A former Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, takes a retrospective look at the fortunes of the country in the recent past, hoping for the best in the New Year. In this interview with Olusegun Olanrewaju

2023 is a new year, what is your wish for your compatriots?
I wish all Nigerians a very Happy New Year 2023. And may l use the opportunity to call on all who have not collected their permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to do so, to be able to vote in the forthcoming general election.

The future direction of Nigeria is up to you all, the people; to decide your leaders. Nigerians must not dissolve into despair, but resolve to act firmly by using the PVC in the forthcoming elections.

Do you think the provisions of the Electoral Act (as amended) can provide the leeway to having credible, free and fair elections in the country?
With the 2022 Electoral Act, INEC’s processes and procedures have returned the power of the ballot fully to the voters at the polling units, where elections will now be won or lost,and not at wards, LGAs, and other stages or points of result collation. In the past, we have had centres where voters’ collective will were upturned and disempowered for decades.

All the loopholes for rigging and manipulating elections have been blocked by INEC. We must build on the progress we have madeso far in our fledgling democracy, breaking the jinx of a successful ruling party civilian government that conducted elections back-to-back, though not perfectly in 2003, and 2007. The same ruling party conducted andlost the election in 2015, transferring power
peacefully to an opposition party, the first of its kind in the history of Nigeria.

What advice do you have for the electorate in the build-up to the 2023 elections?

We must not regress from these critical democratic thresholds that we have crossed in the practice of our democracy. No group of political elites can, and will ever complete, the task of nation-building, because it is a project that has no hope of completion. It is rather a chance for continuous improvement as individuals in our journey of life that will terminate one day. It is only the journey
of Nigeria that is forever and indeterminate.

The current system has empowered Nigerians to determine the fate of politicians, but that empowerment will be meaningless and unsatisfactory kind if the people do not come out in large numbers to demonstrate that power on February 25th, 2023, in the presidential/national assembly elections, and on 11th March governorship/state houses of assembly elections.

Trends that will impact the start-up ecosystem in 2023

How do you think the goal of credible elections can be achieved in this present dispensation?
The fear of the power of the people through the ballot during the election is what makes elected leaders pay attention to the needs, concerns, and aspirations of citizens, and be accountable. The 2023 elections offer the opportunity for Nigerians to exercise and use their residual sovereignty to fire and hire the right type of leaders they want to govern them, to be able to sing a new song of hope for a promising tomorrow.

What is your war cry or duty wake-up call for the electorate?
Nigerians should make the right choices from policy options, priorities, and programmes offered by the candidates. All Nigerians qualified to vote with PVC should rise to the call of duty and activate the office of the citizen by trooping to the polling units enmasse on the day of the election to
exercise their franchise. The power of their franchise has been made more realisable with the 2022 Electoral Act. Nigerians across the country must unite to achieve the task ahead this year 2023. With the courage of conviction by confronting self-doubt, we all can overcome our challenges and difficulties because our situation is not a sentence to a life of misery. Whatever we hope for in the future cannot be a gift, but something we must work for, and achieve. We must invest the time on
Election Day, however inconvenient.

And the electoral umpire?

The electoral commission, with its robust, sustainable, and replicable processes and procedures, should stand tall and mighty in the execution of its constitutional mandate to midwife this all-important democratic, free, fair, and credible forthcoming elections for the consolidation of our democracy. The job of an umpire is not for errant people, but a public trust that must not be betrayed. There should be no surrender of the core values of integrity, impartiality, neutrality, and professionalism. The commission should continue and remain true to these core values.
Your advice to politicians on how to make a success of the transition process?

Politicians should shun conducts that will undermine the integrity of our elections. They must appreciate the level of anger and hunger in the country that has created a level of awareness and eagerness by the people to vote in the forthcoming elections that have never been witnessed in our country. Attempts at voter suppression will be resisted by voters who are determined to exercise their franchise.
The current electoral process has delivered105 successful pilot elections and will be used for the forthcoming elections. Political salvation lies with the electorate, otherwise, shock, lamentation, and dinosaur experience await any in 2023 who depend on old methods of rigging elections, given that all loopholes have been blocked by the 2022 Act and INEC procedures. Nigerians are no longer ready to accept the will and misfortune created by a few political elites as their fortune anymore.
There’s no doubt that the activities of the security agencies are crucial to the holding of successful elections in the country. What do you think along this line?

The Nigeria Police, the lead agency for election security under the current leadership of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Usman Baba Alkali should replicate the new election security strategies and successes recorded in the various off-season governorship elections.
The exemplary professionalism displayed dur- ing the conduct of these elections has given Nigerians so much to hope for and expect in the 2023 elections. The election moment is the time when the commitment of the personnel of security agencies to democratic values is tested. Security agencies must deal with, and be able to, contain violent activities of all extra-constitutional and non-legitimised groups planning to curtail voters’ participation and rights to vote on Election Day. There should be absolute and unqualified neutrality of security agencies.