It is no more news that national security and security threats have been cited to justify postponements of elections under former President Goodluck Jonathan and the current President Muhammadu Buhari. However, the postponement of the last governorship election in Edo State has been labelled by some people, notably, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) as having political undertone, as the party doubted the sincerity of the security agencies and playing to the gallery.

Section 26(1) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (As Amended), which supports postponement of elections states that: “Where a date has been appointed for the holding of an election, and there is reason to believe that a serious breach of the peace is likely to occur if the election is proceeded with on that date or it is impossible to conduct the elections as a result of natural disasters or other emergencies, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may postpone the election and shall in respect of the area, or areas concerned, appoint another date for the holding of the postponed election, provided that such reason for the postponement is cogent and verifiable.”

While justifying the postponement of 2015 general elections at a Press Conference on February 7, 2015, the then INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru M. Jega stated that he received a letter from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), then under Sambo Dasuki drawing attention to four Northeast states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Gombe who had experienced the challenge of insurgency. The letter stated that security could not be guaranteed during the proposed period in February 2015 for the general elections.

Jega added that: “This advisory was reinforced at the Council of State meeting where the NSA and all the Armed Services and Intelligence Chiefs unanimously reiterated that the safety and security of our operations cannot be guaranteed, and that the Security Services needed at least six weeks within which to conclude a major military operation against the insurgency in the Northeast; and that during this operation, the military will be concentrating its attention in the theatre of operations such that they may not be able to provide the traditional support they render to the Police and other agencies during elections.”

In September 2016, the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police, citing security concerns, had advised INEC to shift Edo gubernatorial election. The advice was sequel to a meeting of the Director-General, DSS, Mr. Lawal Daura, and the Inspector General of Police(IG) Ibrahim Idris Kpotun, where the security situation in the country was reviewed.

In a joint statement by the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), DCP Don Awunah, and Garba Abdullahi of the DSS said that ‘“Credible intelligence report with the agencies indicate plans by insurgent/extremist elements to attack vulnerable communities and soft targets with high population during the forthcoming Sallah celebrations between 12th and 13th September, 2016. Edo State, is amongst the States being earmarked for these planned attacks by the extremist elements.”

But in a swift response, the INEC expressed surprise at the advice and said it was unaware of any security threat to the election, particularly when it had been assured on the same day by the Inter-Agency Security Committee on the ground in Benin City that all was well. At the end, INEC bowed to pressure from the nation’s security agencies when its National Commissioner, Voter Education and Publicity, Prince Solomon Soyebi announced the postponement.

While the public might have reservations on the excuses put up by the security agencies for the postponement of elections, the outcome may serve national interest and not necessarily political interest.

After the postponement of election in 2015, the Jonathan administration deployed acquire sophisticated weapons and funded Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) involving neighbouring countries to confront the menace of Boko Haram terrorists. Undoubtedly, average Nigerians can be forgetful. Before the handover to President Buhari on May 29, 2015, the previous administration liberated towns and cities from terrorists in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe State where elections were successfully and peacefully held.

Meanwhile after the postponement of Edo gubernatorial election in September 2016, there was peaceful Sallah Celebration throughout the federation while the election in Edo State, the main issue was also peaceful without any casualty.

If the purpose of postponement of elections is to influence electoral victory, the previous ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) failed woefully in the 2015 presidential election while the current All Progressive Congress (APC) won overwhelmingly during the 2016 Edo Gubernatorial election.

Yushau A. Shuaib
www.yashuaib.com
yashuaib@yahoo.com

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By Yushau A. Shuaib

He hardly grants media chats because of the sensitive nature of his office. When he speaks, it is with bluntness and sincerity delivered with deliberate measurement. He knows that he can be misquoted out of mischief or ignorance.

Sambo Dasuki, the National Security Adviser in the outgoing Jonathan’s administration, had in February 2015 strongly recommended the postponement of the elections for six weeks to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to address the challenges of untrained ad-hoc election staffs and scanty distribution of voters’ cards. He also insisted that the military could address the insecurity in the North-East by clearing most terrorists’ infested communities within that period.

Within the recommended six-weeks, the voter card distribution rate had increased astronomically from less than 50% to over 75% while the Nigerian military had recovered more than 20 communities from terrorists in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. The elections afterward have been adjudged as free, fair and peaceful.

Similarly in April 14, 2015, Sambo Dasuki accurately predicted what Nigerian military would accomplish before the handover on May 29, 2015. Coincidentally, on the one year anniversary of the abduction of Chibok school girls, Dasuki gave an assurance that the Sambisa Forest would be stormed by the Nigerian troops while the Federal Government was making every effort to ensure that abducted Nigerians would be rescued from captivity from that enclave before the handing-over day. Speaking to PRNigeria, a media agency that distributes press releases on behalf of security agencies, he insisted that government was concerned about the welfare of every single Nigerian not only the Chibok girls, as other innocent Nigerian girls, boys, men and women were abducted by the terrorists and all efforts were being made by security agencies to rescue them.

Today, the Sambisa Forest, the last fortress of the terrorists had been invaded by the military who have so far rescued over 300 captives and destroyed camps and armaments of the terrorists.

However, there are those insisting that without the recovery of Chibok girls, the military campaign should not be hailed. Chibok incident was not the first abduction and not the last by Boko Haram terrorists. Before the advent of Bringbackourgirls movement for the rescue of Chibok girls, boys were burnt to death and slaughtered in various terrorists’ attacks in boarding schools. Others were abducted for conscription. Young captives who were reluctant to join them in their dastardly acts of terrorism were summarily executed.

It is noteworthy that the BringBackOurGirls campaign has drawn global awareness to murderous exploits of terrorists after abducting school girls in Chibok town of Northern Nigeria. The campaign exploded across social media with a strong sense of outrage, catching the attention of global politicians, celebrities and social media fans.

While we clamour for the return of the Chibok girls, we must bemoan the fact that a lot of innocent lives of others citizens have been lost including military and security personnel from different parts of the country. The loss of security personnel in active service have made many families to loss their fathers, brothers, sons, husbands, and even newly wedded grooms who were, in some instance, mercilessly massacred while protecting our nation and its people. We hardly heard any campaign for Bring-Back-our-boys or Bring-Back-the-Corpses of bread winners for decent reburials.

It is unfortunate that we get to the sorry state because some of communities had tolerated the excesses of the terrorists by silently paying ransom after every abduction without reporting to security agencies in the past. In fact some local leaders openly campaigned against the deployment of troops to curb the atrocities until the situation got out of hand.

The military are also careful in their combat offensive in view of the fact that some abducted women are used as human shields, girls as suicide bombers and boys as child soldiers for Boko Haram. It is indeed a delicate situation when troops trained in conventional warfare are suddenly confronted with asymmetrical warfare. Therefore, in such operations, the troops must abide by the excessive rules of engagement policy, including tactical withdrawals to avoid collateral damage to civilians.

It is also rather unfortunate that some foreign powers have denied Nigeria the supply of sophisticated equipment over flimsy excuses of human right abuses. Even those who claimed deployment of specialised experts to search and rescue the Chibok girls not only abandoned Nigeria and the victims to their fate, they never rescue a single abducted girl. Yet they claim the successes of our military offensive was only boosted by foreign mercenaries even after the emergence of pictures and videos of dexterity, sophistication and courage of Nigerian troops in their fight against terror and rescue efforts in freeing abducted people, especially women and children.

It is a pride to Nigeria as a nation that even without ‘Coalition Airstrike’ from powerful countries similar to that being witnessed in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, the Nigerian military has effectively destroyed most of the terrorists training camps while rescuing thousands of abducted victims from captivity.

The Bring Back Our Girls movement, which is instrumental in mobilising citizens and the media through organised rallies against the abductions of Chibok girls, should go further in highlighting the plight of other abducted citizens, internally displaced persons and the ruined communities that require freedom and rehabilitation. It is gratifying to note the assurance of our new President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired military general that “we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.”

Every life is precious; not only that of Chibok girls but also other girls, boys, women and security personnel that are victims of terrorism.

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By Yushau A. Shuaib

There is anxiety in the land over this month’s general elections. To be sure, the presidential and national assembly elections will hold on February 14, 2015 while those of governors and state assemblies have been scheduled for February 28. Some of the fears though, especially about security and logistics challenges have been allayed by recent pronouncements and disclosures from security agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The Forum of Spokespersons of Security and Response Agencies (FOSSRA), which has membership drawn from military, security, intelligence and response agencies, has pledged to remain professional, non-partisan and apolitical at all times while promising to ensure adequate security and fairness before, during and after the February elections.

The assurance from the August body is very crucial because membership include representatives from Defence Headquarters, Army, Air force, Navy, Police, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Prison Service (NPS), Federal Fire Service (FFS), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

In its communiqué, which was signed by Major Gen. Chris Olukolade and Emmanuel Okeh, Chairman and Secretary respectively, FOSSRA members resolved that, through efficient and effective inter-agency collaboration, their respective agencies would ensure maximum security cover during the election period.

On its part, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has also said that it has received all the necessary logistics and funding for the elections. Speaking at a one-day lecture organised by the African Policy Research Institute (APRI) on the forthcoming elections, the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega said that the Federal Government had approved and released funds required by the commission to conduct the elections.

The INEC boss was quoted to have said “Funding is always an issue, but I can say that for INEC in terms of our preparation, it is no longer an issue, anybody will always want to have more money but we believe that we have sufficient resources to be able to conduct the 2015 general elections. So, we can say that funding is no longer an issue for us as far as the election is concerned.”

What may jeopardise the election, which most people insist must hold as scheduled is the inability of a significant number of prospective voters to obtain their permanent voters’ card (PVC).

The statistics released by INEC to justify its level of preparedness calls for more concerted efforts, mobilisation and massive sensitisation campaigns to ensure that nothing is compromised towards fruitful elections.

In its official analysis of the nationwide voter registration database, INEC had confirmed the registration of 73,528,040 of voters during the 2011 registration. Because of some defect in the total registration, the electoral body officially registered 68,833,476 voters for the elections in February 2015. The figure was arrived at after removing over four million voters that were allegedly engaged in duplicate registration. The removal was done through the commission’s AFIX and Business Rules for the printing of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

There is also the relocation of all Polling Units (PUs) from churches, mosques, private compounds and even veranda of schools so that all PUs would be inside enclosures in line with international best practices. Nigeria now has 119, 973 polling units nationwide for the elections.

With the introduction of 145,000 Smart Reader Cards (SRCs) to check rigging or manipulation, INEC has insisted that it wouldn’t allow those with temporary voter cards to vote in the election. These Smart Reader Cards will authenticate the holder of any PVC, confirm his or her finger print and detect fake or cloned PVC.

Most worrisome of the statistics is the data on registered voters and number of Cards distributed to voters. While the confirmed registered voters are 68,833,476, the number of cards distributed as at February 1, 2015 is 42,779,339 which gives 62.15% of the distribution.

It is alarming that some states with larger population of voters, and curiously strongholds of the opposition are indeed backwards in distribution. For instance, states that are governed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) like Lagos, Kano and Rivers merely recorded 38%, 52%, 49% of Distribution of Voters cards while those under the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) like Taraba, Akwa Ibom, Kaduna states have high distribution rates of at least 80% each.

On the relocations of poling units, INEC should as matter of urgency, educate and announce addresses of the new locations to voters to avoid confusion on election days.

While adopting its Business Rule in removing over four million registered voters, INEC should realise that there is likelihood that some genuine names might have been removed by the AFTEX technology. It is therefore essential that those innocent potential voters that might have been affected should have the opportunity of redress. If necessary, they should be re-registered just like the Sultan of Sokoto was treated when he complained that his name was missing.

While most of the major stakeholders have insisted on the conduct of elections on the stipulated dates, INEC should extend distribution of PVCs to the eve of elections rather than February 8, 2015 to allow more potential voters to receive their cards and avoid disenfranchisement of electorates. Though it could be cumbersome to combine the logistics involved in preparing for the real election with card distribution, INEC must ensure that every voter receives his/her card. A situation where an average Nigerian, who is not a politician, complains of not receiving PVC is quite worrisome.

It is anticipated that there would be court cases after the elections and so INEC should take appropriate measures to avoid massive litigations and embarrassing protests over disenfranchising significant percentage of voters in some states.

This article by Yushau A. Shuaib has been published in online and print media in February 2015

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