‘Troubled’ Borno With More Polling Units Than Rivers, Anambra, Bauchi – Analyst

A Data and Information Analyst, Babjide Ogunsowo, on Friday raised questions concerning the controversial allocation of 30,000 polling units to the North and the rise in polling units in Borno state, where Boko Haram insurgents have been most active.

Speaking on Sunrise Daily, Ogunsowo noted that there were three main problems surrounding the controversy, the first of which is, INEC’s intention of increasing the number of polling units.

“The second problem is that the political parties want to see how INEC will allocate the polling units. The third problem is from the citizens”, he said, adding that Nigerians are more concerned about the closeness of the polling units to their houses.

However, one must know the existing structure to better understand the additions made by the electoral umpire.

“Currently, what you have is INEC’s voters database of about 71 million voters is spread over about a 119 thousand polling units. So, on one hand, INEC wants to do a good thing by increasing its number of polling units from a 119 thousand to a 150 thousand”, the analyst noted that there was a question mark over the basis on which INEC arrived at the chosen number.

He further explained that “what INEC wants to do is to look at each state’s share on the voters database compared to other states”. For example, “Ogun state, based on INEC’s voters database, has about 1.49 million voters on Ogun State’s database which translates to about 2.5 percent of voters across the country.”

He explained that INEC’s plan was to make the percentage of the overall voters in the country equal to the percentage of total polling units in the country.

“INEC says, if we want to have a 150 thousand polling units across the country, it only seems fair for us to say – since Ogun state has 2.5 percent of voters, let Ogun State also have 2.5 percent of a 150 thousand polling units”.

He noted that this method requires addition or removal of polling units in all the states, but warned that if the umpire tried to remove some units, it would be equal to “electoral suicide.”

Ogunsowo also raised some salient issues concerning the new changes.

“Historically, there are 13 states that hold about 50 percent of Nigeria’s population. Historically, as well, these 13 states hold about 50 percent of the polling units.”

Some of the states are Lagos, Kaduna, Delta, Sokoto, Kano, Katsina, Anambra, with Borno ranked as number 9, but the new arrangement has made Borno rank in the sixth position.

“The question is how come and why should Borno move from ninth to sixth, especially considering the emigration circumstances that we have in Borno?” he said, noting that Borno now has more polling units than Rivers, Anambra, Bauchi States.

Meanwhile, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Kayode Idowu, who replied the analyst via a phone interview, disagreed with him concerning the percentage of proportionality and percentage of equity, which Idowu said was debatable.

He further drew attention to the “global scale of polling unit apportionment in respect to the voter population of each state”, which he insisted was what the umpire was adhering to.