· Says youths hold the ace with highest number of votes
· Commission not deterred by attacks on its facilities
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has declared that Nigeria has moved away from the era of highest bidder in its elections
INEC chairman, Professor Yakubu, who gave the assurance, also declared that the 2023 general election belongs to the Nigerian youths who made the highest number of registered voters in the over 93m list released by the commission
INEC had at a meeting with leaders of the 18 registered political parties presented them with a voter register of 93.4m with the young people dominating with over 39 percent
Professor Yakubu, who made the declaration while speaking at the Chatham House in the United Kingdom on Tuesday, said records have shown that youths will dominate in the election
Giving a breakdown of voter registration and collection of Permanent Voter Cards in Nigeria, the INEC boss expressed his satisfaction with the turn-out of registered voters to collect their PVCs, adding that over 600,000 eligible voters collected their PVCs in Lagos alone within the last one month.
The INEC boss stated that there are currently 93.4 million registered voters in Nigeria out of which 37 million, that is 39 per cent, are young people between the ages of 18 and 34.
“And then they’re closely followed by 33.4 million or 35.3 per cent middle-age voters between the ages of 35 and 49.
“Put together, these two categories constitute 75.39 per cent of registered voters in Nigeria. So, actually the 2023 election is the election of the young people, because they have the numbers. Even the majority of the PVCs collected are collected by young people.
“So, out of the 93.4 million, 70.4 million registered voters are between the ages of 18 and 49,” Yakubu disclosed.
He however noted that the collection of the PVCs would end on January 29, adding that “we have to end it because before the election we will publish number of PVCs collected on polling unit by polling unit basis nationwide.”
The INEC chairman, who maintained that the 2023 election would be held as earlier scheduled, noted that the commission will not be deterred by the series of attack on its facilities across the nation, even as he decried the increasing spate of attacks on INEC’s facilities in form of arson but reassured his audience that the commission would go ahead with the elections as scheduled.
While regretting that the commission has suffered over 50 attacks targeted at its facilities in different locations in the country within the last four years, he however, noted that INEC, in collaboration with security agencies, had increased security presence in some of the attack-prone locations.
“In four years, 50 facilities (have been) attacked in various parts of the country. The implications of the attacks are that we have to rebuild facilities and replace materials. The commission and security agencies have increased their presence in some of these locations.
“The last attack happened on Sunday last week but because of the cooperation between the military and the electoral commission, we were able to respond and the damage was limited to just a section of the building in a local government office.
“The commission has repeatedly called for concerted efforts to control and check these attacks and in December last year the National Assembly held a public hearing on these attacks and we hope that authorities have these attacks under control and the response by the security agencies is more coordinated.
“But in spite of these attacks, we will rebuild facilities and replace damaged and lost items, the elections will hold,” Yakubu assured.
Yakubu also lamented tha the commission is currently battling with about 791 court cases which it is joined with from the political parties and their candidates
“While the Commission has the core responsibility to conduct free, fair and credible elections based on the law, the Judiciary is responsible for the interpretation of the law and adjudication of electoral disputes.
“In the discharge of our responsibilities, few public institutions in Nigeria are subjected to more litigations than INEC. In the 2019 general election, the Commission was involved in 1,689 cases, made up of 852 pre-election, 807 post-election and 30 electoral offences cases. The Commission is committed to the rule of law without which democracy cannot thrive.
“Towards the 2023 general election, the Commission has been joined in 791 Court cases as of Friday 6th January 2023, involving intra-party elections and nomination of candidates by political parties. These are not cases involving elections conducted by the Commission or litigations initiated by it, but purely intra-party matters involving candidates and their political parties mainly due to the absence of internal democracy within parties. In fact, the Commission is only a nominal party in these cases but nevertheless has to be represented by lawyers in court proceedings.
“The Commission will continue to obey clear orders of Courts because of the plethora of conflicting judgements from Courts of coordinate jurisdiction on the same subject matter, particularly those involving the leadership of political parties or the nomination of candidates for elections”, said Yakubu.
INEC to test run BVAS with mock accreditation exercise
By Oguwuike Nnadi
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has disclosed that it will conduct mock accreditation nationwide ahead of the 2023 general elections to test the workability of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who made the disclosure while speaking at the Chatham House, in London on Tuesday, said the mock accreditation would be conducted across selected polling units in the country before the main elections begin in February.
He further stated that every BVAS machine deployed across the 774 local government had already been tested, adding that the functionality of the machines was impressive.
Yakubu also stated that back up machines have been readily provided in case of system glitches, adding that with all preparations on ground, the commission is really “comfortable and happy.”
He said, “We have the machines for the 2023 elections but we didn’t want to take chances. Each and every machine has been tested and confirmed functional. For the last two weeks our officials were in the 36 states of the federation testing these machines, and the functionality is simply encouraging.
“The second thing we’re going to do, and pretty soon, is to conduct mock accreditation exercise nationwide ahead of the elections. We won’t wait until the main elections come, we will test the integrity of these machines with real-life voters in selected polling units across the country.
“We did so in Ekiti and Osun, it was fantastic and we’re going to do so nationwide. Increasingly our people are becoming more excited about the deployment of this technology and we’re really happy.
“Also in terms of the numbers of these BVAS machines, we always make provision in case of malfunction or glitches. There is always a back up. We have IReV technical support that will fix the machines in the unlikely event of any glitches.
“However, where it fails to function completely in a polling unit, from previous experience there were isolated polling units, the law has a remedy that the commission should re-mobilise and re-conduct elections in the affected polling units within 24 hours, so we are really, really comfortable where we are.”
Gale of defection hits NNPP in Bauchi, Zamfara, party gains in Gombe
With barely 38 days to the February 2023 general election, political gladiators have continued in the bid to identify with political parties of their choice with the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) at the cenre of defections in Bauchi, Zamfara and Gombe states
While the party lost its prominent stakeholders in Bauchi and Zamfara states, it also gained as it welcomed prominent defectors from Gombe state
In Bauchi, the Northeast coordinator of the New Nigerian People Party (NNPP), campaign, Babayo Liman, led hundreds of the party’s supporters to defect to the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state
The shocking defection, which happened barely one week after the NNPP presidential candidate of the party, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, visited the state. have led to a big depletion of the party in the state
Liman, who announced his defection with his supporters when he spoke at the Bauchi National Union of Journalist (NUJ) secretariat, declared support to the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the re election bid of Governor Bala Mohammed, saying he has strong believe that Atiku has the capacity to salvage the country from its present hardship and dwindling economy, through his antecedents as a former vice president for eight years.
He said, “I am here at the NUJ, Bauchi State branch to inform the press and the general public that today, I, Babayo Liman, has resigned my appointments as National Zonal Secretary, member of presidential campaign council, coordinator of Kwankwasiyya and membership from the party.
“I am here with some of my executive members and thousands of supporters to declare our intention to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and to support the candidacy of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as president of Nigeria and Bala Mohammed as governor of Bauchi State, respectively.
“I’m calling on all my supporters in the entire North East to follow my steps to decamp from the NNPP to the PDP, and also call on my supporters in Bauchi State to do the same.”
Also the Zamfara North senatorial candidate of the NNPP, Hon. Ibrahim Son-Allah Abubakar, along with the party’s candidate of Zurmi/Shinkafi Federal Constituency, Hon. Suleiman Garba Zurmi, has abandoned his ticket and defected to the APC.
Hon. Ibrahim Son Allah and Hon. Suleiman Garba said they joined the APC because of the impressive improvement recorded in addressing insecurity of their respective constituencies by the Bello Matawalle administration which has brought relative peace, and assured to work hard for the success of the party at all levels.
Receiving them into the APC, Governor Matawalle said Zamfara people are satisfied with the APC leadership under his watch that is why a lot of people are leaving their parties, even as he promised to sustain the tempo in his fight against banditry until a desired result is achieved.
Meanwhile, what the NNPP lost in Bauchi and Zamfara gained in Gombe state as it has continued to win more converts to position itself as a party o beat in the state
A former Gombe State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Hon Shuaibu Baba Sabulu, led his supporters to defect to the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) on Tuesday
Also received in the party was a former deputy chairman of Billiri Local Government Area of the state, Philip Bataliya
This happened even as a member representing Kaltungo West constituency in the State House of Assembly Hon. Bashir Yakubu Barau, also defected from the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to the NNPP on Sunday.
The NNPP gubernatorial candidate in the state Alhaji Khamisu Mailantarki, state party chairman Maikano Abdullahi and other executives who received the defectors, assured them that they would be carried along in all the activities of the party especially now that his campaigns would formally commence soon.
He urged them to mobilize more support and promote the party and its candidates in all the nooks and crannies of the state opening that with thorough grassroots mobilisation and voter sensitisation, NNPP could defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
While presenting the NNPP membership cards to the new members, the state party chairman, Maikano Abdullahi, assured the defectors of equal opportunities in the party assuring that the NNPP would always uphold the tenets of justice, fairness and equity.
Speaking on behalf of the decampees, Hon Baba Sabulu said they decided to leave the PDP and joined the NNPP because the state needs a better leadership which according to him, Mailantarki can give.
2023: Candidate’s quality, not political party will determine elections, says Dalung
Former Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung, has declared that 2023 general election would be determined by the quality of candidates in the race and not how strength of the political parties.
Dalung, is the candidate of the Social democratic Party (SDP) Social Democratic Party (SDP) for Langtang North/Langtang South Federal Constituency, and doubles as the Director General of the party’s presidential campaign organization, stated this on Tuesday in Jos when he interacted with newsmen.
The former minister noted that Nigerians are more politically aware adding that their considerations in the current political dispensation are about the qualities of candidates and not their political parties.
“Don’t be deceived, Nigerians are not going to elect parties, Nigerians are going to elect individuals.
“It is going to be a rainbow coalition in 2023, and it was the rainbow coalition that saved South Africa because it ended apartheid.
“In 2023 Nigerians with their votes will build a rainbow coalition that will end these political failures, political gangsters and set the foundation of a new nation.
“A nation where people from different political backgrounds, different ideologies, different religions, different ethnicities will come together, and build a better country for Nigeria
“It is not going be how long a politician has been in government but what he has been able to achieve during that period
“So it’s not a guarantee for any non performing elected person to stand on the high ground of structures or number of years in office,” he added.
