Nigeria: INEC Chairman Jega on BBC Africa Have Your Say

The INEC chairman airs his views

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Attahiru Jega was on the BBC Africa Have Your Say programme [1] on January 18, 2011 at 16:00 GMT to answer questions posed to him about the current electoral process which centres around the voter registration and other related issues.

He fielded a number of questions and answered to some satisfaction the critical matters affecting the registration process.

Quality kit deployed

He made it clear that the equipment was of the highest standard and not deficient in any way, he challenged us to review the tenders [2] of the equipment on the INEC website.

On the matter of power, he suggested all the kit were provided with two 10-hour capacity batteries that could be fully charged overnight at the area centres and this should not have been an issue today though in the previous days it is possible that these batteries were not fully charged before deployment.

The area centres are equipped with generators thereby fully addressing the power issues we are so well aware of in Nigeria.

All fingers or bust

My question on the legal status was first jumbled up with a whole range of statements that he cherry-picked his way with unrelated answers but another direct question about it nailed the issue.

On the matter of the fingerprint scanners, their default factory settings were calibrated for too high a sensitivity that patches have been sent out to all the 120,000 polling units to fix the problem.

He was categorical about the fingerprint issue stating Voter’s Registration cards issued without the fingerprint scans were grossly deficient.

He buttressed that point by saying “No Nigerian should allow themselves to be registered without the fingerprint capture.” In other words, that registration is both null and void and the registrant should return to the polling centre to be properly registered.

He did not give any ground on the matter of numbers of fingers, all 10 need to be in the system and since the fingerprint scanning process is working better, and it should not more be an issue.

He did say that all polling units should have facilities for washing hands and advised strongly against using methylated spirit to clean the surface of the scanning device.

No party but secure

Other matters he addressed were the fact that he is politically impartial and not a card carrying member of any party, he vouch for the professionalism of the state electoral commissioners over whatever partisan affiliation they might have.

There are security conferences and meetings taking place to ensure that electoral process is free of interference and those who attempt to subvert the process would be subjected to the full force of the law. In his words, impunity is a thing of the past.

He’ll be back

I cannot say after the exchanges I was fully convinced that that whole exercise would be successful, but the particular issues we were concerned about were addressed without equivocation and it is now left to Nigerians to go out and be registered, the whole system is beginning to work as it should.

There was no opportunity to address that matter of the denigration of the members of the youth corps who by all means deserver both an apology and encouragement from the chairman but I believe that would happen.

He has offered to return before the main elections in April for another conversation tuned to answering questions that hopefully will increase our confidence in the possibility of free and fair National elections in Nigeria in April 2011.

Many questions were posed on the hashtag #ASKINEC a commentary on the interview was on the hashtag #INECRegistration, the program was monitored on Twiitter with @BBCAfricaHYS and their Facebook group BBC Africa Have Your Say.

Sources

[1] BBC - Africa Have Your Say: What do you want to ask Nigeria's INEC chairman?

[2] News > INEC News >INEC signs contracts for DDC machines

Nigeria: INEC Voter Registration Review II

INEC finds a scapegoat

One has to spare a thought for the humble youth corps members press-ganged into the service of the nation to help in the INEC voter registration process then pilloried as cretins by the chieftains of INEC for the abject failings of their project.

It is appalling that a Prince Solomon Soyebi who happens to have the grandiose and inflated title of National Commissioner in charge of Information and Publicity for INEC called a press conference to address the problem with the DDC machines and in a derisive and denigrating tone suggested [1] that the youth corps members were the primary cause of the problems.

In his words, “the Commission overrated the Corps members mobilised for the exercise, thinking that they knew the workings of the computer-based equipment.”

I would proffer that the first law of project management is – Do NOT assume anything at the onset. Else by decomposition you make an ass of u and me.

He went on to say, “We assumed that these Corps members should know how to operate a simple machine, like the DDC machine, in addition to the training that they had, but, unfortunately, they disappointed us. We discovered they could not and many of them had to be battling with it, unsuccessfully.”

The blame is squarely on INEC

This is a classic case of a well-financed authority that scrimps and scrapes on resources looking for cheap labour, investing little in their training and then expecting them to perform fully motivated with excellence.

I have to commend the youth corps members that that have been despite that opprobrium heaped on them by that wretched ungrateful organisation, they have been very resourceful, highly motivated, extremely enthusiastic, taken beatings to the failings of INEC in some places and still dedicated themselves to service with I dare say, patriotic fervour.

INEC however, once again blames others for the malfunctioning of inadequate systems and the tedious banking processes for not paying the youth corps members on time.

You begin to wonder when INEC will make a clean breast of things and accept responsibility for their unprofessionalism and the less that supportive stance they have taken with regards to the people who are supposed to make them main goal of effective voter registration achievable.

Technical problems requiring a software upgrade

One is however left confused with what the problem really is when the Chief Press Secretary to INEC chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu suggests [2] that the problems are technical rather than the one of stupid staff.

In any case, one wonders why INEC has two mouth organs who appear to be speaking with a forked tongue.

However, it took the chagrin of the Senate President who had attempted twice to register and failed to elicit the real truth behind the technical problems and that came from the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Benue State, Alhaji Nasiru Ailara, and he said as he scampered and groveled at the residence of the eminent personality, “We have identified the problem, and provided a solution with new software that would address the problem. Please accept our apology for inconveniences.”

The problem, not a problem – the software needs to be upgraded, now how youth c corps members orpers were supposed to rewrite buggy software on-the-fly to redeem the sinking image of INEC escapes me but we should not let INEC get away with the blame culture.

They sent people out, unpaid, unsupported, untrained and poor equipped with sub-standard equipment and expected miracles – I forgot, we are in Nigeria, they were sent out on w wing and a prayer.

Tips and trips

However, new directives have been drawn up to help facilitate the registration process.

• Hands must be washed and clean before arriving at the registration centre, I would say good Samaritans should also make that available at the centre just in case having been in queues perspiration had soiled the fingers.
• The resolution (I wonder if that is sensitivity or pitch) of the fingerprint scanner has been reduced.
• The scanning must be done in the shade.
• Absurdly, the fingerprints should be taking standing up – you have to laugh
• Find your local registration centre here - Zoom in the GoogleMap to your Nigerian Polling Unit (INEC) -http://bit.ly/ewXgvA

Ask questions

There are lessons learnt and INEC is slowing addressing them but they have not broached the matter of people who have obtained registration cards without fingerprinting and there rumour about the suspension of that requirement that was spread yesterday has not been corroborated by any of these officials.

Professor Attahiru Jega will be on BBC Africa Have Your Say [3] at 1600GMT on Tuesday 18th January; you have the opportunity to ask him some questions live or via Twitter with the #ASKINEC hashtag and he better have an apology, some encouragement and gratitude for the services of the youth corps members striving to save the battered reputation of the organisation he runs and that of himself.

Sources

[1] The Nation - INEC blames hitches on Youth Corps members

[2] allAfrica.com: Nigeria: INEC Moves to Eliminate Hitches

[3] BBC - Africa Have Your Say: What do you want to ask Nigeria's INEC chairman?

Read the Nigerian #INECRegistration BiDaily which is published in morning and evening editions aggregating Twitter feeds related to the registration exercise.