Politics
You Can’t Remain Analogue, INEC Chairman Tells Staff
The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, says no staff of the commission should remain analogue and manual mode but all should adapt to technological innovations and creativity.
Yakubu gave the charge on Monday in Lagos at the opening ceremony of a-four-day capacity building for INEC’s Heads of Voter Education and Publicity (VEP) and Public Affairs Officers (PAOs) in the southern states.
The Tide reports that the workshop tagged “Capacity Building on Effective Communication for Continuous Voter Education and New Polling Units for INEC’s Head of Voter Education and Public Affairs Officers’’, was organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Yakubu, who was represented by Mr Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, said that staff of the commission must adapt quickly to the new technological realities aimed at deepening electoral process.
The INEC chairman said that the commission was dealing with complex issues, diverse constituencies, intense fight for power and dangerous geographical terrains, hence the need for innovations and creativities.
Yakubu said: “Staff for the commission must adapt quickly to the new technological reality occasioned by advances in technology, the global health pandemic, challenge of best practices in election administration and management.
“The staff of the commission in general and information managers in particular cannot afford to remain analogue and on manual mode when a new generation of Nigerians is migrating steadily to the digital world.
“We must at all times strive to show the way in moving the country toward a direction that will lead to better elections, even as the commission has demonstrated capacity, creativity and innovation in times of great changes, difficulties and challenges.”
According to him, at the height of the pandemic and when many advanced countries suspended or called off their elections, INEC developed an electoral continuity plan and strategy and conducted two constitutionally-circumscribed governorship elections.
He said that INEC policy on conducting elections in the context of COVID-19 pandemic received global and international acclaim and became a standard for so many African countries.
Yakubu said that within the same period, the commission designed a Candidate Nomination Portal through which political parties uploaded the personal particulars and list of their nominated candidates.
He said that the commission also developed a portal for domestic election observers and the media through which they applied for accreditation.
“Within the same period too, the commission developed and deployed INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) through which the commission uploaded polling unit results for public view.
“These are innovations and developments all HODs, VEP and PAOs must be abreast of and relay to the public at necessary junctures,” Yakubu said.
He urged all HODs VEP and PAOs to read widely, broadly and be on top of information as well as knowing how to work on different social media platforms so as not to be impediments to INEC’s progress.
The INEC chairman said that the CVR online pre-registration exercise as well as biometric and physical capturing exercises which commenced on June 28 and July 26 respectively nation-wide, had seen more Nigerians embrace technologies.
“The commission is introducing technology in the country’s electoral process to aid efficiency and make the conduct of elections less cumbersome, more transparent and more engaging.
“Considering the complex geographical terrain of the country, the commission believes that deepening the use of technology will assist it organise elections efficiently and declare results in record time,” he said..
According to him, the commission believes that deepening the use of technology in electoral process “will limit prospects of pernicious and malicious interference in the electoral process and election outcomes”.
Yakubu said that the duality of quality control and due diligence would eliminate as much as possible, the anxiety of moving results from the polling units to the collation centres.
“Technology will also enhance and domicile the processes of the commission within the commission and enhance monitoring and compliance.
“Within the context of a global pandemic, technology is the oxygen for electoral continuity.
“The commission is committed to ensuring that all Nigerians, with no legal disability, who desire to vote, must vote no matter their station in spite of their location.
“Technology holds the key to the actualisation of this goal. The commission will, therefore, call-in aid, technology to obviate some of the challenges of manual processes and procedures,” Yakubu said.
He expressed INEC’s determination to enhance the power and value of vote and enable eligible Nigerians to vote in a safe and peaceful environment.
The INEC chairman said that the commission would continue to deepen partnership with the judiciary and other stakeholders in its efforts to improve on the integrity of elections.
He solicited the understanding of the judiciary to interpret the constitution and the law more purposefully and enhance, guarantee, protect and secure the power, prestige and independence of INEC.
Yakubu commended the UNDP and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for making the capacity building programme possible.
Also speaking, Mr Nick Dazang, Director of Voter Education and Publicity, said that voter registration remained crucial to INEC’s work and mandate to organise and conduct elections.
Dazang said that without a credible register, election could not be credible.
He noted that since 2007, the commission had begun using technology to register voters with the introduction of Direct Data Capturing Machine.
He said that staff must the brought to speed in all novel technologies.
Earlier in his welcome address, Mr Sam Olumekun, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Lagos State, said that the workshop was apt now that the commission had embarked on dual online pre-registration and physical biometric capturing.
Olumekun, who was represented by Mrs Ijeoma Okey-Igbokwe, Head of Department, General Administration and Procurement, said that the workshop was an evidence of INEC’s determination to improve on its performance in the conduct of flawless election in 2023.
sinbajo’s Directives -Malami
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has insisted on the conclusion of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise yesterday (Sunday) despite calls by some opposition political parties and civil society organisations for an extension over concerns that millions of citizens could be excluded from the 2027 general elections.
In a notice issued on its X (formerly Twitter) handle on Saturday, the commission reminded the public that the exercise would end on Sunday, July 26, with designated registration centres open from 9am to 3pm.
“Your future won’t wait. Neither should you. The Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise ends Sunday, 26 July 2026,” the Commission stated.
INEC also reminded prospective voters that they could complete the registration process online through its dedicated CVR portal or visit designated INEC offices and registration centres nationwide for physical assistance.
The new Electoral Act stipulates that INEC is required to stop voter registration, updating and revision of the voters’ register 90 days before an election to allow for data clean-up, the printing of Permanent Voter Cards and other logistical preparations.
The law also requires the Commission to display the voters’ register for claims and objections within the stipulated period to enable eligible Nigerians to challenge omissions and errors and help ensure the credibility of the final register for the polls.
The INEC National Commissioner on Information and Voter Education, Mr Mohammed Haruna, told The Tide source that the Commission would not extend the deadline, stressing that the registration exercise had to close to allow the electoral body to begin cleaning the data already collected.
“By midnight on Sunday, voter registration ends. There won’t be any extension. There are so many things that we need to do at the back end. We have to draw a line; otherwise, we won’t be able to produce a clean copy of what has been posted,” he said.
Mr Haruna explained that the commission’s Information Technology team and the Voter Registration Department would begin processing the data immediately after the closure of the registration window.
He said INEC would deploy its Automated Biometric Identification System to detect and remove multiple registrations before the provisional voters’ register is displayed for public scrutiny.
“We have this automatic biometric system that will check whether somebody has registered more than once. They will publish the register for claims and objections. That is, if anybody thinks a name shouldn’t be on the register, or if he has some claims, for instance, that his name has been omitted or some of his details are incorrect,” he said.
According to him, the final number of newly registered voters would only be known after the biometric verification and the claims and objections process.
“So, it’s after all that has been done that we will have a final figure, which we will now add to the existing 93 million or so. That will then become the voters’ register. We are mandated to give every political party a copy ahead of the election,” Mr Haruna added.
Responding to concerns over the number of Nigerians who may be excluded from the 2027 electoral process by the closure, the national commissioner said INEC could only account for eligible citizens who presented themselves for registration.
He added that the commission had recorded registrations through its online platform, physical registration centres and INEC offices across the 774 local government areas.
According to a public announcement signed by Mr Ariyo Rufus, Head of Department, Voter Education, Publicity, Gender and Inclusivity on behalf of Mr Oluwatoyin Babalola, the INEC Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), the said exercise is aimed at assessing its operational readiness and testing the efficiency of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of the governorship poll.
INEC stated that the exercise would simulate Election Day accreditation procedures but clarified that no voting would take place during the exercise.
The commission explained that “the mock accreditation would be conducted in selected polling units spread across the three senatorial districts of Osun State, covering Osun Central, Osun East and Osun West.
“In Osun Central Senatorial District, the selected local government areas are Osogbo, Olorunda, Ifelodun and Boripe, with designated polling units identified for the exercise.
“For Osun East Senatorial District, the exercise will take place in selected polling units across Ilesa West, Ilesa East, Oriade and Obokun local government areas.”
INEC also listed Egbedore, Ede North, Ede South and Ejigbo local government areas as the selected councils for the mock accreditation exercise in Osun West Senatorial District.
The commission urged all registered voters whose polling units were selected to participate in the exercise, stressing that only holders of valid Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) would be accredited.
“This exercise is designed to test the functionality and efficiency of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) under conditions similar to Election Day. There shall be no voting during the exercise,” the Commission stated.
INEC reaffirmed its appreciation to residents of Osun State for their continued cooperation and support throughout the electoral process.
INEC also assured political parties, the media, civil society organisations and other stakeholders of the Commission’s commitment to conducting a free, fair, credible, transparent and inclusive governorship election in Osun State.
Mr Dare made the remark while criticizing Alhaji Abubakar for hiring a United States of America lobbyist with $1.2 million, in preparation for the 2027 elections.
In a statement he personally signed, Mr Dare said the former vice president can’t take Nigeria down the path of self-destruction.
The statement read in part: “Worse still, for a man who presumes to offer leadership to Africa’s most populous nation, his recent resort to grievance offshoring, outsourcing political warfare to Washington and reportedly paying $1.2 million to an American lobbying firm to peddle petitions against a sitting Nigerian President, stands as an affront to Nigeria’s sovereignty and a vote of no confidence in its democratic institutions.
“It is also a stinging slight, an implicit condescension directed at generations of Nigerian journalists, policy analysts, academics, and public intellectuals who have spent decades analysing, critiquing, and carrying the burden of the nation’s democratic evolution.
“The Atiku Abubakar of today cuts a pitiable figure, a grotesque portrait of what a politician becomes when ambition overwhelms judgment and every political faculty becomes programmed for self-destruction.
“No, Atiku cannot take Nigeria down that path with him. He must travel it alone. But first, Nigerians deserve Atiku Abubakar’s report card. Charity, they say, begins at home, not in Washington.
“Nigerians deserve to know whether the Atiku Abubakar who has long presented himself as a democrat is, in reality, a politician of many colours. He has erected for himself a throne built simultaneously on sand and bayonets. It is time to explode the bayonets.”