The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has revisited his earlier statement that the 2023 elections slated for February 25 and March 11 may be postponed because of insecurity plaguing the country.
Recall that Mahmood while speaking at the validation of election security training resources held in Abuja on Monday, January 9, had declared that the elections face serious threats of cancellation if the security situation across the country fails to improve.
Besides, he said a cancellation and/or postponement of elections in sufficient constituencies due to the prevailing security situation in the areas may not only hinder the declaration of elections results, but also cause a constitutional crisis.
“We all appreciate the fact that election security is vital to democratic consolidation through provision of an enabling environment for the conduct of free, fair, credible and inclusive elections and thus strengthening the electoral process.
“Moreover, if the insecurity is not monitored and dealt with decisively, it could ultimately culminate in the cancellation and/or postponement of elections in sufficient constituencies to hinder declaration of elections results and precipitate constitutional crisis. This must not be allowed to happen and shall not be allowed to happen,” he said.
He called on the security agencies and their personnel in particular and all election officials in general to up their game and be alert to unusual activities in their various domains.
“Therefore, security personnel in particular and all election officials in general must be security conscious and alert to unusual activities in their environment and must be fully equipped to deal with any challenge at all times,” he stated.
Mahmood’s declaration aroused the ire of the federal government which said INEC was working with security agencies to ensure peaceful conduct of the polls and that there was no cause for alarm.
“Let me seize this opportunity to respond to inquiries from the media over a widely-circulated report credited to an INEC official that the 2023 general election faces a serious threat of cancellation due to insecurity. The position of the federal government remains that the 2023 elections will be held as planned. Nothing has happened to change that position. We are aware that INEC is working with the security agencies to ensure that the elections are successfully held across the country.
“The security agencies have also continued to assure Nigerians that they are working tirelessly to ensure that the elections are held in a peaceful atmosphere. Therefore, there is no cause for alarm,” the minister of information and culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed said in a release.
However, speaking while presenting the electronic copy of the 93,469,008 voter register to leaders of political parties yesterday in Abuja, the chairman said the exercise would hold as scheduled stressing that the commission was no longer contemplating postponing or cancelling the polls.
Yakubu said the repeated assurances by the security agencies for the adequate protection of its personnel, materials and processes reinforced the commission’s determination to proceed with the polls.
He added that that more than ever before the commission was more prepared for the 2023 general elections and had successfully implemented 11 out of the 14 activities on schedule for the elections.
“The repeated assurance by the security agencies for the adequate protection of our personnel, materials and processes also reinforces our determination to proceed. The 2023 general election will hold as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the commission,” he said.
Already, he said the commission had deployed substantial quantities of sensitive and non-sensitive materials to the various locations across the country.
Besides, he said the commission had taken delivery of the last batch of the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) while the ongoing configuration of the critical technology in readiness for elections would soon be completed.
“Already, some of the materials for 17 states in three geo-political zones have been delivered. Furthermore, 13,868,441 permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) have been printed, delivered to states and are being collected by citizens as new voters or by existing voters who applied for transfer or replacement of cards as provided by law.
“In short, at no time in the recent history of the commission has so much of the forward planning and implementation been accomplished 44 days ahead of a general election.
“Therefore, the commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone the postponement of the general election,” Mahmood said.
To affirm that the commission’s was ready to conduct the polls as planned, Yakubu said the final register of voters had been compiled.
He announced that Nigeria has a voter population of 84,004,084 in the 2019 general election.
He said after the cleaning up of the data from the last continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise held from June 2021 – July 2022, 9,518,188 new voters were added to the previous register resulting in the preliminary register of 93,522,272, which was presented to Nigerians for claims and objections as required by law.
“At the end of the period for claims and objections by citizens, the commission received 53,264 objections from Nigerians to the prevalence of ineligible persons on the register by virtue of age, citizenship or death. These names have been verified and removed from the register.
“Consequently, the register of voters for the 2023 general election stands at 93,469,008. Of this cumulative figure, 49,054,162 (52.5 per cent) are male while 44,414,846 (47.5 per cent) are female.
“The distribution by age group shows that 37,060,399 (39.65 per cent) are youth between the ages of 18 and 34; 33,413,591 (35.75 per cent) are middle aged persons between the ages of 35 and 49; 17,700,270 (18.94 per cent) are elderly voters between the ages of 50 and 69 while 5,294,748 (5.66 per cent) are senior citizens aged 70 and above.
“In terms of occupational distribution, students constitute the largest category with 26,027,481 (27.8 per cent) of all voters, followed by 14,742,554 (15.8 per cent) Farmers/Fishermen and 13,006,939 (13.9 per cent) housewives.
“The data on disability was not collected for previous registration. However, the cumulative figure of 85,362 persons from the recent CVR indicates that there are 21,150 (24.5 per cent) persons with Albinism; 13,387 (15.7 per cent) with physical impediment and 8,103 (9.5 per cent) are blind.”
He revealed that Lagos State leads with 7,060,195 registered voters; followed by Kano with 5,921,370; Kaduna, 4,335,208; Rivers, 3,537,190; Katsina, 3,516,719; Oyo 3,276,675; Delta, 3,222,697.
