Politics
Voters Registration: The Gains And Pains
The three week voters registration exercise which ended penultimate on Saturday 5 February 2011 with originally tales of woes, frustration and success. The voters registration exercise was criminally scheduled to end two-week but extended by seven, days to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission solve all the problems associated with the exercise.
Prince Chika Mini, a legal practitioner based in Port Harcourt, said it was not surprise that the 2006 voter registration exercise was not different from the 2011 electronic voter registration. Hence, the INEC officials were unable to effectively operate the direct data capturing (DDC) machines during the early days into the two-week exercise. In his words: “the voter registration exercise, a key element in the electoral process, turned out to be a flop despite the so much talked about electoral reforms and the billions of naira smith into the exercise,” he said further.
“Nigerians hope, optimism were dashed and despair reigns in the minds of eligible voters following the initial hiccups experienced throughout the exercise across the nation.
Under the amended Electoral Law 2010, Part III Section 9(5) INEC has the power to commence the registration of voters, updating and revision of register of voters not later than 60 days before any election. Also under Section 10(3) stated “The Commission shall within sixty days after each year make available to every political party, the names and address of each person registered during that year.” How realistic will INEC implement this extant Law is yet to be seen.
Despite the gains political observers argued that the exercise witnessed anger, frustration and disappointment against the operations of the direct data capturing (DDC) Machines. In some centres in Rivers State and other States, the voters registration exercise took off late. The process was marred by the difficulty in thumb printing on the DDC machines.
Similar incident occurred in some areas, where scanners failed to function effectively thereby causing slow process in the exercise. Also, lack of constant electricity supply hampered the effective operations of the machines and poor power supply were among some of the lapses as witnessed by eligible voters.
However, some of the eligible voters investigation revealed complained about registration officials. For example, in Port Harcourt ward 20 at Azuabie registration centre, an eligible voter, Mr. Wariboko Tari, said the registration officials lack the necessary understanding of the application and knowledge on how to operate the computer.
He further said some of the registration officials called INEC ad-hoc staff cannot even connect the system because they are inexperience.
Investigation further revealed that the training programme conducted for the Ad-hoc staff prior to the commencement of the registration exercise was not fruitful as some of the ad-hoc staff (NYSC) members can not operate the machine. Yet they were paid N800 daily for transportation and N30,000 allowance for the duration of the voters registration exercise.
Most eligible voters interviewed blamed the pain associated with the exercise on the inexperience nature of the ad-hoc staff (NYSC) members deployed to operate (DDC) machines during the initial commencement of the exercise.
Also, Mr. Thompson Okujagu a resident of Okrika Island said, the process that hindered the effective voters registration exercise was the poor publicity management by INEC and the various organs of government. For instance, he observed that a lot of eligible voters were left in the dark about where the registration centres are located specially, the surrounding fishing settlements.
Mrs. Blessing Chukwu of Anoze Street, Mille 2 Diobu collaborated this fact and said, it took her and her family three days to discover where the registration centre was in Diobu for her to register.
She added nobody informed them of the whereabout of the registration centres till their neighbours discovered it and informed them. She said “we only register when the state government declared a work free day”.
Towards a hitch free voters registration, INEC had in November 2010 awarded the contract for the supply of 132,000 Direct Data Capturing Machine to three companies out of the four companies that bidded.
The successful companies were Haier Electrical Appliances Corporation Limited awarded 30,000 units at 1699,60 dollar, per unit. Zinox Technologies Limited awarded 80,000 units at 1771,73 dollar, per unit Avante International Technology Incorporation limited awarded 22,000 Units at 1699,60 dollar, per unit.
An official of the INEC Port Harcourt Ms. Chizoreze Nwagbara said the DDC machines were purchased from China where they were assembled.
China was considered because of it low cost of production. Nigerians complaint bordered on alleged low quality of the machines from China and logistic problems. The low quality of the machines was alleged to be responsible for the malfunctioning of the machines.
According to Chief Engineer of an I.T firm in Port Harcourt, Engr. Goddy Onwuigbo told The Tide that INEC failed to open and check or test the effectiveness of the DDC machines before distributing it out to their state offices. He said the DDC machines were substandard and of poor quality in the I.T. international market.
He further said Nigerians witnessed the shoddy voters’ registration exercise due to the faulty equipment, substandard DDC Machines, incompetent vendors and adoption of software produced by a less qualified consultant. Some of the problems also were attributable to a situation where some states were equally supplied insufficient DDC machines for the voters registration exercise.
The problem, according to most eligible voters, seem insurmountable that Nigerians had to call for seven-day extension of the exercise to address the problems.
However, when the INEC’s Chairman, Prof. Jega appeared before the Senate to explain some of the hitches that trailed the registration exercise, he said the initial crisis which made it difficult for most eligible voters to register was caused by the DDC machines which were mistakenly formatted forensic exercise that were of higher grade than mere capturing of the information necessary for elections.
He demanded for extra budgetary provision of 6.6 billion naira approval to cope with the extension of the exercise by one week from 29th January -5 February.
By the extension, eligible voters who were disappointed by the malfunctioning of (DDC) machines took advantage of the seven-day extension to register. Yet there are more pressures and calls on INEC for further extension of the registration exercise to enable eligible voters exercise their franchise.
Investigations revealed that in some riverine communities of Rivers State, much had not be done to achieve the much expected gains. For instance, some eligible voters clustered around the riverine communities of Andoni, Okirika, Kalabari, Bonny may have been disenfranchised due to logistic problem.
The totality of the people’s verdict is that INEC should put its house in order before the main elections, as Nigerians are not prepared for flimsy excuse from Prof. Jega and his team, especially in their inability to enhance the success of the democratic governance.
The teeming problems identified specially the central server and capacity to tackle multiple registrations must be addressed by INEC now before the general elections.
Philip-Wuwu Okparaji
Chairman-elect of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Hon. Target Segibo has alleged that the prevalent security challenges in some communities of the local government area could be traceable to parental failure on one hand, and frivolous lifestyle of children and wards involved in crime and criminality in the area on the other hand.
Segibo, who was a pioneer member of the State House of Assembly between 1999-2003, stated this in Yenagoa, the state capital recently while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after receiving his Certificate of Return from the Bayelsa State Independent Electoral Commission (BYSIEC).
He indicated his continued desire to work for the peace and rapid socio-economic development of the local government, noting that having been actively involved in the politics of the area for decades now, he was more grounded in working on modalities towards ensuring enduring peace and unity in troubled communities of the area.
The Chairman-elect who also lauded the state governor, Senator Douye Diri, the state’s leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the electorate for finding him worthy to be elected Chairman of the local government, called on parents/guardiance not to renege on their primary responsibilities of watching over their children and wards, arguing that as the largest local government area in the state, Southern Ijaw should also be noted for peace and development.
“For over 20 years, I’ve been living peacefully with all my neighbours, both at home in Oporoma, headquarters of Southern Ijaw LGA and here, in Yenagoa.
“I’ve grown up children, but I don’t give them more than what they needed as students to go to school and stay okay as a father because I discovered that most of the security challenges we’re facing today in the Southern Ijaw LGA, and other parts of the state, is traceable to parental failure and children’s wanting to lead a frivolous lifestyle”, he said.
“As parents/guardians we should be able to know the kind of friends our children/wards keep. We must not pamper them. We must tell them that they have to do something legal to earn a living. We must question any source of sudden wealth and affluence on the part of our children and wards.
“But I want to assure our people of Southern Ijaw that as their incoming Chairman, when I’m sworn-in, having been actively participating in the politics and other activities of the area, collectively we’ll work to ensure enduring peace, unity and development of the LGA”, he added.
By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa
The Bayelsa State House of Assembly has screened and confirmed the first batch of Commissioner-nominees for Governor Diri’s second term State Executive Council.
The Tide gathered that the State Chief Executive in a bid to form his cabinet for his second tenure had earlier submitted a list of 14 names to the state legislature for confirmation as commissioners.
However, The Tide reports that only 13 out of the 14 nominees attended the constitutional exercise of the lawmakers.
Though no official reasons have been given, the immediate past Commissioner for Sports, who is also a former member of the state Assembly, Hon. Daniel Igali, was conspicuously absent during the screening exercise.
Inline with the House’s rules and Standing Orders, two other former members of the state Assembly who were also part of the nominees, Dr Gentle Emelah, immediate past Commissioner for Education, and Mrs Ebiwou Koku-Obiyai, were simply asked to take a bow and leave.
Following the exhaustive grilling, however, the immediate past Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Mr Biriyai Dambo, SAN, his Finance counterpart, Mr Maxwell Ebibai, were confirmed.
Also confirmed were the immediate past Works and Infrastructure Commissioner, Moses Teibowei, Mrs Koku Obiyai, Dr Gentle Emelah, Ayibakipreye Brodericks, George Ekpotuatein Flint and Komuko Akari Kharim.
Furthermore, Mr Perepuighe Biewari, Dr Jones Ebieri, Barr. Peter Afagha, Mrs Bidei Elizabeth and Michael Magbisa received the nod to be appointed commissioners by the state lawmakers.
In his advice to the nominees shortly after their screening, Deputy Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Michael Ogbere, enjoined the Commissioner hopefuls to work as a team with those they will meet on ground, admonishing that they remain loyal to the government at all times.
On his part, Leader of the House, Hon. Monday-Bubou Obolo, said the people of the state expect a lot trom them and that the House will do its best to keep them on their toes through its oversight functions while giving them the needed legislative support where necessary.
By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa
A former lawmaker representing Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Farah Dagogo, has described the outcome of the 98th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as another demonstration of the resilience of the party to weather any storm that comes its way.
This is contained in a statement released bythe Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the estwhile federal legislator, Ibrahim Lawal, at the weekend.
In the build up to the NEC meeting, suggestions and permutations had been rife of the likelihood of the PDP running into another round of crises as the party tries to navigate a path for the North Central Zone to produce a substantive National Chairman to complete the truncated tenure of former Chairman, Dr. Iyiorchia Ayu.
Speaking on the sidelines of the NEC meeting that saw Umar Damagum retain his position as the party’s Acting National Chairman until the next NEC meeting scheduled for August, Dr Dagogo said those who genuinely have the best interest of the party at heart made timely sacrifices to keep the party firm and afloat.
The former member of the National Assembly said but for the political maturity and sagacity employed by the party’s National Leader and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, alongside other leaders, before and during the NEC meeting, the party would have ‘played into the hands of some individuals, who wanted the party to implode in order to improve their political fortunes’.
He expressed optimism that by the adjourned date of August, Damagum would have seen that “it is in the best interest of the party for him to vacate the position for a more purposeful and result oriented leadership’’.
“ For me, the outcome of the NEC meeting was a win-win situation. Against all odds, the party came out unscathed and will continue to wax stronger.
“Yes, the Acting Chairman retained his position, but it is obvious to him now and others that it would be in the best interest of the party for him to vacate that position for a more purposeful and result oriented leadership by August.
“The so called tension generated in the build up to the NEC Meeting was actually orchestrated by the inordinate desire of some few individuals who wanted to thwart the sterling call by party faithful for a review of its failing leadership and directionless.
“ The Party however did not play into the hands of those individuals, who wanted the party to implode in order to improve their political fortunes. Thanks in good measure to the political maturity and sagacity employed by the Party’s National Leader and Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, alongside other leaders, before and during the NEC Meeting. We are where we are now because of their sacrifices and dedication to the party, “ he added.
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