Mr Mutiu Agboke is the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in Oyo State. In this interview with LEADERSHIP, he speaks on INEC’s readiness to deliver free, fair and credible general elections and how the commission will block all loopholes that politicians may want to use to discredit the 2019 polls, among other issues. OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU brings the excerpts:
How prepared is the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, both at the national level and Oyo State for the 2019 general elections?
The preparation of INEC can be evaluated from the day we released the time table for the election and this time table is such that as at the time we released it to our stakeholders, they all bought into it to achieve the same result. Now, if you look at the way we started, we released the time table, after the release of the time table, we now asked the stakeholders to follow us item after item and not only that, our preparation also continues with the continuous voter registration.
Don’t forget, this is the first time we are introducing that exercise into our process. In fact, it afforded more people to register because of the window of the registration; we recorded another over 14 million voters, who have been added into the voters’ data base in Nigeria in the build-up to our preparation.
We did that and suspended it on August 32, 2018; and remains suspended until after the 2019 election. On the part of our stakeholders, we have started regular engagement, our stakeholders cut across all humanities. Talk of religious bodies, civil organizations, security organizations, security agencies and political parties. We have been taking to them; we have been engaging them, unfolding our policies.
Part of the policies is the one we have with people with disabilities. We have the Joint Association of Disabilities, JAD, as the umbrella body, they are the one coordinating the activities of the members with the commission. These are some of the facilities we provided to make them participate in an election.
Don’t forget in Anambra State, we introduced magnified glasses, we introduced Braille ballot papers in Osun State; we are educating the political parties about the evil bedeviling our political process, that is what we call vote trading or vote buying.
We are telling then the evil in it. We warned stakeholders of the aftermath of the Ekiti election and looked inward and said this must not thwart the electoral process. In Osun, we introduced a new cubicle where we do not allow party agents to see what the voter is doing.
We made sure we make some arrests and made a big statement. Not only that, on the part of our staff, we trained and retrained them. We train them on the various innovations the commission has introduced.
And what are some of these innovations INEC has introduced into the system?
First, in this 2019, you accredit and you vote. Don’t forget, it was accreditation first, later people went to vote. Again, part of the training of our staff is the proper understanding and mastery of the upgraded smart card reader we have now. The smart card reader used in 2015, we saw so many lapses and we have looked into it, both the content of the hardware and the software, our staff must be trained to know the operational framework of it. We have printed more permanent voter cards, PVCs. We have trained them to know how to guide the voters on the voting days, as to guide them on the platform of voting, such that the smart card reader won’t reject their cards, through proper handling of the smart card. And our catchment area is the members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC. They are the presiding officers.
We have started the root training for then. We have also educated our stakeholders, particularly members of the political parties for the need for them to comply with our policies and guidelines in the issue of party financing. INEC is to monitor their financing, monitor their campaigns. INEC is to ensure that political parties do not go beyond what the Electoral Act has stipulated
All these are on the policy we are engaging them. As we speak, 2019 election is now few days away. We have taken stock of our stores, we have decongested them and some of the materials have been boarded and by now, sensitive materials will come to Oyo State again.
The commission will create collation centers in the state offices of the federation. This will be done before the election in 2019. By and large, INEC is ready, most of the PVCs are printed and most of them have not been collected by our people. In Oyo State, we have two million, nine hundred thousand, seven hundred and twenty voters, who are supposed to vote in 2019.
How effective are your interaction with the political parties?
In any capacity you serve, the level of accessibility, carriage, particularly anybody holding this kind of post of Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, goes a long way to instill confidence in stakeholders. INEC is very sensitive assignment. More so, I am in Oyo State, a politically conscious state. They know what it takes to be a politician, there is no game you want to play that they won’t understand, because if you are not careful, the way you put your cap, they will interpret it for you.
Even if you keep silent, they will give it meaning. I have never had any problem with them. Whenever we have meeting in Abuja and we have to carry the people along, it means, immediately I come back, I call them together and give them the laid down procedures of the commission.
I don’t engage in any secret meeting with any of them. The IPAC chairman has access to me and anyone who feels so desired. What I will not do is something untoward. My stakeholders and I are like family, because we carry ourselves along and it is for them to tell their members to collect their PVCs.
How consistent is INEC on voter’s education, which is not only key for a credible voting process, but also one of its major responsibilities?
Voter education is the thrust of our strategic programme of action and our strategic plan. Engagement and re-engagement and continuous engagement are key to our activities. It is so key to the extent that we never play down its importance with the stakeholders. We have never underestimated the effect of voters’ education.
To us we have been educating people; virtually everywhere we have gone, including broadcasting houses in Oyo State. We talk to people, every day. It is better to talk and achieve success than to keep quiet and fail. Talking to them can give you more results. INEC now prints PVCs periodically unlike before.
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I listen to so many radio programmes on my transistor radio. I monitor flagship programs with full information. Our collaboration, the synergy between INEC and the National Orientation Agency, NOA, in Oyo State has no equal anywhere. We have been having town hall meeting engagements with the voters, they will ask questions and we answer them.
INEC said it has a plan to forestall vote buying, what exactly has the agency putting in place to stop this trend in our electioneering process?
We are keeping some things to ourselves because we intend to make some arrest during this election. We are going to ensure we reconfigure the position of our cubicle, unlike the way it was in 2015. What do I mean? We will not allow anyone to be too close to the presiding officer or the voter, such that no one will know who you are voting for on that day, no matter how hard he or she may try. It will be strategically positioned.
Secondly on that day, we don’t expect anyone to come to the polling unit with any electronic gadgets. Thirdly, you are not expected to carry any cash on you. If you have any cash which in the estimate of the security agencies on ground is said to be huge, then we will believe you are there to trade vote. We will arrest you and your cash.
On Election Day, you won’t have a right to reply and of course, when you are arrested, you are in for it. Again, there is an application we have developed that will facilitate the detection of vote buying. All you need is to connect it to INEC website and INEC will swing into action. Our appeal to everybody is while INEC is trying to put all these in place, security agencies should play their own part on Election Day. If we do all that, people will be careful.
With what we have done in Osun State, people were arrested and are under trial and in 2019, we shall make more arrests.
Former INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, had said some arrests were made on infractions before the 2015 election, but nobody has ever been convicted of electoral infraction, what is responsible for this?
It may not be correct to say nobody has been convicted for electorally infraction. May be investigation has not been carried out. For example, in Kano, prosecution is ongoing. In Ondo, there were eight electoral offences under prosecution. I can tell you that convictions have been secured and they are on record.
I want to assure Nigerians that more convictions will come in 2019, because INEC is out to arrest some people for various electoral infractions, because if people are convicted and other see it, it becomes deterrent for them.
The opposition has been accusing INEC of working hand in hand with the ruling APC, what is INEC doing to disabuse the minds of Nigerians?
INEC under the leadership of Prof. Yakoob Mahmud and the 12 national commissioners with all the Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, are ready to show Nigerians that they can’t be bought over by anybody. Anybody can raise an allegation, allegation is free. It is not in the purview of INEC to engage any individual or group to convince anybody, if the allegation is true or false. We have traditional mandate. The mandate is within which we are working. Therefore, INEC does write a press release to counter any strong unfounding allegation. INEC has conducted over 800 of season elections in Nigeria, how many of it has been contested in the law court?
It is the way you allow the process to run its natural cause, now lawyers have little or no work to do at the tribunal. INEC is determined to allow everybody to exercise its franchise. Now, we do not allow the use of incident form again. It must be PVC with the smartcard reader, SCR.
If on Election Day, the SCR rejects a card, and owner cannot vote, isn’t that an infringement on his/her right?
That is why we say we engage in a massive voter education. The card is so sensitive; it is unlike the ATM card. You need to handle it with care. There is an antenna in the PVC and other security features that makes it compatible with the smartcard reader. If you malhandle it, like sitting on it, the SCR will reject it. We advise everyone to handle the PVC with care for it to be compatible with the smartcard.
INEC seems to have gone digital, what is the commission doing to prevent hacking into its system during election?
Of course, people say there is no perfect system in the world, but notwithstanding, the onus is on INEC to protect its system, in ensuring that, we put all the security on the system to ensure that the possibility of hacking does not exist. We are saying our gadgets are well protected. We guarantee the security of our system.
Is INEC assuring Nigerians that the 2019 election is going to be free, fair and credible and up to international standard?
I can assure you that it is not just going to be free, fair and credible, it is going to be better than what we had in 2015, and in 2015, people should not see the poll in the context that the opposition won, they should look at INEC as a body that did the right thing. In some other election, it shows what people wanted. What INEC do will be reflected on the field. That is why people should monitor us. If you have info on our field worker, report them to our office. Let us all see the process as being for all of us. If anybody does something untoward, report him/her.
In Oyo State, there are 914,529 uncollected PVCs. INEC is forging synergy with the stakeholders to get the PVCs distributed to the rightful owners.
There have been cases in the past where INEC officials collaborated with politicians to undermine the process, what is the commission doing to forestall this come 2019?
We have ensured that all INEC staff are trained and retrained to overhaul their mentality. The process of evaluating our activities is not just electronic, we do it manually and monitor electronically. All of them are aware. Any of them who is not ready to co-operate is on his way out. Don’t forget, recently, we laid off 200 staff of the commission across the country over one irregularity or the other. We have our own internal mechanism of monitoring them. We shall ensure our staff shall not be instrument of truncating the process of 2019 election.
What is your message to Nigerians as we approach the election?
One, trust INEC, ecause INEC is to make your vote count. The era of ballot snatching to get undue advantage is gone. The era of diversion of operational vehicle is gone, our vehicles are now tracked. Nobody can divert them.
Secondly, we are going to engage our traditional and religious leaders. Trust and assurance we shall deliver it. Thirdly, everyone should get his PVC. Fourthly, if you think you have complaint or comment for INEC, endeavour to call me or other INEC officials for clarification.
Finally, I want to assure them nothing will determine who wins the election than the PVCs.
