Yakubu, as the chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC as well as five others as federal commissioners to
represent the five out of the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Those confirmed as federal commissioners of INEC were Alhaji Baba
Shettima Arfo, Dr. Anthonia Taiye Okoosi Simbine, Mrs Amina Zakari,
Dr. mohammed Mustapha Lecky and Mr Soyebi Adedeji Solomon.
It will be recalled that Senate President Bukola Saraki had on
Thursday last week read a letter from President Buhari intimating the
Senate of the name of the new INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmud Yakubu and
five other National Commissioners and for subsequent confirmation.
In the letter, President Buhari also sought for the confirmation of
Amina Bala Zakari who was acting INEC chair as Representative of the
Northwest, Dr. O Taiye Okoosi (Kogi), North-Central, Alhaji Baba
Shettima Arfo (Borno), North-East, Dr. Mohammed Mustapha Lecky (Edo),
South-South and Mr. Soyebi Adedeji Solomon(Ogun) South-West.
Answering questions from the Senators, Professor Yakubu who noted that
he was coming in to consolidate on the achievements of his
predecessor, Professor Attahiru Jega and not for experimentation, said
that he would send to the National Assembly a bill that would amend
the Electoral Act where candidates of political parties would emerge a
year to the elections.
He said, "Prof. Jega has done a marvellous job in reforming the
electoral system of this country. I'm not coming in for
experimentation. I'm coming for consolidation."
The confirmed INEC chairman who boasted that it was too late for
anyone to intimidate him, however vowed that he will not in any way
compromise his position, adding that the issue of E-voting and that of
diaspora were desirable and inevitable, but however warned that if the
E- Voting process must be adopted, Nigeria must trend with caution.
Professor Yakubu said, "I can't be intimidated. In the services of
this country, I can't be intimidated. It is too late. I have the
character to do the right thing.
Appropriate amendment
"The success of any election depends on the ability of the Commission
to organise, arrange elections properly and in advance.
But in this country, we have this culture of last minute rush. And as
a result of this, so many things that are supposed to be done much
early are not done. If six months is the time limit under the law at
present, definitely we will look at the possibility of coming back to
the National Assembly for an of the Electoral Act to enable us have
longer period of time that will allow longer period of preparation."
On E-voting, he said, "It is desirable and inevitable. If you look at
the trajectory from the last 10 years, the voters register comes in an
electronic form. Initially, it was just a register, then photographs
were added.
And in the last election, both photographs and biometric were added.
"So, it is inevitable that one day, we will go into electronic voting.
But the experiences of other nations show that we have to thread
cautiously. It's technology, maybe untried, untested, we get bugged
down. Is it pure electronic voting or electronic voting paper trail
like they do in Venezuela?
"We are still grappling with the problem of infrastructure either for
simple ICT use in our institutions or in our places of work and homes.
So, it's desirable, inevitable, but we need to think through the
implications of what we do.
Otherwise, we may rush into it and just get bugged down.
"There must be no room for experimentation. As far as I'm concerned
something has happened in this country in 2015. And we need to
consolidate on that rather than to begin new experimentation with
longer span of testing the validity of the process.
"Fortunately for us at governorship level, we have staggered election
by default. Very soon, it will be Kogi and Bayelsa. Thereafter, we
will have Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Edo and Anambra.
"There must be a guiding principle. The workability of the technology
and adequate consultation with stakeholders. The all-tested card
reader and the challenges. The problem of technology is that it always
comes up with challenges."
On Diaspora voting, he said,"That is inevitable. As a student of
history, I know that there was a time in the history of this country
in the First Republic when political parties had branches overseas.
And we have a large number of Nigerians overseas, one estimate put it
at 15million. They remit $20billion annually in returns to the
country.
On Direct and indirect primaries, Professor Yakubu said, "I will like
to see a Commission which consults widely rather than a Commission
which sits in judgement. There are mechanisms for consultation with
the parties through quarterly meetings and Inter Party Advisory
Council (IPAC).
"So, instead of making a commitment on direct or indirect primaries,
we will throw that up to consultations with the political parties. At
the end of which we will then come up with what best method we should
adopt.
"I have a problem with international best practice because we can't
transplant the experiences of other jurisdictions, we can only
borrow."
While responding to questions on the PVC's, the INEC Chairman who
noted that the Commission will focus on the mandate at hand, said
"About 70 million Nigerians registered for the 2015 elections, 56.3
million pvc distributed,500 thousand pvc unprinted at the time of the
elections,12.3million PVCs not distributed.
"Instead of finding fault on why they collected pvc in borno and they
did not collect elsewhere, I will rather focus that by this time next
year all the 12.3million pvc's and 500million PVCs are distributed
subsequently."
Ahead
of 2019 Presidential election, the new INEC Chairman promised that
there will be no issues with regard to PVC collection as it would
ensure that all eligible voters get their PVCs except those not of
age, adding that although people have the right to take the PVCS and
not vote.
-Vanguard
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