OPINION/EYE WITNESS

What I saw on election day
By Reuben Abati

voters determined to exercise their rights

"INEC tried this time", was how many Nigerians responded to yesterday's re-scheduled National Assembly election. Not quite. 

It was an election in which many Nigerians were constructively disenfranchised, we had something that looked like an election, INEC seemed better prepared than it was last week, but still, we may be faced with an electoral process in which to use a familiar Nigerian phrase, we are likely to "fumble and wobble to the final." A situation whereby something that looks like what we desire attracts enormous praise is fast becoming a Nigerian pastime and it is a sign of our underdevelopment. We praise state governors for digging boreholes, for constructing roads, and for providing hospitals, as if these are extra-ordinary achievements. And so, we praise INEC and the security agencies for holding one week after the original date, after two postponements, an event that looks like an election. But there are questions to be raised still and areas in which quick improvements are required. Was the election free and fair? Was it credible? Is it of international standard? Are there logistics challenges that INEC still failed to address? These are the questions.

There were reports that the election was generally peaceful. It was marred however, by reports of violence in parts of the country which raise serious questions about the capacity of the security agencies to ensure law and order, not just on election day but before and after. There was a bomb explosion at the INEC Office in Suleja, Niger State on the eve of the elections resulting in the death of about 13 youth corps members who had gone to check their postings for the Saturday event. On Election Day, the Labour Party, FCT Senatorial candidate, Kayode Ajulo was kidnapped, hours after he received death threats on his cell phone. There was also electoral violence in Osun leaving five persons dead. There were bomb explosions also in Maiduguri (10 casualties) and in Kaduna. In Ibadan, Oyo state, there were reports of thugs intimidating voters in certain areas. The presence of security agents at polling centres may have prevented violence in many places, but there is a lot more to be done to prevent post-election day violence. With soldiers and policemen on full alert on election day, and with a restriction of movement order in place, even the thugs and their bosses were intimidated into silence. We have secured peace on election day with the barrel of the gun. But are there plans to prevent the violence that may come after, resulting from likely protests about disenfranchisement and dissatisfaction with outcomes?

The bomb explosion in Suleja is particularly sad and totally condemnable. The victims, dead and injured, were mostly youth corps members, young men and women who had offered to serve their country, even if many of them would consider the N7,000 paid as stipend to each electoral official, attractive. These are children from poor, struggling families, no child from a rich Nigerian family would offer to expose himself or herself to the risk of being an electoral official! The INEC office was said to have been packed full, before a loud bang was heard. Jega, the INEC chair, condemned "this cowardly and dastardly action, which seems designed to instill fear in Nigerians and paralyze their aspirations for peaceful and credible elections." He looked really sad on television as he read his statement. But not the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner who on Channels TV described the bomb explosion in Suleja as "an individual thing". He argued that we shouldn't have expected any serious security arrangement since this was only a case of youth corps members going to check their postings and that if it was an electoral event, adequate security would have been provided.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner needs to be told that security at every INEC office must be taken as top priority, and that must include all the collation centres, posting centres, INEC stores if there are any, before and after the elections. Those who chose election day, and the night before, to detonate bombs are making a statement: the same kind of statement that was made on October 1, 2010 on the occasion of Nigeria's golden jubilee anniversary: that anyone can challenge the Nigerian state with impunity and get away with it. The Lagos REC's response is just as asinine as the prompt response by the FCT Police to the abduction of the Abuja Labour Party Senatorial candidate, to the effect that the abduction was "stage-managed." Was there an investigation to determine that? And if so, has anybody been arrested to own up to the fact? Those saddled with maintaining law and order must be even more vigilant after elections have been concluded. Every effort must be made to ensure that those hapless youth corps members and other ad hoc officials involved in the Suleja bomb incident are assisted with medical and trauma care. The families of the dead should be paid compensation and INEC officials must visit those families. We should not give the usual impression that we do not value human lives in this country.

INEC was advised to spend the extra week it grabbed to address the challenges of logistics that arose during the aborted April 2 election. We observed some improvement but it wasn't good enough a compensation for all the postponements. In some polling stations, electoral officials arrived early, and accreditation and voting commenced as scheduled. Even where there was late arrival of materials, the officials still managed to squeeze the activity into the allotted period, even if many voters not seeing the officials at the polling centres returned home. The sad news is that in many states, polling officials not only arrived late, voting materials were inadequate, and there was gross disenfranchisement. In the next election, it is important that electoral officials arrive on time in all polling centres and not terribly late. In Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos, electoral officials reportedly did not arrive until close to 12 noon. In Sapele, no materials had arrived by 10. 45 am. In Imo state, there were no polling materials until after 12 noon in nearly all polling centres. In Omole Phase II, Lagos, electoral officials told voters that they were conducting both Senate and House of Representatives election, but they only gave them two ballot papers for Senatorial elections, and were asked to use the Senatorial ballot paper as House of Reps ballot. What was that? There were reports of names missing in the voters' register across the country.

Some voters who had found their names in the register on April 2, suddenly found that their names had disappeared, which means that within a week, INEC merely fouled up the process further in that regard. An election with large numbers of disenfranchised voters can hardly be described as fair. The logo and name of the Labour Party were reportedly missing on the ballot paper for the Senatorial election in Lagos and elsewhere. Were the ballot papers printed specially for electoral districts? If so, this is confusing. These are issues that INEC should investigate and address rather than engage in premature rounds of self-congratulation. Why didn't electoral officials for example allow voters with missing names to vote under the tendered ballot rule provided for in the Electoral Act?

We should also not lose sight of the spate of electoral malpractices: In Ughelli and Owerri, ballot boxes were snatched. In Kano, there were allegations of under-age voting. In Ondo State, the ruling Labour Party alleged that PDP party chieftains with the aid of thugs and the police tried to intimidate Labour Party supporters. In Ondo town, there were no stamp pads in many polling centres and where these were available, they proved useless, and biro marks had to be used to identify accredited voters. Voting had to be cancelled in parts of Ondo state, and in Abuja some voters took the law into their hands and stopped voting because their names did not appear in the voters' register. Across the country, before the election, persons were arrested printing ballot papers and other fake electoral materials. Fake ad hoc INEC staff showed up in Kwara state. In some states, party agents were caught with voters' cards and other ballot papers. Nigerian politicians are obviously desperate and incorrigible. The security agencies must apprehend electoral offenders including INEC officials who may have compromised their positions and ensure that they are brought to book. The bigger challenge for INEC would be to ensure the integrity of the results. The key thing about announcing the results at polling booths is that the results are already in the public domain. Any discrepancies without clear explanations for such could result in post-election conflicts.

Voter turn-out was an issue yesterday; whereas there was massive turn out in Niger, Adamawa and a few other states, most voters who had trooped to the polling stations last week, chose to stay at home. Ironically, it is the enthusiasm of the electorate that has sustained the process, and given yesterday's exercise a slight measure of credibility. Their numbers may have been less than expected but those who wanted to vote did so with great enthusiasm. Those who did not chose to play safe. Hopefully, next week, there will be a massive turn out in all parts of the country, the Presidential election being so crucial, and confidence in the process having been inspired by the peace of the graveyard that was witnessed on April 9. It is easy to explain the poor turn-out in parts of the country. The election eve bomb explosion in Suleja was enough to scare many people away. The presence of soldiers and policemen on the streets and threats of high-handedness by the security agencies also scared many voters. On Saturday, April 2, many Nigerians travelled to their home states and villages to vote; yesterday, not many felt compelled to travel home, out of apathy and for reasons of cost. It is also the case that many voters did not fully understand the importance of the National Assembly elections. But by far, the most embarrassing case on election day was what looked like elite cop-out. Most of the voters were ordinary people: they seemed to be more passionate about democracy than the Nigerian educated class.

Many members of the so-called elite group monitored the National Assembly elections on television, from the comfort of their homes or from far away, abroad. It will be a useful exercise to check how many Nigerian CEOs and captains of industry went out to vote on Saturday, April 9. The truth is that as Nigerians go to the polls, many Nigerian "big men and women" have since travelled out of the country. They won't return until the elections are won and lost and they are sure that there is peace in the country. These are the same people whose businesses will be affected by National Assembly legislations. They would be quick to complain should there be unfavourable legislations affecting their businesses, and yet on election day, they'd rather stay at home, and allow their drivers, house-helps and bricklayers to be the ones to decide how Nigeria votes. In other parts of the world, it is the middle class and the elite that take the driver's seat in determining the future of the country. In Nigeria, the rich are often too lazy to vote except when the election is like a business enterprise for them, that is a direct source of livelihood.

National Assembly elections could not hold yesterday in 15 Senatorial districts and 48 Federal Constituencies; elections were also cancelled in Suleja Local Government, and parts of Ondo state, there may be a few more cancellations before INEC releases the results. Such National Assembly elections have been moved to April 26 to coincide with the Gubernatorial elections. INEC's explanations for the postponements make sense: about 20 million ballot papers that were exposed on April 2 need to be replaced; and it would have been insensitive to proceed with the elections in Suleja; that would have amounted to marching on the blood of the victims of the Friday, April 8 bomb blast. However, it is remarkable that the announcement of the National Assembly elections that have been held so far could have a predictable effect on the outcome of the remaining National Assembly elections on April 26. For, in the affected 27 states, a voting trend would have been established which could influence voter's decision; this could give an unfair advantage to the leading party in particular areas. This is the likely effect of staggering an election that should have been held on the same day.

As it is, Nigeria's election 2011 has finally started after a false start and postponements. Whatever happens hereafter, it is clear that the 2011 elections would not be a good advertisement for electoral reform, Nigeria lost the opportunity to turn this election into a branding opportunity and a symbol of national progress. In the end, we would have to return to the same old questions about the need to rebuild institutions, to provide a legal framework for elections early enough, to sanitise the political party system and to raise Nigeria's level of electoral performance. Next week, INEC still has another chance....