Voters’ register: Bankole asks FG to approve N72bn for INEC

AS FG procures N1.47bn fire tenders for airports

By Daniel Etegbe

LAGOS—In a bid to   ascertain a credible election in 2011, the Speaker of the House of Representative, Mr Dimeji Bankole yesterday said the Federal Government should approve the N72billion in order to facilitate a speedy voters’ registration ahead of next year’s election.

Addressing newsmen in Lagos, the Speaker said the INEC boss Mr Attahiru Jega was only seeking for a little portion of the recently passed supplementary budget, saying that the sum was needed to boost credible elections in the country.

 He stressed that N4.6trillion  was just passed as  supplementary budget that N72billion was less than one per cent of the approved budget. ” What is one per cent of N4.6trillion, it is N46billion; now this gentleman is asking for 1.5 per cent of the budget for us to have credible, free and fair elections. I think he should have it and we should move our nation forward,” he added.

Prof, Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission had earlier said last thursday that, the commission needs between N55billion to N72billion for a new voters’ register, stressing that, if the funds were not released to the treasury before the first week of August, INEC will have to use the existing register.

“Following extensive consultations with experts in electronic voter registration and logistics, as well as manufacturers and vendors of electronic data capture equipment in the past three weeks, our assessment is that it will cost between N55 billion and N72 billion to conduct a credible compilation of a new voters’ register between August and November,” he said.

“This is based on the procurement and full deployment of 120,000 composite electronic voter registration equipment, principally laptop computers, finger print scanners, high resolution cameras, backup power packs and integrated printer for producing temporary but high quality voters’ cards that can be used for the January elections.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Bankole, while commenting on the time schedule for the 2011 general elections, said the INEC boss is capable of handling the polls’ timetable. “He (Mr. Jega) is the one in charge, we should let him do his job,” he said.
Meantime, the Federal Government yesterday procured 10 fire tenders for four airports and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Zaria.

Fideli Njeze, Aviation Minister, who commissioned the equipment at the Lagos airport yesterday said the tenders were procured under the World Bank Assisted programme of West and Central Africa Air Transport Safety and Security Programme (WCAATSSP), adding that the fire tenders would improve safety at the airports.

The World Bank granted $46.65million (N69.75) for the development of critical aviation safety projects. The 10 fire tenders, Njeze said cost $9.8milion (N1.47billion).

Three of the tenders were acquired for MMA; two for Kano airport; two for Abuja, two for Port-Harcourt International airport and one for NCAT.

She attributed the delay in upgrading airport facilities within the short term to paucity of funds and planning, adding that government was changing from adopting ad-hoc measures to permanent measures in upgrading facilities.

“First, we have to plan, second, you have to make budgetary provision or appropriate for it. You cannot recruit what you don’t have money for. Unfortunately for us in this country for a long time and that is what we are trying to change. We don’t spend time to plan. We employ ad-hoc measures in what we do and we know that ad-hoc does not last and I want to assure you  that you are going to see a reasonable change. If you go to the terminal building, we started knocking down the toilets; we are not going to knock down the whole toilets at the same time because they will still be in use”, she said.