By David Onimisi Lawani
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu has sworn in new Commissioners and charged them to bring in their wealth of experience in taking the Commission to greater heights.
In a remark during the swearing-in ceremony at the Commission headquarters in Abuja, the INEC boss said the policy of the Commission is to deploy RECS within their geo-political zones, but they will not be posted to their States of origin.
The INEC Commissioners are Professor Abdullahi Zuru, a Chemist and former Vice-Chancellor of Kebbi State University and Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto: Professor Sani Adam, a lawyer and former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja; and Dr. Baba Bila, a Chartered Accountant and former Bursar of the University of Benin. ” Similarly, I have just sworn in a new Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC). He is Sa’idu Ahmad, a Professor of English Literature from Bayero University Kano”.
He said Sa’idu Ahmad fills the vacancy for Jigawa State, being the only State without a REC following the completion of the tenure of Abdullahi Kaugama, an experienced administrator who had earlier served as Secretary to the Commission.
According to him: ” All four appointees bring to the Commission their vast knowledge and experience as scholars and administrators. I am confident that they will join us in further extending the frontiers of free and fair elections in Nigeria. In addition to adherence to the provisions of the law, our success in this arduous task also draws from our integrity as election managers.
” We must be strict in the application of the law, firm in handling the public trust bestowed on us, and fair in our dealings with political parties and candidates. We must remember that in discharging our responsibilities, Nigeria and Nigerians must always come first. We must abide by our oaths of office to defend the choice made by Nigerians at the polls in all elections and continue to protect the sanctity of the vote without which democratic election is meaningless”, he said.
He noted that they are coming on board just 52 days to a major election in Anambra State.
“The election to choose a Govermor for the State is scheduled to hold on Saturday 6 November 2021. All the 18 political parties in Nigeria are fielding candidates in the election and the campaign has since commenced, Preparations for the election are at an advanced stage with many of the activities outlined in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election ready implemented. Our intention is to keep deepening the credibility of the electoral process by improving on all planning, management, implementation, and support processes through the deployment of appropriate technology.
” Nigerians may recall that the Commission made history on 8 August 2020 by successfully conducting the first election in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Nasarawa Central State Constituency bye-election. In that election, the Commission also pileated the first real-time uploading of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (RV). Since then, results of 26 more elections have been uploaded to the portal,” he said.
Continuing, the chairman said only last weekend, the commission piloted yet another innovation in the Isoko South 1 State Constituency bye-election in Delta State.
” We introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for efficient human recognition through a biometric verification mechanism using both fingerprint and facial recognition of voters. The result of the pilot in the 84 polling units was very encouraging indeed. It took an average of just one minute for the device to correctly locate the voter in the system and another two minutes to authenticate a voter. In terms of the ruggedness of the device and its battery life, no single BVAS was replaced due to the discharge of the battery throughout the voting period.
“Most importantly, the device was able to guarantee the credibility of voter accreditation by preventing the incidents of multiple voting or the use of stolen PVCs to vote. All voters were accredited electronically using the BVAS, The use of the incident form was eliminated: The Isoko South 1 State Constituency bye-election was historic in this respect”.
He said despite there were a few challenges of matching the voter’s live image against the image on the register was difficult in a few instances due to the quality of pictures of some voters arising from previous voter registration.
His words: “Secondly, some polling units were not bright Enough when taking the photo for the facial authentication. Thirdly, there was the age-old problem of thuggery during elections Our officials were attacked and five BVAS devices were snatched by hoodlums.
INEC to address BVAS challenges – Yakubu
Although this did not affect the elections because we deployed extra devices as part of our contingency measures. The incident is being investigated by the Police: Nevertheless, we wish to assure Nigerians that the Commission will address these challenges including the installation of a mechanism to disable and track the device in the event of theft by hoodlums This mechanism will be activated ahead of the forthcoming Anambra State Governorship election.
“On this note, let me draw the attention of the new National and Resident Electoral Commissioners to the reality of serving in INEC. The task ahead is challenging but it is also a national call to service. It is important to quickly settle in and familiarize yourself with the rules, procedures, and responsibilities of your office. Let me reiterate once again that you should always bear in mind that a credible election draws heavily from the integrity of the election managers, I urge you to join us in raising the bar even higher”, the chairman said.
