The immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, has explained that the decision to change the voter register in that country was because the existing one contained varied blemishes.
He was speaking last Monday during a presentation on Nigeria’s recent polls at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra in the first in a series of lectures to commemorate the 25thanniversary of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in Accra.
A credible election, he noted, is hinged on the existence of a blemish-free voter register, pointing out that the many lessons learnt from the previous election of 2011 impacted greatly and positively on the 2015 polls.
When he was tasked with the assignment of managing Nigeria’s polls, he and his team he said, went ahead to change the constitution of the Commission by among other measures, reducing the number of staff and ensuring that the staff did not compromise their positions.
It was during one of a number of retreats that the discovery about many anomalies in the voter register was noted and an eventual decision to change it was reached.
A top management consultant was engaged to assist with the reorganization of the INEC because without such a change he went on, the desired result of achieving success in managing election would not be reached.
He put the Nigerian situation in context when he pointed out that Africa’s most populous nation has a history of badly organized elections which was what motivated him to seek a paradigm shift.
The new voter register, which was obtained within three weeks using very expensive software produced by Nigerian engineers, captured some 73 million voters.
A further auditing of the register, he said, had some 4 million unqualified names detected and deleted.
Prof Jega held his audience spellbound when he delved into the many areas which endeared him to the Ghanaian populace as it watched the unfolding hair-raising Nigerian polls.
So well was the election organized that foreign observers and others who thought they were in the country to witness violence and the negative developments from African elections, had to revise their positions.
The decision to engage academics such as professors and others was a deliberate action to ensure that those who worked for the Commission in the area of collation and related activities of elections did not compromise their positions. Such personalities from the Ivory Towers of society would not belittle themselves to the level of being bribed to alter election results, he said.
The professor mentioned also the engagement of non-academic staff of the tertiary institutions to trigger checks and balances in the election management as part of efforts to stop INEC staff from being directly involved in the administration of election on the field.
Other professionals outside academia, he said, wondered why they too were not involved, complaining whether they did not possess the kind of integrity which the academicians exhibited in the performance of the duties bestowed upon them.
Transparency, he noted, is highly important in election management so the Prof said INEC’s communication was made to flourish. The situation room phenomenon allowed for the managers to be in touch with the sectors of operations so that the necessary intervention was applied as and when needed.
Database management he went on, played a crucial role in the success chalked in the Nigerian polls, adding that births and deaths were added and deducted accordingly to ensure the integrity of the repository of details of citizens.
A proper database would help the Commission to just pick details of citizens without compiling a new register.
There is also in place a reserve database as a fallback when it becomes necessary.
A permanent voter card with important security features he said, prevented double voting and other anomalies common with elections in Nigeria. Those who managed to have their names on the register could not vote because the card reader would give them out.
In 2015 the attention of the world was on Nigeria as the country went to the polls Prof Jega said but now it has shifted to Ghana. “Ghana used to beat Nigeria in soccer but now Nigeria has achieved an election feat. Let Ghana beat Nigeria with a better performance as she goes to the polls next year” he said.
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