By Jide Ajani, Kenneth Ehigiator & Daniel Eteghe

Senator Ekweremadu

LAGOS— DEPUTY  Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said, yesterday,  that the N74 billion requested by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was too much and that it was possible to reduce the amount needed to conduct a fresh register for 2011 general elections.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, had asked the Federal Government to relelase N74 billion for a fresh voters’ register.

Speaking in an interview with newsmen at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, Senator Ekweremadu said there was too much poverty in the country for such staggering amount to be used only for voters’ register.

He said the Senate would work closely with INEC to see how the figure could be drastically reduced and still execute the assignment at hand, adding: “I think for the purpose of the election, it (estimate) is reasonable but a country such as here where we have so much poverty, it is on the high side.

“So if there is anyway we can deal with it in such a way that there could be like two polling booths per Data Capturing Machine, DCM, I’m sure its going to reduce the figure. We will work it out with him but he is going to get all the support he needs from us.”

States creation

Ekweremadu, however, said the Senate would do everything possible to co-operate with the commission to succeed.

On state creation, he said the Senate would follow laid down procedures in accordance with section 8 of the constitution.

He said the Senate would set up committees to look at applications for states which met the requirement for state creation, stressing that it was only then it would be possible for the National Assembly to ascertain the number of new states to be created.

Ekeremadu said: “I don’t have the figures here and this is not the military regime where you just stay in one place and say you are creating states, because we have to go through a number of procedures, laid down in section 8 of the constitution. We are going to set up a small committee to look at all the requests and advice us in terms of those that  that meet the requirements, those that are viable and those that meet the ends of justice. Then we will be able to make further recommendation to the National Assembly.”

On enthronement of true fiscal federalism, Ekweremadu said the National Assembly would first have to determine the nature of true federalism best for the country, especially in the face of creation of new states, adding: “What we tend to do is first of all decide the nature of federalism we want; if we want the state to be a federating unit, then we should be talking about whether the local government would be part of the constitution or not.

“The issue of federalism will also deal with the control of natural resources so it would be along regional lines or be along state lines, so those are two different issues and we tend to deal with all those as we go into the next stage of the constitutional amendment.”

Jega on fresh registration

However, Professor Jega, has again restated the imperative of making funds for the fresh registration of voters available, latest by the end of next week. He explained that going by the tight schedule that the Commission was confronted with in preparing for the registration of voters in the country, certain specifics must be achieved by the end of next week.

To carry out fresh recruitment exercise

He said the Commission would be carrying out a fresh recruitment exercise with a view to filling the about 6000 job vacancies available at INEC, stressing that the present staff strength of the Commission was about 12,000, whereas “the optimum required by the Commission for effective discharge of its responsibilities is about 18,000”.

Speaking at an interactive session with media executives in Lagos, yesterday, Jega restated that given the present scenario whereby the time lines for delivering on the January elections were such that it puts the Commission in a very difficult situation.

He noted: “We are ready to face the challenges and meet out own end of the bargain. Nothing is impossible, but things may only be difficult. Given the time that we have, we would need the funds to be made available latest by the end of the second week of August and at the same time some specifics would also have to be ready as indeed we are working towards making them ready.”

Specifics and targets

According to Jega, to deliver on the specifics in readiness for the voter registration exercise so that we can have our elections in January as constitutionally provided, by the end of the second week of August, we must have been able to achieve the following:

“ We must have been able to decide on the type of software that we would use; we must have also decided on which manufacturer would manufacture the capture machines for us. We must have also decided on the number and types of vendors that we would engage in the event that the manufacturers may not be able to meet our demands. We must have also almost finished negotiations on all of this by the end of the second week of August. What we are saying is that by the end of the second week of August, money must have been made available for us to prosecute all that I have listed.”

As a silver lining, Jega also revealed that the executive branch of government, whose responsibility it is to make the funds available “is working to release the funds. The executive and the legislative arms of government are working together to ensure a quick release of funds via a supplementary budget.”

May use existing register if…

But Jega was also quick to add that “in the event that the funds are not made available, then the only option would be for the Commission to clean up the register.”

That, too, Jega made clear, “comes with its own problems.  What we can do is to print the current register as it is, display it so that people can come and make their claims and objections, but that would be it.

“If somebody observes that his name is there but the photograph is not his own, then we would still need the capture machines and if we don’t have them, that leaves us with the best and only option of doing this thing, carry out a fresh registration of voters.”

The INEC boss said the cost of the exercise is N74 billion.

On a positive note, he said the benefits to derive from this exercise far outweigh whatever the cost is. This is because as we are preparing for the registration of voters, we are also factoring-in the real elections of January.”