In what many are describing as a gambit with the
potential for dangerous and unimaginable
consequences, the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, led by Professor Attahiru Jega, may
have set itself up for opprobrium from a section of the
Nigerian nation. Its recently announced 30,000 new
Polling Units, PUs, has been distributed across the
country. Yet, in a curious twist of logic, the cleaning of
the Voter Register, VR, which has seen many states in
the northern part of Nigeria lose ‘GHOST VOTERS’ in
their millions, have been allocated a whopping 21,615
(twenty one thousand, six hundred and fifteen) PUs, as
against a meagrely 8,412 (eight thousand, four hundred
and twelve).
This exclusive report brings out the dangerous game of
political conspiracy that has been on at INEC and which
Sunday Vanguard has carefully followed in the last two
years. The findings are mind-boggling as there are
cogent and verifiable reasons to suggest that the ever
acrimonious North/South dichotomy may have become
a guiding principle of administrative philosophy at
INEC, a philosophy that may at once pour cold water
on the hard-earned integrity of Jega. Therefore, how
this academic of international repute got himself into
this bind remains confounding.
GENERALLY
The devil is in the details. On paper, the provision and
allocation of new Polling Units, PUs numbering over
30,000, may be desirable – at least in the light of the
congestion at polling stations during the 2011 general
elections. But this provision is only desirable in so far
as it reflects the realities on ground.
What has happened, however, is that Nigeria’s
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, led
by Professor Attahiru Jega, has insinuated itself into a
dangerous political game which defies simple logic.
After carrying out a cleaning exercise to sanitise the
Voter Register, VR, an exercise which has reduced the
total number of validly registered voters in the country,
the selfsame INEC has gone ahead to allocate its new
30,000 PUs in such a manner that some states that had
already lost so much to ghost registration still ended up
getting more PUs.
A STORMY SESSION
First, the meeting!
At a meeting of the federal commissioners of INEC on
Tuesday, August 12, 2014, a very important matter was
tabled. The matter had to do with the creation of
additional 30,000 new PUs. INEC, in its wisdom, decided
to, as it claimed, ease voting procedure because of the
perceived congestion of voting centres.
But the meeting, Sunday Vanguard was made to
understand, ran into a storm when commissioners were
told of the distribution of the PUs.
In the document, in possession of Sunday Vanguard
(see next page), which relates to the distribution of the
PUs, there is a clear lopsidedness.
What got some of the commissioners miffed was the
preponderance of the allocation to the North as against
what the South got. The commissioners were told that
the sharing formular would be 85% proportional-based
and 121 PUs per state on the basis of equality.
Sources at the meeting said tempers flared; as
commissioners from the South wanted to know the
rationale behind the sharing.
Some of the commissioners, it was gathered, “wanted to
know what was meant by 85% proportional
distribution and 121 additional polling units for
equality of states that were deemed to have excess!”
QUESTIONS INEC MUST ANSWER
There were many questions: What was the basis for
arriving at 85% and not 50 or 60 % proportion
distribution? If as INEC indicated on the chart that
some states were having excess polling units and not
deserving of more polling units in relation to registered
voters, why and where was the objectivity in allocating
additional 121 polling units on the basis of equality to
states ?
How can INEC convince the public that this new polling
units are not for the northern region when suddenly it
abandoned its post business rule register that gave a
more credible and more realistic total number of
register used for the production of its Permanent
Voters Card, PVC, the same used in Ekiti and Osun
election and has now decided to use post Automated
Finger Identification System, AFIS, register of voters
data that has more unreliable data when it decided to
create polling units?
Was it meant to disguise or mask the disproportionate
allocation to a section of the country as shown by the
allotted figures?
If you have on paper polling units that should be
populated with maximum of 500 voters and there is
usually a presumption that all would turn up on
Election Day on the basis of which INEC normally
produces ballot papers, would this not be a smart way
of returning votes based on these polling units that are
physically on ground but do not have these voters?
Is this proposal or decision an outcome of an
agreement or consensus between the INEC decision
management made up of the National Commissioners?
That may not have been the case because, at the time
of this report, Sunday Vanguard was made to
understand that moves are still on at the Commission
to get the commissioners on the same page.
OH! INEC
Whatever spiritual, political or ethno-religious force,
that influenced the decision of INEC to seemingly
surreptitiously engage in a twist of logic, would be
difficult for many to understand.
For over two years, Sunday Vanguard has consistently
and doggedly pointed out some perceptibly less than
par political engineering module of administration that
the Commission’s leadership was employing. In a few
instances, the Commission applies the brakes, re-
assesses its operations and, where necessary, makes the
necessary changes; and, at other times, pooh-poohs this
medium’s intervention.
However, because in the last couple of months, Sunday
Vanguard had exclusively gotten and published the
outcome of INEC’s seemingly altruistic effort at
ensuring that a clean Voter Register, VR, is provided for
Nigerians and, in the process, coming to terms with the
realities of the exercise, there is a basis to pontificate
on the intricacies of the voter population, the creation
of new polling units and the architecture of the process
that is expected to give Nigerians better, freer and
fairer elections as the years go by.
Already, the true registered voters are about 57million
and not 70.3 million that INEC declared in 2011
(examples of states like Zamfara with 49.3 % reduction
after AFIS now to be given additional proposed over
1,000 polling units).
The question to ask INEC is: Where are the human
beings that would populate these polling units?
Has INEC given a thought about the clear dangers of
election rigging that this would lead to when you create
on paper a maximum of 500 per polling units whereas
physically on ground you do not have such human
beings in existence in those polling units; but exist only
on paper in which case it is easy for politicians to rig
election by conniving with election officials to make
returns of votes based on those polling units; this, given
that INEC normally produces ballot paper for every
voter on the register as well as result sheets for all
polling unit's.
http://www.osundefender.org/?p=183364

OK oo

Jo ooooo,am d FTC,,,,,,,,nah d first tym i go b d first to comment on nairaland b dis

PDP is using ethnicity and religion to divide Nigerians for their greedy ambitions. The worst is that under Jonathan, Patriotism to Nigeria has been reduced to Loyalty to Jonathan and his Wife.

,

Utter rubbish journalism that is neither based on fact nor common sense. It defies logic with its lack of information provider other that "exclusively learnt" "exclisively gathered" and other gibberish. The Autor should be castrated for trying to instigate ethnic/regional tension with his/her quackery. Nonsense...

And to think that kids as young as 6 register as voters in these Northern States leaves so much to desire. I took a look at the Voters' register in one of the PUs in Gombe State in 2010. Out of about 1300 Voters, more than half of them are actually under-aged. Pictures don't lie.

In Nigeria, the Government do not take the regions with large voting population for granted and the North knows how to play the game, yet some people will decide to register somewhere out of their state. SMH

egift: PDP is using ethnicity and religion to divide Nigerians for their greedy ambitions. The worst is that under Jonathan, Patriotism to Nigeria has been reduced to
Loyalty to Jonathan and his Wife.

When will this egoat grow up? Pls go to school. Its even free now courtesy Almajiri Schools.

Must GEJ be mentioned before you talk?

[s]

ZKOSOSO: When will this egoat grow up? Pls go to school. Its even free now courtesy Almajiri Schools.

Must GEJ be mentioned before you talk?

[/s]

4get that thing. GEJ wil win next yr election. No body can stop him on earth. he is GOD ordained.

omololu2020: Jo ooooo,am d FTC,,,,,,,,nah d first tym i go b d first to comment on nairaland b dis

someone beat you to it

.