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INEC, SIECs, Voters Register And November 4th 2006 Local Government Elections By Akinyemi Akinlabi
After the 5th Annual National Delegates Conference of “Forum of State Independent Electoral Commission” (FOISCEM) held at Ogun State Hotel, Abeokuta between 9th – 12th May, 2006, a communiqué was issued announcing among others that FOISCEM, the umbrella organization of the bodies saddled with the conduct of local government elections in Nigeria has decided that local government elections should be held nationwide in Nigeria on Saturday November 4th, 2006.
Since the announcement was made by Alh. (Barr) Aliyu Malami Yandoto, nothing had been heard on the proposed election date until Wednesday July 12, 2006 when Mr. Oye Okunlola, the Chairman of Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission reiterated the FOISCEM’s decision while defending the budget of his commission before Oyo State House of Assembly. During his defense, he was reported to have told the house that the local government polls will still hold this year and that all the State Governors have been informed by their various State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) Chairmen.
Prior to this statement credited to him, there have been high speculations that the elections are not likely to hold this year for four reasons, one is the unwarranted defeat of the constitutional amendment bill, second is the announcement of Prof Maurice Iwu (INEC Chairman) that all elections will be held in April next year, the thirds is the fact that INEC is yet to updated voters register. The fourth is the fact that the various State Independent Electoral Commission members have remained silent on the issue since May. 12th, 2006.
The now abandoned, proposed amendments to the Nation’s constitution contained a lot of pragmatic and practical solutions to local government administration more than any of the previous ones. For example, it addresses the issue of election to the local government more than any previous constitution. It also provides for early conduct of election (creating time for litigation before swearing in). The proposed constitution also tried to detach the local government councils from the absolute control of the various State Governors. Nothing could be better than this for our local governments.
Prof Maurice Iwu, during his democracy day speech (May 29, 2006) announced that all elections in Nigeria will now be held between April 7th and April 28th. Ear him... “ Against the background of the prevailing provision of the Constitution, the 2007 general elections will hold between April 7 and 28th, 2007”. He did not mention the exact date for each election or the order of the elections. However, report have it that on July 12, 2006 he mentioned in London that the gubernatorial election will come first and the Presidential election will come last. Hence, the Parliamentary elections will come in between. If I may ask, is it not possible for him to be unambiguous? secondly, is it mot possible for Nigeria to have a specific date set for election like America?. In the U.S, the general election date is the second Tuesday in the November of every year. The next Presidential election will hold on November 11th, 2008. No Jupiter, INEC, Senate President, President or, Godfather will change the date. Anyway, since the conduct of local government is out of Iwu and his INEC’s jurisdiction, we can then assume that the statement made by the Chairman, Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (being a responsible member of FOISCEM) is valid, credible, reliable and acceptable to INEC.
Although INEC has no constitutional power to conduct local government elections, the 1999 constitutions empowers INEC to register voters and make the voters register available to the various State Independent Electoral Commissions 90 days before the local government elections. This may be a major predicament for effective conduct of local government elections in November 2006 just as it was in 2002 (The local government election was not conducted until March, 2004). Now, the State SIECs are ready to conduct elections but Iwu’s INEC is not prepared to conduct a review of voter’s register until after the raining season (My understanding of this is November). The implication of this would be that either the elections will not hold in November 4th or the local government elections will be held with un-updated, outdated and unreliable voters register. The un-reviewed voters register will disenfranchised millions of Nigerians who turned 18 between 2002 and now and also create problems for those who have changed their voting districts as well as thousands who might have lost or defaced their voters cards. At the end of the day, millions of Nigerians will be disenfranchised. The election may then be followed with crisis worse than what Taraba state is facing now, after her local government election held on Saturday July 8th, 2006
If any problem arises out of this, Prof Iwu and his INEC should be held completely responsible because I can not understand why a government agency should delay its work because of rain. INEC chairman reportedly said that he can not do one of his jobs (registration of voters) during raining season. May I ask if he and his commissioners are receiving salaries in the raining season? Secondly, the guidelines for registration of voters made available to the nation by his predecessor, Abel Guobodia in May, 2002 made provision for continuous update of voters register as being done in developed nations. According to Guobodia, “ At anytime outside the prescribed general registration and/or revision periods, a person eligible to vote but whose name is not on the Register may apply to the electoral officer in his or her Local Government Area for registration. The updating of the Register will stop 60 days before general election or 30 days before bye-election……. The guideline issued by Guobodia made adequate provision for periodic review of voters register, continuous registration of voters and transfer of voters registration from one ward to another as being done in Europe and America. Following the Guobodia guideline by Iwu’s INEC would have made it unnecessary to embark on another voter’s registration or revalidation that will consume several millions of Naira.
This registration or revalidation of voters register is another problem associated with over centralization of authority in Nigeria. What is the need for assigning this role to INEC since it can be done better by State INEC and in fact the local government electoral officers? In America for instance, voters register are complied by the electoral officers of various counties (equivalent to our local government). People are free to register as voters at the post office, public library, hospitals, driver’s license offices, High Schools, Colleges and in fact over the internet. Young adults register immediately they turn 18 years old, others transfer their voters’ registration immediately they move to new areas and the dead are removed immediately the death certificates are issued. Nigeria can do better. We should stop wasting millions on unnecessary projects.
Akinyemi Akinlabi, BSc (Econs), MBA Miami Gardens Florida, USA |