D-Day As Over 93 Million Voters Choose Nigeria’s Leader

The journey to today has not been smooth sailing as the various facilities of the commission have so far recorded 50 attacks in the last four years but the spate have intensified in the last few months prompting Yakubu to raise the alarm in several platforms.

Yakubu feared that exercise risks postponement. His series of shuttles to security chiefs have however restored some form reassurance that the government would provide the needed security for the conduct of the poll across the country.

The country has witnessed a series of deployments of security personnel comprising of those attached to the military, police and other para-military organization across the country to guarantee peaceful poll.

Election of youths

As Nigerians file out to choose from 18 gladiators jostling to take over from incumbent Muhammadu Buhari whose tenure of two terms of office spanning eight years will lapse by midnight 29, May, 2023. This is the seventh time the nation would be going to poll to elect its leader having done so previously in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 and no fewer than 94 million Nigerians would be eligible to vote as stated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Giving further insight, INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye said youths formed the highest number of registered voters who would vote in the February and March elections. Okoye added that of a total of 9,518,756 valid newly registered voters between June 28, 2021 and July 31, 2022, those aged between 18 and 34 years of age were 7,286,871, representing 76.56 per cent.

Main gladiators

The four leading contenders include the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; his major challenger in the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the as former Governor Peter Obi of Anambra who is contesting on the platform of the Labour Party.

To complete the pack is the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who is expected to make a good showing considering his appeal to Northern talaka voters.

Other prominent candidates include Mr. Yele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC), Mr. Kola Abiola of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Adebayo Adewole of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr. Malik Ado-Ibrahim of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), a former Chief Security Office to the Head of State, Major (rtd.) Hamza Al-Mustapha, who is contesting on the platform of Action Alliance (AA). Apart from the Presidency, Nigerians would also have the opportunity of electing members into the two chambers of the National Assembly.

While the upper chamber, The Senate is composed of 109 and the lower chambers, House of Representatives has 360 members who are to be elected from all the corners of the country. No fewer than 4,223 candidates are vying for all 469 federal legislative seats in the various registered political parties in the country.

BVAS machine as game changer

INEC has done several things to ensure the credibility of exercise and such was the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

The device is a technology introduced to prevent rigging of the process by unscrupulous politicians. To all intents and purposes, the device is a marked improvement on the card reading device that was used for accrediting registered voters to take part in the election process. Precisely, BVAS accredits voters before voting on election day and it is expected to take care of the seeming lapses noticeable in the card reader devise that had been used in the past.

It will eliminate the incidence of inability of voters to vote as seen in past elections. It would eradicate the use of incidence form which was used when the card reader could read the fingerprints of voters as it would do the same with facial recognition which is always fool proof.

The BVAS will also eliminate the problem associated with manual collation of results as it will be used for transmitting election results to the INEC viewing portal after voting by electorate. Candidates who won elections in the past had been denied victory at the various collation centres in the country owing to the manual way such was done in the past but with the introduction of the device, they would now be eradicated.

BVAS will ensure the credibility of the poll by generating and scanning individual scan barcodes or QR codes on the Permanent Voter Card or voter’s register before voting and doesn’t require Internet connectivity during voting. It only requires the Internet when transmitting election results to the INEC portal.

Stakeholders support and INEC’s readiness

INEC conducted a mock accreditation on February 4 to test the efficacy of the BVAS device ahead of today’s poll and the exercise recorded so much success prompting the leadership of the commission to express satisfaction after.

Yakubu added that the machines used for the mock exercise would be reconfigured in preparation for the main elections. The exercise was monitored by some international organization, particularly a delegation from the European Union (EU) Election Observation Missions. Prior to the BVAS trial exercise, INEC had trained over 1.4 million ad hoc staff on the use of the device ahead of today’s election.

The selected members of staff have also been well acquainted with the details of the manual for the election in a series of training they have been put through by INEC and many of its international partners.

The breakdown of those trained by the commission include 17,685 Supervising Presiding Officers; 176,846×4 707,384 as Presiding Officers/Assistants Presiding Officers; 11,083 Collation Officers; 12,991 Registration Area Technical Officers; about 20,000 security officers; and 6,009 Registration Area Centres Managers. Aware of the fact that today’s election is attracting global attention, Yakubu himself has in recent times been visiting important institutions and organisations to forge relevant partnerships that would ensure that the commission delivers on credible polls.

He was at the US Democratic Institute as well as the Chatham House to discuss preparations for the polls to the international community. His office has also been playing host to important international dignitaries. Yakubu has been buoyed by the success recorded in Ekiti and Osun governorship poll.

INEC has not limited its efforts to its staff members alone; it has also been training other stakeholders such as the media. It has also trained the Press Corps attached to its secretariat on critical issues in the Electoral Act, 2022 and the Commission’s Processes, Innovations, Preparations for the 2023 General Election.

Intervention of elder statesmen

Elder statesmen under the banner of the National Peace Committee led by a former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar has been at the forefront of ensuring that events leading today’s poll, the election and the post-election period are peaceful.

The committee has been able to get all the presidential candidates to commit to peace during and after the election. Though a series of ceremonies have been carried out, all geared towards this end, the last of such efforts was witnessed by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday.

Provision of adequate security

The leaderships of the various security authorities have been deploying personnel to the states of the federation to ensure peace at the poll. The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Usman Alkali Baba announced deployment of 310,973 of its personnel to the over 176,846 polling units in 8,809 wards of the 36 states of the Federation and FCT. According to the police boss, the figure consists of conventional policemen and women, the mobile police, the special counter-terrorism unit, Special Forces, the intelligence response team and other sections of the police.

The policemen are to be augmented by 51,000 personnel from the National Security and Civil Defense Corps, 21,000 from the Federal Road Safety Corps, 11,336 from the Nigeria Correctional Service, 9,447 from the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency and 350 personnel from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The Nigerian Army has been deploying an undisclosed number of personnel and equipment to assist these para-military forces as a back up should there be a total breakdown of law and order during and after the exercise.

President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to express his resolve to deliver on credible polls and with the preparations by the various stakeholders, the 2023 poll might just turn out to be such.