From all appearances, the National Assembly has resolved to amend the Electoral Act to give INEC additional time to register prospective voters. The two chambers adopted unprecedented measures to pass an amendment which reduces the period within which INEC must produce a voters register from 60 days before the elections to 30 days. This means, subject to the assent of Mr. President, that INEC will have an additional 30 days to conclude the registration, although it is by no means certain that INEC will accept and utilize all the additional period being made available to it. What is clear at this stage is that the National Assembly appears to have acted promptly to respond to the intense and widespread complaints over the pace of the Registration exercise which, on the basis of the present arrangement, will end at the end of the month. The INEC Chairman himself had told senate that with one additional week, about 65 million voters would be registered, going by current trends and statistics.
This effort to respond to the national clamor for extension of the period for registration is commendable, although it has its own disadvantages. Clearly, INEC’s preparations, from its technology to the training of the staff, mostly National Youth Service Corps members, to the distribution of other materials has left much to be desired. For an exercise which was limited by law to last for two weeks, INEC should have been better prepared to deal with faulty or non-availability of machines, incompetent personal and poor security cover among many other problems which have been identified in the last 10 days of the exercise. In many instances, its responses to observe lapses such as the length of time it took to register people at the early stage of the exercise were hesitant and limited to crisis management. It is inexcusable for INEC to have underrated the overwhelming response of the public to the exercise, or that the first few days will expose many problems. To leave matters unresolved for days into the exercise when complaints are piling up also shows an unexpected level of incompetence and insensitivity. In the end, INEC is entirely responsible for all the problems identified so far, and this is all the more disappointment given the very high expectations of the Nigerian public and the huge amount spent on the exercise so far.
It is beyond any doubt that without extension, many prospective voters would have been disenfranchised by INEC’s inadequate plans and shoddy arrangements. Now that it appears that an extension is in the horizon, the nation has a right to raise a number of issues. One major concern and a source of the problem is the technology INEC is using. Even with improvements and adaptation, these machines are too slow, too inadequate or two fragile, because many of them break down too often. So an extension of time without a major effort to address these machines, their speed at registering people, and the widely-reported non-availability of printing ink and paper must be addressed, otherwise the extension will have very little impact. A second major concern regarding the extension is the competence, availability, remuneration and morale of the registration officials. If the extension will have any benefit, INEC must pay very close attention to payment of allowances for the extra days paying personnel for monies they claim they used to buy ink, as well as monitor their moral, exhaustion and the potential to abuse the exercise under the influence of corrupt politicians.
A huge amount of money must now be sourced to pay allowances and other logistic requirements for additional days; and any delays, or suspicion of delays to pay NYSC personnel will result in widespread disruption or even sabotage. A third issue that has to be devised is exactly how much time needs to be added to the two weeks. The longer this exercise stays in the field, the more it will be exposed to potential abuses and hijack by politicians and thugs. Many Nigerians are likely to relax the moment they hear that an extension has been given to the exercise, and win them rush in the last day or two to overwhelm the registration officials.
Chaos is the last thing this exercise needs, and with everyday this exercise lasts, more and more of it weaknesses are becoming obvious to those who may want to hijack it and rig the elections through the abuse of the registration exercise. The fourth and perhaps the most important factor to consider is that a long extension will deprive INEC of the opportunity to utilize the technology to weed out multiple registrations. The process of scanning finger- prints to eliminate multiple registrations is vital to the quality of the voters register, and to go to the elections without putting all thumbprints through the process will amount to a huge waste of resources and the register that INEC will produce will have little value. INEC will also need time to display the register for claims and objections, and thereafter clean it up all in good time for the elections, as required by all. These are major considerations when discussing an extension of time for the exercise.
The public which is concerned with being registered may not be worried by these factors mentioned above; but it should. If the April 2011 elections are going to be credible, free and fair, the starting point is the production of a credible register which not only registers all Nigerians willing to register, but which also eliminates abuses and shortfalls of past attempts to produce credible registers.
The best solution for all patriotic and concerned Nigerians who are yet to register is to go out and withstand whatever difficulties and inconveniences to register now, extension or no extension. An extension may only give you a very shim chance of being registered, and with a few more days to go, it is important that people do not sit back and wait for it. INEC needs to have the courage to State just how mush extension it needs and avoid a situation where it keeps the exercise in the field for such a period that it becomes vulnerable to abuse, or too expensive for the nation. Every Nigerian would hope that INEC has learnt enough lessons from this registration exercise to avoid repeating the same mistakes in the April 2011 elections.
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