Moses Ofodeme
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has profoundly appreciated the unflinching support from the European Union (EU).
“For several years, particularly since the restoration of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, EU’s partnership with the Commission and other stakeholders has helped to consolidate the electoral and democratic process in Nigeria.
“There has been incremental improvement in our electoral process over the last six electoral cycles.” INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said as he received the new EU Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS Gautier Mignot, in Abuja.
Mignot, was on a maiden visit to the Commission.
However, Yakubu, also appreciate that a lot of work lies ahead,,saying “Since the 2023 General Election, the Commission has received reports from many of the 206 national and foreign groups and international organisations accredited to observe the elections, including the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM) which made a total of 23 recommendations of which eight require action by the Commission and 15 by the executive, judiciary and legislative arms of government as well as other stakeholders such as civil society organisations, the media, faith-based organisations and political parties.
According to him, The eight specific recommendations for INEC relate to the dissemination of the Commission’s regulations and guidelines for election, training of election duty staff, deployment of electoral technology, result management process, continuous registration of voters, the cleaning up of the voters’ register, the participation of marginalised groups in the electoral process and voting by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
He continued, For our part, the Commission undertook an extensive internal and external review of the 2023 General Election involving the participation of our own officials and stakeholders across the board.
“We produced a 524-page main report and a 74-page review report containing 142 recommendations. The two reports have already been uploaded to our website. We have similarly commenced the implementation of aspects of the recommendations that only require administrative action by the Commission.”
He went further to say, For instance, in some of the off-cycle, re-run and bye-elections conducted since the General Election, there has been improvement in the quality of training of ad hoc staff involving the deployment of more BVAS machines for this purpose.
“There has also been tremendous improvement in the functionality of the BVAS in voter accreditation using fingerprint or facial authentication. Furthermore, election results are more speedily uploaded to the IReV. Voter registration in Edo and Ondo States ahead of the Governorship elections was better coordinated and collection of PVCs almost seamless with 80% of the cards collected by eligible voters.
“The perennial problem of logistics was also vigorously addressed in the recent Ondo State Governorship election. We are working hard to improve other aspects of electoral operations. The arrival of your mid-term mission later this year will provide an opportunity for a full review of the 2023 EU-EOM report.”
He also welcomed the EU’s assurance of continuous engagement and collaboration with the Commission as we approach the third phase of the European Union-Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) under which funding support is provided to several institutions and groups that play a role in democracy and governance in Nigeria from INEC to the National Assembly, the judiciary, political parties, security agencies, civil society organisations, the media and the National Peace Committee. The EU Ambassador and the INEC Chairman serve as co-chairmen of the Steering Committee of the EU-SDGN initiative.
The Chairman seized the opportunity to clarify a matter over which there is some misunderstanding in certain quarters.
“For the record, the Commission does not receive direct funding and we do not have an account into which donor funds are warehoused.
“The EU and other development partners provide indirect support in areas such as the publication of reports, retreats, engagement with stakeholders, as well as consultancy and technical support services in various areas, through the implementing partners selected and appointed by them. Their support does not involve any direct funding of core electoral activities of the Commission such as voter registration, production of PVCs, training and renumeration of ad hoc staff, electoral logistics, and the procurement of sensitive materials, including election technology. These activities remain the sovereign responsibility of the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
He however, reiterated the Agency’s commitment to sustaining regular consultative engagements with stakeholders, saying “We are aware that election is a multi-stakeholder responsibility. Only last week, the Commission met with political parties in the first of our regular quarterly meetings this year. “Similar engagements with civil society, the media and security agencies will soon follow. We have also been interfacing with our lawmakers at the National Assembly to facilitate the necessary review of the electoral legal framework ahead of the next General Election.
“Furthermore, the Commission has already commenced work on the review of our planning tools such as the Strategic Plan and the Election Project Plan for future elections. Series of meetings have already taken place over the last couple of weeks involving our staff across the States of the Federation.”