Following the Kano State Local
Government election held on 10th February 2018, there were several reports in
the media, particularly the social media, alleging that underaged persons voted
in the election. Both explicit and implicit in some of these reports was the
suggestion that since the National Register of Voters compiled by INEC was used
in the election, the alleged problem of underaged voting in the Kano Local
Government election is linked to a prevalence of underaged registrants in the
National Register of Voters.
I must note that till date, not a
single formal complaint on this matter has been received by the Commission.
Rather, some stakeholders, including a political party, have taken to the media
to criticize INEC and in some cases to impugn the integrity of the National
Register of Voters. Concerned that some of the claims being made about the
Register could create doubts in the minds of citizens about INEC’s preparations
for the forthcoming general elections, the Commission on 21st February 2018 set
up an investigation panel into the allegations that underaged persons voted in
the Kano State Local Government election, using the Register of Voters given to
the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) by INEC, as
prescribed by law.
For the avoidance of doubt, let me
emphasize first, that INEC was not in any way involved in organizing the Kano
State Local Government election beyond the legal requirement that the register
of voters compiled by INEC should be used in all Local Government elections
nationwide. The conduct of that election was entirely the responsibility of
KANSIEC. Secondly, let me also emphasize that the investigative committee was
not established to inquire into the general conduct of the Kano State Local
Government election or to inquire into the organization or challenges of
KANSIEC. Indeed, INEC has no legal remit to do so. Rather, as the Terms of
Reference of the Committee show, its role was strictly to inquire into claims
linking the register of voters compiled by INEC and the alleged incidents of
underaged voting in the election.
The investigative committee had
National Commissioner Engineer Abubakar Nahuche as Chairman, another National
Commissioner Barrister May Agbamuche-Mbu, two Resident Electoral Commissioners
(Barristers Mike Igini and Kassim Geidam) as well as some Directors and staff
of the Commission, who are experts in ICT, as members. It has since submitted
its Report. The Commission has carefully considered the report and accepted its
findings and recommendations. Based on its Terms of Reference, there are four
key points in the findings and recommendations of the Committee, which may be
summarised as follows:
i. Kano State
Independent Electoral Commission requested for and received from INEC the Kano
State Register of Voters for the election. The Register was produced for use
for the elections. However, the Register was only sighted in a few polling
units. In other words, the Register was not used in most of the polling units.
In fact, accreditation using the Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) largely did not
take place.
ii. Given
that the Register was substantially not used to accredit voters before voting,
it is logical to conclude that if underaged voting occurred in the election, it
was not due to any presence of underaged registrants on the Register of Voters.
However, after examining some of the images in circulation, the Committee found
that they have been available long before the Kano Local Government Elections.
The few images and video clips from Kano show no accreditation of voters or any
relationship with the Register of Voters.
iii. There is need
and ample room for collaboration between INEC and all stakeholders to continue
to update and improve the National Register of Voters to eliminate all
ineligible registrants from it, including dead persons, aliens and underaged
registrants.
iv. INEC should
work with the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) to ensure
continuous improvements in the quality of all elections conducted in Nigeria.
Since the central interest of the
Commission and Nigerians in this remains the National Register of Voters
because it is the bedrock of the 2019 general elections, let me share with you
a few facts about the current register of voters.
Essentially, the present register of
voters is the one compiled by the last Commission in 2011. Recall that before
2011, the register of voters was full of errors including strange entries like
Mike Tyson, incorrect entries and misplaced records. Although the pre-2011
register was supposed to contain the fingerprints of registrants, the last
Commission found that most of the fingerprints were missing or of very poor
quality. Also, there were integration issues and a lot of data were lost
because they were collected using incompatible platforms. In addition, there
were multiple registrations, as there was minimal attempt to remove multiple
entries from the register. These were some of the problems that the last
Commission tried to solve by embarking on fresh registration of voters in 2011.
Since the 2011 general elections,
the Commission has been updating this register in accordance with the law along
three lines: (i) addition of new registrants from the Continuous Voter
Registration (CVR); (ii) more stringent running of the Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (AFIS) to identify multiple registrants and remove them;
and (iii) updating incomplete records such as entries with incomplete
fingerprints and wrongly spelt names among others. These became particularly
important with the introduction of the PVC and Smart Card Reader (SCR). For
this reason, records without fingerprints had to be updated, otherwise, the
concerned voters will not be able to vote using the PVC and SCR. As a result of
these updates and clean up, a final register of 68,833,476 was used for the
2015 general elections.
Consequently, this Commission
believes that it inherited a register that:
i.
Meets a high standard of biometric registration. In fact, many other countries
have subsequently learnt from INEC in handling their own registers. For
instance, during the recent Presidential election in Liberia, the country’s
National Electoral Commission (NEC), through the United Nations, the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the ECOWAS Network of Electoral
Commissions (ECONEC), which I currently chair, requested the services of INEC
staff to sort out issues with their register. Their work has been highly
commended by these organisations and the diplomatic community for contributing
to the success of the Liberian election;
ii. Contains
68.8 million valid entries, easily the largest single database of Nigerians in
existence;
iii. Supports
fingerprint matching for authentication of voters during elections using the
SCR;
iv. Supports the
introduction of machine readable, chip-based PVC; and
v.
Ensures continuous updating through the Continuous Voter Registration, as
prescribed by law.
Under the present INEC, only 432,233
new registrants have been added to our national Voter Register. This represents
0.9 percent increase on the Register used for the 2015 general elections. These
additions came essentially from the CVR carried out in 2015 and 2016 in States
where we conducted off-season Governorship elections namely Bayelsa, Kogi, Edo
and Ondo as well as the FTC Area Council elections. From April 2017 when we
commenced the CVR to December of the same year, some 3,981,502 new registrants
were recorded, including figures from Anambra State Governorship election held
in November 2017. This figure represents the first major additions to the
Register since this Commission came on board. Even so, except for the 190,767
new registrants added to the voter register in Anambra State, the new
registrants are just about to be added to the national Register.
It is important to remind us that
this National Register of Voters has been used to conduct the 2011 and 2015
general elections, as well as several re-run, off-season and by-elections. Most
of these elections have not only been adjudged to meet international standards
but have also produced varied outcomes for different political parties at
different times. Indeed, the Register used in the Kano Local Government
election of 10th February 2018 was the one compiled in 2011, updated in 2014
and used for the 2015 general elections.
This Commission did not add a single
name to the voter register. As with all elections, some political parties have
won and some have lost using the same Register. In fact, many constituencies
have changed from one political party to another between elections on the basis
of the same Register. Therefore, for anyone to suggest that the same register,
on the basis of which political parties have won and lost elections at
different times, is suddenly unreliable is curious to say the least.
Let me reiterate that this
Commission is convinced that we now have a dependable register, even if it is
not perfect. We believe that it is a huge national asset, easily the largest
database of Nigerians in existence today containing over 70 million entries of
names, addresses, photographs, ten fingerprints, telephone numbers etc. I
implore all Nigerians to see the value of this national asset and work with the
Commission to continue to improve it. Considering that there are few if any
perfect voters roll anywhere, we can continue to work together with
stakeholders and indeed all citizens to ensure that all ineligible registrants
and entries are removed from the register and that eligible voters who have not
registered take advantage of the ongoing CVR.
Let me also share with you what we
have been doing and what we plan to do as a Commission to continue to update
the register and remove ineligible entries from it.
First, we have made registration
more continuous than ever before, starting from April 2017. We regularly
display the provisional register after each CVR exercise for claims and
objections, as required by law. This usually lasts between 5 and 14 days. We
appeal to Nigerians to always use the opportunity of this display to alert the
Commission about ineligible registrants, including underaged persons and
aliens, as well as incorrect details of registrants.
Second, also as required by law, we
have consistently given political parties copies of the register for each year
and ahead of general elections as well as Governorship off-season elections.
Only recently, on 28th February 2018, we gave each of the 68 political parties
a copy of the register containing names of the 3.9 million new voters
registered in 2017. We urged them to use the register not only to reach out to
voters, but also to check whether there are ineligible persons on the list and
draw the attention of the Commission to them. Unfortunately, since this
Commission was inaugurated in 2015, there has not been a single report from any
political party of ineligible voters on the Register.
Third, we have been working with the
Nigerian Immigration Service to eliminate aliens from the Register by
confiscating PVCs from aliens who are not entitled to vote, thereby identifying
them for removal from the Register. Furthermore, the Immigration Service has
promised to post their officials to registration centres during CVR to check
the incidence of alien registrants.
Fourth, we intend through our
Registration Area Officers (RAOs) to engage communities in all our 8,809
Registration Areas or Wards on a continuous basis to identify deceased persons
and other ineligible registrants for removal from the Register. We have
developed a RAOs Log Book specifically for this engagement. We appeal to
Nigerians to cooperate with them in identifying ineligible registrants for
removal.
Fifth, we intend to include major
civil society groups and the media in the publication of the Register of Voters
in the future. Section 20 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) provides that the
Register be published 30 days before a general election. In addition to
political parties, we intend to include other categories of stakeholders by
making available copies of the register to them. Of course, this is without
prejudice to the right of every Nigerian to apply for and receive the Register
on the payment of the necessary fees as enshrined in the Electoral Act. We hope
that CSOs and the media will also join in identifying ineligible registrants
for removal.
Sixth, after the ongoing CVR, which
as the law provides will end not later than 60 days to the forthcoming general
elections on 16th February 2019 – please note that the law says not later than
60 days, which means that the CVR must end on or before the 60th day to the
election – we intend to display not only the provisional register, but
the entire Register at all the Registration Areas/Wards across the country.
This again will provide a good opportunity for all citizens to interrogate the
Register and identify ineligible registrants, including underaged persons, for
removal.
Finally, the Commission notes the
recommendation of the Nahuche Committee that collaboration between INEC and
SIECs is necessary to improve the quality of elections in Nigeria, including
Local Government elections. In fact, INEC has forged a longstanding relationship
with the Forum of State Independent Electoral Commissions of Nigeria
(FORSIECON), the umbrella body of SIECs. We shall continue to collaborate with
FORSIECON towards establishing robust pathways to improving the quality of all
elections conducted in Nigeria. Some of the ideas already mooted include
drafting of a model law establishing SIECs to bring them in line with the
Electoral Act and global best practices, as well as the development of
voluntary “Guiding Principles for the Conduct of Free, Fair and Credible
Elections in Nigeria” to which we expect all 37 Election Management Bodies in
Nigeria to accede.
Ironically there has been a silver
lining in the cloud of allegations of underaged voting in the Kano State Local
Government elections. It is providing the Commission an opportunity to take
another look at the Register and to engage with stakeholders on how to continue
to update and improve it, particularly through the removal of ineligible
registrants. As we have consistently promised Nigerians, as a Commission, we
shall continue to be open to criticisms, accept shortcomings and take bold
corrective steps whenever necessary. All we ask is for Nigerians to see
election and the processes related to it, not as the business of INEC alone,
but as a collective national project.
Prof Yakubu is the Chairman,
Independent National Electoral Commission.
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