Chukwudi Nweje
Festus Okoye, a National Commissioner in the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) is also the chairman Information and Voter Education Committee. He spoke during a television programme on Monday, barely 24 hours to the commencement of the collation process in Rivers State.
Can you give a status report of what is going to happen in Rivers State?
We issued a timetable for the conclusion of both the governorship and state Assembly elections in Rivers State. We are following this timeline religiously, we have had interaction with the representatives of all the security agencies and we have also had a stakeholders’ meeting in Rivers State, which as far as I’m concerned was very successful. We have also done revalidation of the observers list and list of party agents.
What was the outcome of your meeting with security agencies, some stakeholders complained of interferences from security agencies, which you also observed in your report? So, what assurances are the security agencies giving you?
We had a robust engagement with the heads of all the security agencies and the assurance we got was that of professionalism and ethical conduct throughout the collation process. As you can see the various security agencies, the Department of State Services (DSS), the Police, the Army, all of them are cooperating with INEC. We believe that with their cooperation and professionalism we are going to conclude this process and the people of Rivers State will be happy for it.
Many say they have not witnessed the kind of Rivers election before, did you anticipate it?
As far as we are concerned what we did in Rivers was to suspend the electoral process, and the electoral is a continuum until we make a declaration and return, so we are still engaged in the electoral process and both the constitution and the Electoral Act give us the mandate to complete the process of collation of results. Until we complete that process we are still engaged in the electoral process. Our expectation is that the people of Rivers State and the political parties that participated in this process should allow the electoral process to come to conclusion. The electoral process has a terminal date. By April 29 0r 30, INEC will have gone out of the constitutional window and the moment that happens you will have to fall back on the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and may be the Supreme Court on the part to take. We don’t want to get to that point where at the end of the day there won’t be any elected governor in Rivers State and the state Assembly will not be inaugurated in which case power will devolve to may be the Chief Judge of the state to pilot. We have a window to complete this process and all the political parties should cooperate to make sure we complete it.
Will the media be present?
Definitely. What we have done is that we looked at people who had pre accreditation and revalidated their accreditation. So, the media will be there, domestic election observers will be there, representatives of political parties will be there and all the stakeholders will be there. We are going to carry out a transparent process that everybody will see. But one thing we have made clear is that the national commissioners that are superintending this process will be very firm and nobody or political party will be allowed to disrupt the process. We are going to allow people to express their opinions but we are not going to tolerate any disruptive activities from any political party or individual because we are determined to conclude the process in Rivers State and pull out.
You are looking at concluding this process in about three days, is that not too long? Is collation not just a question of addition and subtraction? Why should collation be three days long?
The first collation you are going to carry out will be at the PU level to get some of the people that ran the process at that level to conclude the process. You are going to have collation officers for all the registration areas collating from the PU level, they must conclude all the collation before you move to the next stage. So, my own take is that by Tuesday, they will settle down, all the materials will be brought from the strong room, and we are not talking about small materials, we are talking about tons of materials. The materials will be brought out and the tables will be set. By Wednesday, I’m sure that those at the PU level will be moving towards the registration area collation level. There is also a possibility that the registration area collation would have moved to the local government collation and by Thursday, you are talking about the state collation officer taking control and receiving results from the various local governments. It does not mean that if we conclude one collation we cannot move to the next stage. What we have done is to give ourselves room to maneuver in case we are not able to conclude on time. Our timeline is flexible, the moment we conclude any process we’ll move to the next stage.
Some groups in Rivers State have suggested to INEC to publish the names of security agencies and where they will be. What is INEC doing about that?
We have an inter-agency consultative committee on election security. We have consulted with all the security agencies and they have assured us they will be very professional and ethical and that they will make sure that the electoral process is protected. We do not have issues with security at the moment; we are going to conclude the process. The political parties have made their suggestions, it is left for INEC and the national commissioners on ground to decide on how best to protect the collation centre. The collation process will be very transparent. All the political parties that fielded candidates in the election will be involved in the collation process, the media will be involved and domestic and international observers will be allowed to observe the process. We don’t have issues with security. The results are in the strong room of the commission and they will be brought and collated. I want to assure the people of Rivers that we do not have issues and that the security agencies have assured they will be professional and ethical and that they will provide both inner cordon and perimeter security for the conclusion of the process. I appeal to all the stakeholders to remain calm and give this process a chance for us to conclude it and pull out.
The last time we saw images of the Police and the Army having a little skirmish close to the headquarters. Was there any mention of addressing this matter when the consultative committee met?
The consultative committee was conducted in a very honest but robust manner. The commission put its concerns across to the security agencies. The leadership of all the security agencies made their points and explained the roles they played during the Rivers suspended election and at the end of the day all of them assured that they are going to cooperate, synergise and assist the people of Rivers to bring this process to a final conclusion. We discussed every issue; they expressed their concerns and frustrations during that particular period. We consulted in a very honest manner. People made their opinion known and that is why you are seeing the kind of cooperation existing in Rivers State today.
This is the sixth in the series of elections since 1999 and every threat assessment hinted that this kind of thing will happen in Rivers. Going forward, what is INEC doing to ensure this doesn’t happen again?
At the conclusion of this cycle of election INEC will sit down as a commission to review what we have done in each state of the federation; learn the lessons and we are going to propose changes to the constitutional and electoral framework that will address some of these issues. But I want to also believe that we need a national conversation around the political actors and political parties in the electoral process. We cannot have a situation where INEC is working hard to make sure that our electoral process is credible and conforms to international standards, while a section of the political elite is also working to undermine the electoral process. So, we need a national conversation around the conduct of political parties, around the number of political parties and how to stem electoral violence in Nigeria. We cannot continue the way we are going; if we continue this way INEC will not have the benefit of having National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members to go and man polling units. No parent will want to allow their children to work as ad hoc staff because of the little allowance being paid, only to be killed or maimed at the end of the day as a result of electoral violence.