BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

Academician turned election regulator, Dr. Adekunle Ogunmola was formerly provost of the Oyo State College of Education before his appointment as a Resident Electoral Commission, REC in 2011. Dr. Ogunmola in this interview reviews the 2011 general election and efforts by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to build upon the success achieved. Experts:

Have you been able to identify the major failings of the commission in 2011?
We have done that. In our case we identified the problem of logistics for example, late arrival of materials at the polling units, uncooperative attitude of some of the ad-hoc staff. We have also identified the issue of the difficulty in getting to riverine areas. The commission in its wisdom engaged some consultants to carry out a study on the past exercise and come up with identified lapses and ways of ensuring that those lapses are removed in subsequent elections.

Following that we had a strategic plans retreat and there we tried to envision a future and have developed strategies to ensure that that future is achievable. We have redrafted the vision of the commission and also the core values. We have also identified the stakeholders in the electoral process with a view to ensuring that we get the best from them.

There is a perception that the present INEC knows how to lay out good plans, but finds it difficult implementing them. For example after more than two years the permanent voter’s card is not yet out?

I disagree with the comment that we don’t match our speech with action. INEC is very cautious that if it wants to secure the trust and confidence of the people that it must match its words with action. For the voter’s card, I am happy that the story so far is in the public domain and people are not kept in the dark as to what we are doing. Sometime last year it was reported widely that a contract for the printing of 40 million permanent voter’s card was awarded and we are expecting that in the space of about six months that the permanent voters’ cards would be ready.

Ogunmola

In printing the permanent voters cards we have to ensure that the errors detected in the original register are not printed along with the permanent voter’s card. For example, in the case of double registration we have to make sure that permanent voter’s cards are the authentic and error free voter’s cards and that is why it is taking us long because we are trying to perfect the register. AFIS has been carried out and it will surprise you to know that the number of registered voters will be far lower than what was originally indicated because of detection through AFIS. In fact, in some places you find up to 15% reduction.

So, you mean that the voter’s register was over bloated?
Not over bloated

It was bloated?
Ehmmnmn! If you say bloated, indirectly you are saying it was a deliberate…

Not deliberate. Or do we say it was exaggerated?
Not exaggerated.

So, what word do we use now?
You can use the word that the number that was released initially has reduced as a result of this AFIS.

So, the number on the register was more than the real number of voters?
Yes.

So, in effect, it was exaggerated?
You see…

You don’t want to use the word exaggerated?
Yes, I am being careful because I don’t want you to go and write register over bloated! You see, that is one aspect of the new INEC that we are not shy to disclose that something was wrong. Look at what happened during the last election. The chairman came out and said that this thing has to be postponed. We don’t want to deceive Nigerians.

AFIS was carried out and we know that part of the reason was that for the first two days of the registration there were hiccups here and there, fingerprints were not being captured properly and we directed that people should go back and some people went back without completing the process meaning that the machine would capture them twice and when you subject them to AFIS the machine will detect them and put them out. Not that those people were not authentic voters and that is why it would not be correct to say that the register was over bloated.

I can assure you that the next election would be far better than the last election and that is sure. What contributed to the relative success of the last election was because we tried to block some of the holes in the previous elections because immediately the commission came into being, they went for a retreat and that study identified 89 different ways of rigging elections and the commission tried to block as many of them as possible.

So, how many have you blocked now?
I think close to all of them. But you see, the human factor is there. When you talk of somebody moving from one polling unit to the other and that is why we introduced the issue of accreditation by 12 O’clock in all polling units. Once people know the number of people accredited there is no way one vote can be added to the number of votes in that location.

We had issues of malpractices during the last election. How many have you been able to prosecute?
I know of the case of a person who brought a card that does not belong to him to a polling unit and he was accosted by a policeman and the case is still in court.