A comprehensive expose on how elections are rigged in the country has been unveiled by one of the insiders in the political
process and former Cross
River State Governor, Mr.
Donald Duke. Last
Wednesday at the
Transcorp Hilton Hotel,
Duke gave a blow by blow
account to a gathering of
pro-democracy advocates,
including the Save Nigeria
Group (SNG), of the modus
operandi of State Chief
Executives and Resident
Electoral Commissioners to
thwart the mandate of the
electorate, not just in
states controlled by the
Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), but all the others.
In his opinion, it is not just
a question of replacing the
Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC)
Chairman, but getting a
critical mass to come out to
vote and ensuring that
votes count.
The Guardian today delivers
excerpts of his extempore
speech:
“LET me start this way.
Professor Maurice Iwu is
truly an enigma; he enjoyed
the limelight. He enjoyed
all the attacks, thrown and
meted at him, he remained
undaunted. I think, he
belongs to the school of
thought that believes that
bad publicity is better than
no publicity. So, even
though he was being
attacked and scolded and
all sorts of things were said
about him, he didn’t shy
away from even going to
the United States and
talking to Nigerians in the
Diaspora about his work, he
didn’t shy away from it. I
was told he organized a
rally to ensure that he will
come back to do the work
he was appointed to.
Why do I call him an
enigma? The truth is, the
chairman of the
Independent National
Electoral Commission has
little or no bearing on the
success of elections, that’s
the truth. To me, it’s
actually immaterial because
he is head of the
administration he takes the
brunt. The best he can do
is perhaps, draw up a
blueprint but the
implementation of that
blueprint is outside his
control. So, if elections are
rigged in say -Taraba State-
we don’t do that stuff in
Cross Rivers State
(laughter),
Every one looks at Iwu and
he proudly says we did this
or that. Hogwash!
Let me now take you
through the process of an
election. We have a
hundred and twenty
thousand booths in Nigeria.
At the hierarchy, you have
the Chairman of INEC, then
you have the zonal
Commissioners, then you
have the Resident Electoral
Commissioners and they are
the heads in every state
the zone as the name
implies; we have six zones
in Nigeria, so you have six
of them. Then you have the
Resident Electoral
Commissioners and there
are 36 of them of course,
and Abuja. Then for each
local government, you have
an electoral officer. Beyond
that you have a hundred
and twenty thousand
polling booths, headed by
presiding officers. The
people think that at the
end of the elections, the
PDP would just decide who
wins and who doesn’t and
announces the results. I
think the process is a bit
more sophisticated than
that.
This is what happens; the
Resident Electoral
Commissioner is usually
from another state. The
electoral officers, they move
around. They are usually
from that state, but for the
conduct of elections itself,
you would probably move
from Cross River to Akwa
Ibom or to Abia, but these
musical chairs don’t mean
nothing.
When the Resident
Electoral Commissioner
comes before the elections
are conducted- of course
when he comes to the
state, usually, he has no
accommodation; monies
have not been released for
the running or conduct of
the elections and all that
because we always start
late. He pays a courtesy
call on the governor. It’s
usually a televised event
you know, and of course he
says all the right things.
‘Your Excellency, I am here
to ensure that we have free
and fair elections and I will
require your support.’
Now, at that courtesy call,
most governors, at least I
did, will invite the
Commissioner of Police
because he is part of the
action and he sits there.
After the courtesy call, the
Resident Electoral
Commissioner now moves in
for a one-on-one with the
governor the says, “Your
Excellency, since I came,
I’ve been staying in this
hotel, there is no
accommodation for me and
even my vehicle is broken
down and the last
Commissioner didn’t leave
the vehicle, so if you could
help me settle down
quickly;’ and the governor
says, ‘Chief of Staff, where
is the Chief of Staff here?’
And the Chief of Staff
appears. Governor says:
‘Please ensure that the REC
is accommodated–put him
in the Presidential lodge,
allot two cars to him, I give
you seven days to get this
done. Then the
relationship has started; I
am going to share some of
these things with you so
that we don’t leave here
with any illusions. A lot of
us, folks who have gone
through an election or have
been elected for one thing
or another, see groups like
Save Nigeria Group (SNG),
the CLP as woolly-eye
dreamers, you have to come
down to the backsides,
since I am now a hybrid
between both. I want to
bring you both down to
backsides. Let me take you
down to what happens so
that you can change it
because if you don’t
change it, we here won’t
suffer but I think of our
children will.
We the elite, I am one of
them, we send our kids to
the best schools around
the World, when they come
back they are misfits, they
cannot fit in and so
ultimately we are designing
a system that would destroy
us in the end.
Let me take our minds back
to Somalia. Somalia is
mono-religious, mono-
ethnic; they only have clans
(but) they have one tribe.
What has happened there?
It’s a failed state because
the elite in Somalia were so
disconnected from the
people that once they had
some money, they buy
houses in England,
Washington and all those
places; they were not
investing, putting their best
foot forward and I think
that was what Pastor Bakare
was talking about. If you
want to be in a contest, you
put your best foot forward;
at the end of the day, there
was such a disconnect that
even till today, they cannot
bridge it. Let me tell you,
the last recognized
President of Somalia is
buried in Lagos- Siad Barre.
We are multi-religious,
multi-ethnic and multi-
problematic. The reason
why most people worry
about us is if we explode,
who will contain us? Let me
also say this, I know what I
am saying now is an aside,
I will go back to the
elections. When we
conducted the census in
2006 or so, the raw figures
said we were over two
hundred million; when they
went and processed the
figures it came down to
140million.
When you look at those
figures and compare to
those we had in 1991 at a
growth rate of 2.1 or
something like that, it is
really just an extrapolation,
because we were too
embarrassed to admit our
true numbers. If we get it
wrong, we will fail like
Somalia; in Somalia, half of
them are in Kenya,
Ethiopia, and a few are in
Europe here and there; who
will contain us in all of
West Africa and Central
Africa and for that it is
imperative not just for
ourselves but for the rest of
the continent that we get it
right.
Now, back to the elections,
once that relationship has
been established between
the governor and the REC,
if you are a governor who is
‘A Governor’, maybe two
nights after you just pop by
at the governors lodge and
see the REC and say ah, ‘ah
REC how are you doing? Are
you OK?’ He says, ‘ah! Your
Chief of Staff has been
wonderful. He has been
very nice to me; he
supplied me the vehicles
and everything is Ok’.
A few weeks to the
elections, the REC sees the
governor; you probably
have on the average about
three thousand five
hundred, four thousand
depending on the polling
booths in every state. So,
REC goes to the governor
and says, ‘Your Excellency,
could you please give us
the names of about four,
five thousand people so
that we can hurriedly train
them, we need them as
Presiding Officers.’ You
need experience. A good
coach is one who has
played and has lost
matches in the past?
The REC now goes down
and says, ‘we need to
conduct a training
programme for the
presiding officers and em,
headquarters hasn’t sent
us any money yet, you
know.’
And the governor is like:
‘How much would that
cost?’
REC replies: ‘N25million for
the first batch, we may
have about three batches.’
Governor: ‘Ok, the Chief of
Staff will see you.’
Now, the Chief of Staff, you
call him: ‘Make sure, that
we arrange N25 million this
week and in two weeks time
another N25 million and
Seventy-Five million in all.’
Chief of Staff: ‘Your
Excellency, how do we do
it?’
Governor: ‘Put it under
Security Vote.’
In other words, its cash, ok,
now, cash in huge Ghana
Must Go bags – some of my
colleagues will shoot me-
(turns to the audience) is
any former governor here?
(Crowd replies no!)
Good. Cash is lodged in
huge Ghana Must Go Bags
for the REC and of course,
to be fair to them, they call
their electoral officers and
say the governor has been
very benevolent; he has
given us this and that. I
say three batches because
they have them in
Senatorial districts. So, you
have one in Calabar, you
have One in Ikom and
Ogoja, those are the
headquarters of the
Senatorial districts. Each
one costs twenty-five
million. Of course, the
sums are not properly
retired. I don’t know how
much of this twenty-five
million worked. But, there
is a rapport this is going
on.
The governor now turns
round and says: ‘call me
the party chairman.’ The
party chairman appears and
the governor says: ‘INEC
requires 50 thousand
people for conducting the
elections. See to it that we
meet their needs.’ The
chairman goes and you
hear in the evening on
radio and television: There
will be an urgent meeting
of all chairmen and
secretaries of XYZ party at
the headquarters. They
should report promptly at
10am (because) matters of
urgent interest will be
discussed. End of
announcement. Now we
have texts messages, so its
easier, in no time everyone
is here.
It’s a very short meeting,
please go back and within
48 hours submit from each
local government two
hundred and fifty names of
trusted party members. So
in a week the deed is
done. The names,
sometimes even passport
photographs if required are
sent to INEC.
And the training
programme is carried out.
Let me pause a bit, this is
at party level. They are
usually civil servants. They
may be teachers, whatever,
but they are party
members. The
remuneration, for each of
them for the elections from
Abuja is 10,000 Naira for
the day’s work. But the
state in its benevolence
gives 50 to 100,000 Naira to
each of these folks right
before this election.
This is even where it gets
even more interesting. So,
you have each of the three
or four thousand polling
booths; they are manned
by party stalwarts. They are
usually party stalwarts. You
don’t send any peripheral
member. The remuneration
from Abuja has not arrived
but that of the state was
received 48 hours prior.
On the day of elections,
each polling booth has no
more than five hundred
ballot papers, that is
standard.
There is not a polling
booth that is more than
five hundred. So only two
hundred people appear
here, three hundred there,
one hundred there, fifty
there, four hundred there,
at the end of election what
happens. The Presiding
Officer sits down and calls
a few guys and says, ‘hey,
there are a few hundred
papers here, let’s
thumbprint. This is the real
election. Well, this is not a
PDP thing. I am not here to
castigate the PDP; it’s a
Nigerian thing. This process
may sound comical and
jovial, it happens
throughout the country,
whether its Action Congress
or APGA it’s the same
thing. We are all the same.
They start thumb-printing,
some are overzealous. So at
the end of the day you find
some voting more than the
number of people that were
registered to vote.
Other wise they do it, you
have 95 percent turnout.
You start wondering where
were the voters, I didn’t
see so many people. And
the election results are
announced; XYZ party wins
and it takes a week for this
paltry ten thousand Naira
for each presiding officer to
arrive.

Source: http://mobile.saharareporters.com/report/must-read-how-governors-rig-elections-donald-duke-guardian

I dey observe.