The claims by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Nigeria that it is ready for the elections has been dismissed by a member of the Post-Election Violence Committee set up by the President after the 2011 elections, Peter Esele.
Mr Esele told Channels Television on Tuesday that the insecurity in the north-east was not enough reason to postpone the elections, insisting that the issue of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) distribution and other logistic challenges were enough to cause a shift in the date of the elections.
The INEC had told reporters on Saturday, after series of meetings with stakeholders in the political sector, that the commission was advised by security operatives to postpone the elections, as they could not guaranty the security of lives and property in the north-east region during the elections.
Inadequate Training
The elections were rescheduled to hold on March 28 and April 11.
“I was surprised that the reason given to the postponement of the election was security situation. I think in Iraq, they still go ahead and conduct elections.
“But if you ask me, I think that INEC was not ready,” he said.
Mr Esele also cited the inadequate training of INEC ad-hoc staff as another key factor that showed the electoral body’s unpreparedness.
“You have 120,000 polling units and you need eight persons to man each of the polling unit because of the new technology that they will be using.
“Multiply that by 120,000 polling units you have 960,000 persons that you need to train. Have they been trained? No!” he stressed.
Pushing his claims further, Mr Esele said that the entire number of PVCs expected are yet to be delivered to the INEC.
“Seventy million PVCs expected in the country are not all in the country. INEC said most of the cards are in the country, but as at yesterday they still received some cards.
“The dictionary definition of ready is completion. What we should have been doing four weeks to the election is trial-runs. We have not had any trial runs.
“Has INEC come around on television to show Nigerians how things work?” He questioned.
According to him, handling the process adequately and efficiently would help guard against violence.
Build Strong Institutions
He expressed optimism that the INEC should be able to sort out all challenges before the end of the six weeks.
“I have confidence that at the end of the six weeks the materials needed for the elections will be here.
“Nothing stops the INEC from doing a weekly briefing about the developments as they progress.
“They need to build the confidence of the people that nobody is trying to use INEC to scuttle this election.
“To guard against violence again we must look at the process and make people see that the system is foolproof and that the election cannot be rigged,” he emphasised.
Mr Esele further stressed the need for Institutions in Nigeria to be strengthened, saying that strong Institutions would guarantee continuity and would make it impossible for powerful men to interfere with their activities.
“In whatever way we can, we should ensure that our institutions are strengthened,” he added.
INEC Was Ready
The INEC, however, said Mr Esele’s claims were not true, emphasising that the commission was ready for the election if it had not been advised to postpone the elections.
The spokesman for the INEC chairman, Mr Kayode Idowu, said “the INEC does not need 900,000 workers to work at the polling units”.
“For the presidential election, INEC needs 716,054 ad-hoc workers at the polling units and for the state elections, INEC needs 716592 workers and these workers are being trained.
“The issue of materials coming, the presidential ballot papers for presidential elections are already in the Central Bank box and they have been there for some time,” he said.
Mr idowu said it would not be late to bring in the ballot papers for state elections few days to the election.
“There are costs for warehousing the materials and it should not be warehoused for a long time,” he said.
The spokesman for INEC’s chairman, however, said some voter cards came in very late, but that had been made clare by the Chairman.
He also accepted that the commission was not 100 per cent ready, pointing out that because of the nature of the process, there could be a change in the arrangement.
Contrary to Mr Esele’s claims that the some PVCs were delivered to the INEC on Monday, mr Idowu said “all the PVCs had come in and had been delivered to the states”.