Media Briefing by Civil Society Organizations’: Observations and Recommendations on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Presidential and National Assembly Elections held 25th February 2023.
Firstly, as
citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and as members of diverse Civil
Society Organizations who opted to devote our individual and institutional
resources towards uplifting and bettering the affairs of Nigeria in diverse
sectors ranging from Public Health, Gender and Youth Empowerment, Culture and
Climate Change, Good Governance, Public Sector Accountability and Grassroots
Engagement in Public Affairs; we have over the years realized the importance of
the democratization process and democracy towards attaining the much desired
advancement of Nigeria.
The above
realization coupled with the passage of the Electoral Act 2022 and the oft
repeated assurances by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
through its Chairman and other officials, for the use of advanced electoral technology
systems, particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines
and Machine readable Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), encouraged the various CSOs
here represented, to undertake extensive grassroots outreach campaigns towards
ensuring that Nigerian in their millions, become involved in the political
process by registering to vote, belonging to political parties and aspiring to
political offices at various strata of governance.
Extensive Grassroots mobilization and
Sensitization by CSOs
The ‘Grassroots
Mobilization On Citizen Participation in the Democratic Process’ programs
undertaken by our various organizations, and quite a few others, gave rise to
an unprecedented increase of over 11 million additional Nigerians who
registered to vote in the 2023 elections, bringing the total number of
registered voters to over 93,000,000. About 40% of the registered voters are youths,
most of whom would be voting for the very first time.
Undertakings made by INEC
Buoyed on by
the several and repeated assurances of INEC’s leadership for free, fair and
transparent elections with the promise of real time transmission of votes from
the Polling Units to a national database/repository of votes, the INEC Results
Viewing (IReV) Portal, CSOs across Nigeria swung into action to ensure maximum
grassroots buy-in into the democracy project and space.
Some of the
really enticing comments from INEC officials which served to encourage CSOs to
take up the challenge of deepening interest in democratic process amongst the
populace include the following:
“We have piloted the transmission of
results in 105 constituencies nationwide, including major Governorship
elections. We did it in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun States, we also did it in the FCT…so
we are happy with the pilots that we have conducted, and we are reasonably
confident in the strength of the process. The machine on election day does not
rely on the internet to accredit voters. It works offline. Now when it comes to
transmission of results, that’s where you need network. But if there is no
Network in the immediate vicinity, the scanned image of the Polling Unit level
result which is taken using the BVAS will be transmitted as soon as the staff
move from the polling unit to the collation centers”.
-
INEC
Chair, Mahmood Yakubu – BBC Interview
“We
cannot, under any circumstances, go back in the use of BVAS for the purpose of
voter accreditation and we can’t also go back on the issue of transmitting
polling unit level results into our INEC result viewing portal. These two
mechanisms and protocols are sacrosanct and the commission is committed to
using them during the 2023 general election.”
- Festus
Okoye @
https://www.thecable.ng/inec-no-going-back-on-use-of-bvas-for-2023-elections
INEC Press
Release titled: “Alleged plot to abandon
the transmission of polling Unit results to the IReV Portal” dated Friday,
11th February 2021, INEC’s National Commissioner and its Chairman
for its Information and Voter Education Committee, had deceptively and
dubiously asserted as follows in response to allegations that the BVAS was a
mere ruse/drainpipe:
“The claim is patently false. The
Commission has repeatedly reassured Nigerians that it will transmit results
directly from polling Units as we witnessed in Ekiti and Osun State
Governorship elections and in 103 more constituencies where off-circle
Governorship/FCT Area Council elections and bye-elections were held since
August 2020…the public is advised to ignore the report. The Bimodal Voter
Accreditation System (BVAS) and IReV have come to stay for voter accreditation
and uploading of Polling Unit results in real time in Nigeria”
Observations:
When one
juxtaposes the undertakings severally made by INEC officials prior to the
elections of 25th February 2023, and the reality that the said
elections were totally devoid of the promised advancements in electronic and
technological processes, it becomes clear that the INEC leadership had
perfected a plot to hoodwink and deceive Nigerians and the International Election
Observer Missions and others interested in the transition and democratization
process in Nigeria, that a foolproof electoral system had been put in place,
whilst in reality, the leadership of INEC had mapped out crude and most
audacious plans for disenfranchisement of millions of Nigerians and a scheme
that would ensure that the votes cast are not only not counted, but totally
disregarded.
The long
term effect of the electoral heist perpetuated by the Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC
on Nigerians on 25th February 2023, if not addressed as a matter of
national emergency, include:
a. Entrenchment of voter apathy, as many
Nigerians now believe that their votes do not count, and some are already
destroying their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs);
b. Diminish youth interest and
participation in the electoral process – and deny the country of its most
productive and virile age-bracket in its political space; and
c. Entrench perception that crime pays -
disincentive to good governance/good citizenship
Recommendations:
In the light
of the foregoing, the Democracy
Protection Coalition (DPC) hereby make the following recommendations and
demands arising from the quite despicable and shoddy conduct and organization by
the Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC of the Presidential and National Assembly elections
conducted on 25th February 2023:
1. In view of his lack of remorse in the
face of deliberate flagrant nonconformity with the Electoral Act and INEC’s
Regulations for Elections regarding the BVAS machines; Deliberate falsehoods
and lies to Nigerians regarding the sanctity of the electoral process; and
audacious display of impudence against Nigerians and Nigeria; the INEC Chairman,
Mr. Mahmood Yakubu, has lost the confidence of Nigerians and Civil Society
regarding his ability to continue as an impartial umpire in the electoral
process.
2. Considering that People's confidence,
trust and belief in the electoral system and electoral umpires is an integral
component of elections, and that such confidence, trust and belief in INEC and
its current Chairman, haven been irrevocably eroded, the INEC Chair, Mr.
Yakubu, should immediately, resign his position as Chairman of INEC. To avoid
further tainting the sanctity and integrity of the Gubernatorial and House of
Assembly elections, Mr. Mahmood Yakubu should totally forthwith recuse himself
from participating in any manner whatsoever, in the processes and
administration of the forthcoming Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly
elections.
3. In the events of Mr. Yakubu’s failure
to resign from office of his own accord, efforts should be harnessed by the
INEC Board to, in a manner similar to how the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner
for Sokoto State was suspended, likewise suspend Mr. Yakubu from office until
further notice, by which time the manipulations and untoward actions of the said
Mr. Yakubu would have been addressed and rectified. Alternatively, the people
of Nigeria in whom ultimately power resides, should rise and effectively demand
the exit from office of this INEC Chairman who has displayed gross
incompetence, lack of capacity and a penchant to be deceptive and dubious in
the discharge of the highly sensitive functions of Chairman, INEC.
4. INEC should in the light of its
alleged ‘collapse’, compromise and failure of the BVAS machine process and
systems in the course of the 25th February elections, collate and
declare the results of the said elections by the summation of Polling Unit
results from each of the polling units across the country. These results are
already within the purview of INEC and the political parties. The mostly
grossly distorted, mutilated and concocted documents belatedly uploaded unto
the INEC IReV, days after the elections were held, should be discountenanced as
manipulation of desperate politicians.
5. In line with its self-correction of errors
it made in other elections, such as with regards to the case of the Doduwa/Tudun
Wada Federal Constituency of Kano State, where INEC reversed its earlier
declaration of the current Leader of the House of Representatives (Mr. Ado
Doguwa) as winner of the House of Representative
elections, INEC should likewise correct the monumental error of historical
proportions it has committed by its wrongful declaration of a non-winner, Mr.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC), as winner of the 2023
presidential elections. INEC may rightly say, as it has already stated in the
Doduwa/Tudunwada Federal Constituency elections, that it had made that
declaration either under duress or under false pretenses.
6. Sequel to the admission of the INEC
Chairman that several INEC staff and some politicians colluded to compromise
the electoral process, we call upon the law enforcement and prosecutorial
agencies to, as a matter of urgency, apprehend, investigate and prosecute all
individuals and entities, irrespective of position occupied inclusive of the
INEC Chairman, who/which participated in thwarting the elections held on the 25th
of February 2023.
7. Considering the high number of
security personnel (soldiers, the Police and other security agencies) who
participated in election related crimes, such as snatching and destruction of
election materials including ballot papers, a Judicial Panel of Inquiry shuld be
instituted to inquire into and gauge the involvement of security personnel in
election-related offences with the view of ascertaining if such security
personnel involvement was as a result of
systemic, hierarchical and institutionalized interventions or ad-hoc and
unrelated malfeasance perpetuated by individual security personnel and their
cohorts.
8. Whilst applauding the various
domestic, regional and international election observers (inclusive of
International Observer Missions from the Africa Union, ECOWAS, European Union,
Commonwealth Secretariat, and the United States) for rightly stating that the
25th February elections fell far, far short of domestic and
international standards, and even the standards INEC had set for itself, we
call on all friends of Nigeria to be on the side of the Nigerian people by
impressing on INEC and State authorities, the importance of allowing the will
of the people freely expressed via the ballot box, to be upheld. The various
Observer Missions should impress it upon their principals that condemnation and
effectively ostracizing characters who seek to attain political power via
stealing votes, nips in the bud the need to condemn violent and
unconstitutional putsches.
9. The people of Nigeria must come
together, as we all did on the 25th of February 2023, devoid of
ethnic, religious and other primordial sentiments, to decisively insist on the
actualization of the mandate given via the ballot during the Presidential
elections. We must all in unison insist that the votes cast during the said
elections are declared as counted at the various Polling Units, and that the
winner of the said elections is rightly declared as the President-elect of the
Federal Republic.
Long Live
the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Eze Eluchie, Esq.
Convener, Democracy Protection Coalition (DPC)
Picture:
Disgraced INEC Chairman and New Face of Electoral Fraud in Africa, Mahmood
Yakubu
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