How INEC’s in-fighting, inexperience messed up Feb 16 elections & Why it wont Happen Again They say ! Nigeria

7 total views, 7 views today

By Wednesday, February 13, 2019, experienced members of
staff and management of the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) knew that the February 16 presidential and
national assembly elections would not hold — no matter the magic.
But because of the pervading atmosphere of mutual distrust and
suspicion at the commission, people went about their businesses in
hushed tones, preparing for the worst.

Several INEC insiders told TheCable over the weekend that based
on the experience from elections organised by the commission, the
signs were already there that something was going wrong. But many
of the commissioners were not comparing notes or even talking to
each other, thereby compounding a situation that would lead to the
embarrassing postponement of the elections. The prevailing
atmosphere of in-fighting, inexperience of the logistics committee
and poor preparations was further compounded by poor co-ordination
by the leadership of INEC, insiders told TheCable.

“Typically,” a senior member of management told TheCable, “we
take delivery of sensitive electoral materials, including ballot
papers, two weeks to any given election. We then warehouse them
with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). One week to the election,
we send the materials to state offices of INEC. Basically, seven
days to any election, all the sensitive materials are already at
the states.”

At this stage, the official said, the resident electoral
commissioners and electoral officers at the state level hold a
pre-election conference with party agents and all who will be
involved in the elections just to brief them and lay out the
procedures.

“We also inform them about the state of preparations, that the
materials have arrived and that they are ready to be distributed.
This is routine. We take questions and observations and roll out
the rules and regulations. It is like a normal stakeholders
meeting,” the official told TheCable.

The official said the materials are then moved from the CBN
zonal or state offices to various INEC offices in the state on the
Tuesday preceding the elections, sometimes on Wednesdays —
depending on how big the state is.

“By Friday, the materials are usually already at the ward
levels, and then they are distributed to the polling units by
Saturday morning. That is how things run on a good day,” the
official said.

WARNING SIGNALS

Another INEC commissioner told TheCable that he sensed there was
going to be trouble on Wednesday when the materials were yet to get
to the states.

“Some of us, including INEC staff, knew things were not going to
run smoothly when as at Wednesday, the materials were still at the
airports in Port Harcourt, Lagos, Abuja and Kano. These are
materials that should have been at the states in some cases and
even local governments by then. It is incredible that we did not
take a decision to reschedule until four hours to the commencement
of the voting processes,” he said.

“Many of us were also amazed that the media did not pick up the
warning signals. Even the observers, both local and international,
did not ask INEC these questions. Why were the materials still
stuck at the airports one day to voting? How on earth were we going
to reach all the 119,000 polling units across 774 local government
areas and 36 states in less than 24 hours? That was practically
impossible, but the media and observers appeared to be focusing on
trivial issues.”

INEXPERIENCE AND INFIGHTING

A member of INEC staff, who spoke at length on the logistical
nightmare, said there is an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and
distrust among national commissioners and this played a major role
in disrupting the elections.

“Amina Zakari used to be in charge of logistics. Because of the
controversy over her relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari,
the chairman moved her to another department. That is not supposed
to be a problem if she was replaced with someone else who can do
the job well,” he said.

Although the INEC commissioner in charge of electoral operations
and logistics is Okechukwu Ibeanu, he was only heading the
standing committee. For the election proper, Mahmood Yakubu, the
INEC chairman, inaugurated the ad hoc committee for logistics on
January 3, 2019. The 17-person committee was specifically for the
general election.

The chairman is Ahmed Tijjani Mu’azu, a retired air vice
marshal. Other members are: Abubakar Nahuche, Mohammed Haruna
(both INEC national commissioners), representatives from CBN,
customs service, Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria, Federal Road Safety Corps, immigration service,
police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, 
DSS, army, navy and air force. Other are the INEC
directors of electoral operations department, estate works and
transport, procurement, and stores.

THINGS FALL APART

Mu’azu was new on the position and did not have any experience
to fall upon when it comes to INEC electoral operations, according
to insiders.

“Most of the commissioners were kept in the dark when things
were going wrong, and because of the polluted atmosphere, people
decided to keep quiet so as not to be accused of trying to usurp
other people’s jobs. However, the INEC chairman is also conducting
a general election for the first time, so he probably trusted the
Mu’azu committee to deliver. Yakubu did not have the benefit of
institutional memory which helped his predecessor, Prof. Attahiru
Jega,” the insider told TheCable.

“Normally, Mu’azu should be giving regular updates to the INEC
management on the situation on ground. He did not. The job of the
committee was basically to clear and move materials within
timelines. Going by the way things worked for us in the past, we
should all know that if materials were not at the states by the
preceding Saturday, there was going to be a major crisis. But a day
to the election, the materials were still at the airports.

“Some states got materials. Katsina and Adamawa, for instance,
were not affected. But states in the south-east were affected.
Imagine if elections had gone ahead without the south-east. We all
know how the narrative would have been shaped by now.”

Mu’azu used to help
INEC with movement of materials before he retired form the air
force and it was thought by the INEC leadership that he would do a
good job if he was saddled with the task for the general election,
an insider said.

“But that was a big mistake. Being put in charge of organising
logistics for over 100,000 polling units is not the same thing as
helping get some air force aircraft to help INEC transport
materials. AVM Mu’azu was permanently at the airports as the crisis
worsened, but what could he do?” the insider asked.

SLOW DECISION-MAKING

When it became glaring that elections could not take place all
over the federation at the same time, INEC was also too slow in
taking a firm decision and communicating it to Nigerians.

The senior member of management who spoke to TheCable said there
was no need to wait till close to 3am on Saturday morning to
announce the postponement.

“As soon as the emergency meeting of national commissioners
started, it was clear that we needed to take a decision quickly and
communicate this to Nigerians. We knew before the meeting was
called that elections would not hold. For some weird reasons, the
meeting kept dragging and dragging till past 2am,” he said.

Yakubu, addressing stakeholders on Saturday over the
postponement, blamed it on sabotage and poor weather which he said
disrupted flights on the eve of the elections.

However, Hadi Sirika, the minister of aviation, has debunked
Yakubu’s claim that weather affected flights. The Nigerian
Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) also said there were no
disruptions caused by poor weather.

“The agency in line with the directive of the Honourable
Minister of State (Aviation), Sen. Hadi Sirika, had earlier ensured
a 24-hour operation at all Nigerian airports on Friday 15th
February 2019 to facilitate the transportation of INEC materials
nationwide,” NAMA said in a statement issued on Sunday.

WILL ELECTIONS HOLD ON FEBRUARY 23?

Now that the elections have been rescheduled for February 23 —
amidst anger expressed by Nigerians — there are still fears that
the polls might be postponed again.

However, the INEC chairman has assured Nigerians that the fiasco
will not repeat itself.

INEC insiders also told TheCable that they expected things to
run better since materials would not be at the locations on
time.

“Initially, we were pushing for Monday or Tuesday to be picked
as the new date, but the tech guys said they would need to
re-programme the card readers and they would need six days to do
that. Except the tech guys fail us, we are good to go now,” the
senior member of management told TheCable.

Post Views: 7