By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu
Indeed, 2023 general elections is an onerous task for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The expectations are very high, and the electoral umpire should start sampling its ability to conduct a semblance of a free and fair elections.
This should begin with the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration Exercise. Already, some controversies have begun to trail the exercise. Till date, the voters preciously captured are yet to receive the cards. This alone, has the capabilities of casting doubt on the preparedness of INEC to conduct a free and credible election. Allegations are rife that the release of cards is trade by barter between officials of the commission and some corrupt politicians who would want peoples voters cards for fraudulent purposes. Also, the location of registration centres in the hinterland when the commission deems it fit to move the locations is done in manners suggesting foul play. It has every pointer that prominent politicians within the said locations influence the locations of those centres. In some locations, it is also alleged members of a particular religion are frustrated from being registered.
To address these early warning signals, INEC should deem it necessary and urgent to decentralise the registration centres. Some registration centres which are located in the local government areas headquarters are far flung and out of reach for a greater segment of the electorate. The commission should equally deem it necessary to mount an intensive enlightenment campaign when they are moving from the local government headquarters to particular locations. Most times this is done by private individuals who have vested interests.
If INEC’s preparedness for 2023 polls are based on its previous outings, Nigerians should have millions of worries to bother them. In 2019,millions of Nigerians were disenfranchised because they lacked access to collect their permanent voters cards.More worrisome was that efforts by these voters to track their PVCs were all futile, lending credence to the allegations that some powerful politicians are in possession of these cards.
The build-up to the polls was characterized by widespread allegations of situating polling units in the living rooms of powerful politicians, moving sensitive election materials to illegal destinations ahead of time. On the other hand, repeated burning of INEC offices where election materials, especially PVCs, were consumed generated serious worries.
Since the return from civil rule in 1999, the electoral body has not lived up to its bidding, and one would have expected the body to avail itself of the opportunities provided by the subsequent elections to remedy its battered image but the reverse is the case.
The electoral frauds have graduated from snatching of ballot boxes, massive thump printing by few individuals, movement of electoral materials to prominent individuals’ residences to destruction of election materials, even after elections, to stall evidence in court. Another trend that portrays grave danger to our democracy is registration of underage which even allegedly characterise the present process.
The electoral process is a circle that begins at the expiration of the preceding one. Therefore, INEC has no excuses to fail. Prior to the 2019 polls,videos were made of a high ranking official of the commission donning the cap of the ruling party at the center, the All Progressives Congress. In the past and present, INEC has demonstrated strong partisanship in areas where political parties hold sway. The commission’s alleged partisanship is not restricted to the ruling party at the center but is subject to parties’ area of influence.
INEC has suffered untold battered image in the past, and the time to remedy it is now by sampling to Nigerians its capability of conducting a free and fair elections. The litmus test is the Continuous Voter Registration Exercise. INEC should ensure at least 90 percent success in this by ensuring that Majority of Nigerians have access to their PVCs. The exercise does not begin and end with registering voters but ensuring that those cards are released to their owners. The time to act is now.
