno
and they did not collect elsewhere, I will ensure that, by this
time next year, all the 12.3 million PVCs that were not distributed and
the 500,000 unprinted are distributed.
Ahead
of 2019 presidential election
There will be no issues with
regard to PVCs collection as we will ensure that all eligible
voters get their PVCs. People have the right to take the PVCs and not
vote.
Source: Vanguard
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