Former INEC Chair Yakubu Finally Speaks On Election Manipulation
Immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has listed a number of issues that negatively impact the conduct of elections in Nigeria.
The former INEC chairman said these include multiple litigations in which the commission is joined; conflicting order of courts of concurrent jurisdiction; violence and vote buying as some of the issues that have posed serious challenges to the smooth conduct of elections and the management of the electoral process in the country.
In the foreword of a book, titled: Election Management in Nigeria: 2015 to 2025, which chronicles the electoral body under his watch, Yakubu noted that technical challenges with equipment and connectivity failure often pose serious challenges to the system.
The 220-page book is divided into 11 chapters and was released on the last day of Yakubu’s chairmanship of as INEC.
Despite the challenges, the erstwhile INEC chairman said the nation’s electoral management body has recorded some milestones in the last 10 years, which should be sustained to build trust and ensure successes in future elections.
He said: “The decade rom 2015 to 2025 has been one of the most momentous in the history of the management of elections in Nigeria. There have been several milestones, many challenges, and useful lessons in the conduct of elections and the management of the process within this period.
“Election Management in Nigeria: 2015-2025 is the first, most comprehensive record of these milestones, lessons, and challenges of my two-term tenure.
“From the reform of the electoral legal framework (ELF), through to the provision of voter outreach and inclusivity programmes, to the focus on election security, to the deployment of electoral technologies and to stakeholder engagements designed to build confidence and trust in the electoral process, the Commission demonstrated how measured, custom-tailored and forward-looking reforms can be driven by lessons-learnt and peer review processes ultimately meant to improve the conduct of elections and trust in the electoral process.
“This book presents the reforms and advances made in the development, management and deployment of voting procedures, voter registration, voter management, electoral technologies, relations with political parties and other electoral stakeholders, election security as well as in the planning, monitoring, and implementation of the commission’s election projects and plans.
“There have been, over the period under review, significant milestones that have dramatically impacted the electoral process.”
Some of the milestones, Yakubu said, include the introduction of simultaneous accreditation and voting (CAVs); the development and deployment of the INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED) and Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
It also includes the expansion of voter access to polling units that ended a 25-year-old jinx, transforming polling units in Nigeria from 119,974 to 176,846; the promotion and expansion of inclusivity measures to persons with disability (PwD), internally displaced persons (IDPs), and to women and the youth.
There is also the development and deployment of the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal and several other portals to manage the submission of the list of candidates and agents from political parties, election observers, and the media; the deployment of additional technology to facilitate the coordination, planning, monitoring, early warning, and implementation of electoral activities through the EMSC.
It also includes the expansion of the commission’s role in providing electoral assistance to Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) across the West African Region countries as some of the most significant achievements of the commission in the period under review.
Yakubu said: “Despite these achievements, the 2015-2025 decade was not without its challenges. Issues, such as multiple litigations, in which the commission is joined, conflicting orders from courts of concurrent jurisdiction, electoral violence as seen in the various attacks on the Commission’s facilities and personnel, vote trading, and the challenge of logistics that led to the postponement of elections since 2011, continue to pose challenges to the smooth conduct of elections and the management of the electoral process.
“Additionally, technical challenges with equipment and connectivity failures have sometimes hindered the smooth conduct of elections.
“In response to these challenges, the commission implemented various reforms, including voter education programmes, capacity building for electoral officials, and collaboration with security agencies to ensure the safety of voters and electoral officials, in addition to several policies guiding the development, acquisition and deployment of electoral technology and the management of the electoral process.
“As the commission looks to the future, the conduct of elections and the management of elections will continue to evolve and present fresh challenges. Such challenges will necessarily either require the consolidation of old or the formulation of new reforms.
“Lessons from the conduct of elections and the management of the process will necessitate that new lessons be learnt, requiring the tweaking of old, or the introduction of new electoral technologies.
“The commission must fully embrace both successes and failures, intensify confidence and trust-building measures, expand the drive towards inclusivity and continuously be ahead in addressing potential threats to the conduct of elections and the management of the electoral process. Only in and through these can it ensure the conduct of free, fair, credible and inclusive elections and the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria,” Yakubu added.
