PVC distributions: There’s no sinister plot against any state – Igini

Barrister Mike Igini is the Resident Electoral Commissioner of
INEC in Cross River State. In this interview, he bares his mind
on the operational challenges in the distributions of the
Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), INEC’s preparedness for the
2015 general elections, and subsisting cases of defections,
among other issues. Excerpts:
The
PVC
distribution exercise was greeted with mixed feelings. What
do you think are the challenges facing INEC in executing this?
We acknowledged some operational challenges in terms of the
number of LGAs for the take-off of the exercise of the PVC
distribution as there was a re-scheduling for the remaining 9
LGAs that were conducted subsequently. I can tell for a fact
that nothing sinister was done to any state, and certainly,
Lagos, in terms of the issue of zero polling units that was
recorded in all states without exception.
There are those who registered in 2011 with temporary voters
card. During the exercise of preparing their individual biometric
data for use, some did not have their full biometrics, and even
when the threshold for acceptance of incomplete biometric
data was reduced to two fingers in each hand, that is a
minimum of four fingers, some still could not meet up. Hence
these were the category of people that have been asked to
participate in the continuous registration exercise. So nothing
like de-listing of names occurred because they are still there
with the observed shortcomings.
There was also an unfortunate and regrettable situation that
occurred when some of the youth corpers engaged in 2011 as
registration officers in the process of back-up of the daily
registration data then. Some data of registered voters were
lost in trying to secure them, resulting in what is now called
zero registrants in some of the polling units that will require
fresh registration at the level of the polling units as we did in
Cross River, while others will be done at the ward registration
centres.
But how prepared is INEC towards ensuring a credible 2015
general elections?
We are preparing and it is work in progress. Between 2011
and now we have organized one general election and several
governorship and legislative elections and by-elections with
better outcomes than in many other instances in the electoral
history of Nigeria as acknowledged by the people of this
country and international observers. This is not just my claim;
it is based on the assessment of the decline in the number of
petitions and litigations following such elections – 1,291 cases
in 2007 and 729 in 2011. This is not accidental. It is mainly
because the electoral process has improved tremendously and
people know that frivolous claims require more rigour, while
genuine concerns can be addressed by examining the evidence
which will be available.
I say this to bring to the fore what I mean when I say that we
are preparing, because preparing for elections have specific
generic approaches, namely pre-election, election day and
post-election preparations. But because of our electoral
history we need to put in more to ensure that pre-election
and election day processes have high fidelity which will reduce
any untoward outcomes that may emanate at the post-
election phase.
Pre-election preparations involve developing a credible voters’
register which should be available for stakeholder’s scrutiny
prior to election, things like voter education, a balance of
media coverage for all parties and candidates as much as is
feasible within the law, the possibility of debates to enhance
voter information, the procurement and distribution of
materials and personnel for elections and the planning-cum
organization of election day and post-election activities.
Political parties as institutions will play fundamental roles
before, during and after the election. What are your
expectations from both the ruling party and the opposition
parties?
Political parties are a very important part of a democracy. In
Nigeria, the current parties are still evolving. In developed
democracies, some parties have been around for years like the
Democratic Party in the USA, formed in 1828 and now 186
years old; the Republican Party formed in 1854 now 160
years. There are parties like the SDP in Germany that is 150
years old. Still with that long historical evolution, they have
their problems. How old are the parties here and what are the
values template of those who promote and manage these
parties? We should, therefore, not always regard some of our
formative errors as grave. This is not to say that the parties
should be re-inventing the wheel for things that are normal
conventions, such as how party candidates emerge. These are
fairly well established democratic practices and the only
reason the parties have much challenges from that practice is
because they have failed or refused to be regulated by their
own regulatory processes and continued to disappoint their
members.
Do you think the recurring cases of politicians’ defections
from one party to another in recent times is a drawback on
the polity?
Hold the judiciary responsible for its inability to deal with this
situation having regards to the early defection cases since last
year that appeared warehoused and lying-in-state in the
courts. How does one explain a situation where matters that
commenced by way of originating summons, just for the
interpretation of section 68 of the constitution, which does not
require the calling of any witness since last year and
subsequent cases cannot be determined because lawyers are
allowed to filibuster by filing all manner of frivolous
applications upon applications just to ensure that these
matters are not determined?
Have we all forgotten how the intervention of the court,
particularly the Supreme Court brought about sanity to the
gale of unconstitutional impeachments of either Deputy
Governors or Governors as well as arbitrary substitution of
candidates that emerged from duly conducted primaries
without giving cogent and verifiable reasons? Regrettably,
some of our seniors in the legal profession are the ones doing
all these. If these matters have been allowed to go on, by now
the interpretation of this troubling section 68 would have been
pronounced upon by the apex court and there would have
been sanity by now. Until the Supreme Court pronounces on
this there is no end in uncertainty. This is very unfortunate.
Defections have been a bane of our democratic learning and
the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria.
Unregulated defections and a combination of other actions led
to the fall of the first Republic. And I am willing to hazard a
guess that frustrations bordering on defections also led to
collaborations by politicians who initiated military
interventions. When defection to civilian alliances fails, they
cross over to military alliances. Hence we must be very
meticulous in enacting strict regulatory laws on defections.
When people defect the provisos controlling self-dealing and
prebendary motivations should be effective deterrents for
unguarded defections because of the impact it has on
democratic practices. Externally, there are sections within the
Electoral Act which prescribes what it takes to belong to a
party and how to represent its mandates. The constitutional
legislation on defection has not been authoritatively tested in
terms of legal hermeneutics. This is why the judiciary must
act as the bastion of justice by making the law clear and
unequivocal. Internally, the parties have rules which guide
against such defections. I am aware, for instance, that some
parties have a clause barring any new entrant from contesting
under the party banner for a period. But how well they allow
such laws to regulate behaviour is another matter.
At any rate, once again, the defection issue remind us of the
need for a constitutional court to separate the usual legal
adjudications from the regular courts. Most of the problems
we have near elections have to do with inadequate regulation
of political behaviour as politicians seek to retain their access
to political power through elections. Elections are inherently
designed to make such retention of access to power uncertain,
to make politicians more responsive to the public they serve.
But politicians want, and are in fact. zealous to reduce that
uncertainty. Our regulatory laws should be strengthened to
ensure that politicians do not dilute that check of uncertainty.
There are litigations everywhere even before the general
election. Do you think the judiciary has lived up to
expectations in adjudicating on these cases?
The judiciary, in my view, has not met the public expectations
adequately in this regard. Although the judiciary also has its
limitations. The outgoing CJN, Mrs. Aloma Mukhtar, did quite
well to create a new vision for the judiciary but as you know,
reforms are often not very easy to execute when the reward
for deviation is huge. But we hope her successor will remain
on the path of reform to ensure that our justice system is not
a system that only protects the rich and influential.
There is this allegation making the rounds in Cross River that
you and Senator Ita-Giwa connived to adopt Day Spring
Island as electoral venue for the Bakassi people. How true is
this?
INEC’s decision is not my personal decision based on the
existing electoral data. Just because a people have a
challenge should not give anyone the right to marginalize
them. Day Spring 1, II and the Qua Islands are for the Bakassi
people, and is even recognized by the United Nations as a
final resettlement area for the Displaced Bakassi people. The
Nigerian government, the United Nations and several
international stakeholders failed them in this regard and they
remain displaced in many places for these failures. The other
is the resettlement centre within the Akpabuyo Local
government. INEC gave all the contending parties on this
issue ample room to ventilate their views, as the chief field
officer of the Commission in the state, I went to these areas
to see for myself, and also took national officers of the
Commission along with security agents to see for ourselves at
the risk of all their safeties at sea during a very challenging
time with militancy in the Niger-Delta.
The Commission from the national headquarters, after several
meetings, one of which was conducted at the national
headquarters, wrote formally to acknowledge these three
areas. We will not do anything outside the law to undermine
the integrity and expectations of our office. Cross River is for
all Cross River people. They should all learn to live as
brothers and sisters each gaining from the other, and not to
thrive by exploiting the weak.
As the REC in Cross River, what are you doing to ensure that
the riverine Bakassi people are not disenfranchised in the
forthcoming election?
Precisely what I have just explained above. If for instance the
people of Chibok were forced out of their LGA and resettled as
IDPs in another LGA in Borno state, when elections take place,
should the people in the LGA where the Chibok people are
located now be called Chibok because some elections are
done for Chibok in the new place where the IDPs are located?
That is what is happening in Bakassi, some people want all
elections for Bakassi to hold in specific areas, yet the Atlas of
electoral wards that l met have not been changed and could
not have been changed by a state law given the nature of the
subject matter. Let me tell you, I swore to uphold the
constitution. I am a trained lawyer, sociologist, and of civil
society background. I know the implications of the wrong
action some people want me to take on Bakassi in terms of
the United Nations Charter on social, political and economic
rights, and I can tell you as a civil society person that I will
not do what is outside the law.