Voter Registration. . . Jega Asks For Another N6.6bn

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Attahiru Jega, on Wednesday requested an additional N6.6 billion to complete voter registration, in disregard of the warning issued by the National Assembly (NASS) November last year for him not come back for more funds.

The INEC already got N87 billion for the entire election process, including voter registration.
The Senate suspended Order 79 (1) of its Standing Rules to hasten the amendment of the Electoral Act and concurred with the House of Representatives by granting an extension of 30 days for the exercise.
When Jega appeared before Senators in Abuja, as summoned the previous day, Senate President David Mark told him that his reputation is at stake, and so, should perish any thought of resigning from office.  Said Mark: “On voting day, there would be a lot of confusion but we can try and rectify the confusion now. We have preached one man, one vote. So, let’s put in place policies that would make that work and not disenfranchise those who want to vote.
“Even if we give you 30 days, it doesn’t mean we would give you money for 30 days. The import of the extension is to ensure that people don’t get frustrated. From what we’ve seen in the field, we believe that you need more than seven days. “It’s better to amend the Electoral Act to have free, fair, and credible elections that would be acceptable to all participants.

“Your reputation is at stake. I would advise you not to resign because you cannot threaten to quit in the middle. Politicians are also determined to win elections creditably because our own reputation is at stake. “I would advise you to move out of your office and see what happens in the field. We are reasonably reassured that the exercise isn’t where it’s supposed to be, but we are reassured that you are taking steps to rectify that.”
Jega replied: “Frankly, I’ve never threatened to resign. I have resolved to give it my best, and frankly, the issue should not arise. The question of my resignation doesn’t arise. I’ll make the place a success.”

He told unimpressed Senators after a question and answer session which spanned three hours and 42 minutes that the fresh funds would address four pressing challenges: personnel (two), transportation, and consummables.
He said the INEC registered only 28.5 million voters by January 22 out of the estimated 65, 783,046 million.

On rerun primaries, Jega reiterated that the Electoral Act clearly says the INEC should announce a timetable for the election “and any timeline we fix has implication for the next election.  All we are doing is to bring sanity and respect into the system.
“The timetable is very clear: all party primaries end on January 15 and nominations end on January 31.  “If  we wake up and somebody says he is going to do primary again, long after January 15, we are obligated to draw his attention to the provision that the date for primary has elapsed.
“That is what we have done, and I do not see how we can be seen to have broken any law or acted contrary to the provision of the law.   We felt we should draw their attention to it.”

Jega dismissed the thinking floated in the Senate on Tuesday that the INEC would revert to the old, manual register because of hitches in the electronic registration.
“Every registration we do in a day is saved in the hard disk of the computer and an external hard disk. In addition to that, we take manual records as well. If push comes to shove, we still have the manual register to fall back on. We don’t see ourselves ever going back to the old register that is not even credible.
“We have not taken that decision and we will not take that decision ever.”
Deputy Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, and Deputy Minority Leader, Olorunnimbe Mamora, asked questions about the cost implications of extending the registration period.
Jega said: “The cost elements are about four: We have 240,000 personnel for those in the field and we would take care of another 9,000 personnel in the registration centres.
“We also intend to increase the transport allowances from N400 to N1,000 and also procure consummables such as ink, paper, and co-laminates.
“Everything adds up to N6.6 billion, certainly under N10 billion. This is the figure and it’s certainly unavoidable.” 
Jega said voting in April would be manual, with motorised boats already provided for the riverine areas.
He disclosed that although 250,000 voters were registered on the first day of the exercise on January 8, an average 4.3 million voters have since been registered per day.
“By the provisions of the Electoral Act, we cannot do electronic voting. We are going to do manual voting. Accreditation for the voting is electronically generated because it covers the biometrics of the voter.
“As of four days ago, with information available to us, we have registered 28.5 million Nigerians. When we close on Saturday January 29, we would have registered between 43 million and 45 million more.
“At the end of the extension, we would have registered more than 65 million Nigerians by February 5. We’ve done our calculations, we’ve done our projections, and we’ve been reasonably conservative with our expectations.”
On lack of facilities in registration units, Jega admitted that there have been “challenges and we have not taken environmental factors into consideration. They are formidable challenges.”
He defended the extension of the registration period and insisted that Nigerians requested it, not the INEC.
“The reality is that Nigerians want an extension. There are clearly problems which have emerged, and based on circumstances totally out of our control, Nigerians still feel that there are legitimate grounds for extension.
“They are asking for it. Given the projections that we have done, an additional week would be sufficient to register those who have not been registered.