2023 Polls Will Hold Despite Attacks On Our Offices –
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it will go ahead to conduct the 2023 general election as scheduled, the recent attacks on its offices not withstanding.
The commission noted that not even the loss of some election materials already delivered for 2023 general election to recent attacks on its offices in different parts of the country would stop the polls from taking place as scheduled.
INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, stated this yesterday when he received the delegation of African Union Special Pre- Electoral Political Mission led by Phumzile Mlambo- Ngcuka in Abuja.
Yakubu assured Nigerians that the occurrence would not affect the conduct of the 2023 general election as scheduled, as the commission would recover from the losses.
He said despite INEC's progress and preparations for the 2023 general election, the commission was still concerned about the security situation generally in the country, particularly the incidence of attacks on its facilities.
In the last three weeks, he said three of its local government offices were attacked in three different states of the federation and the last one occurred yesterday in the South Eastern part of the country.
He stated, “Although there were no casualties, quite a number of the materials already acquired and delivered for the elections have been lost.
“Now, the good thing is that so far we can recover from all the losses but it’s
President Muhammadu Buhari has described threats to peace and security, political instability and the adverse impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the economies as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine as the biggest concerns of the region.
‘‘It is on record that the region has not rested on its oars as we have always striven to evolve effective regional mechanisms to address these challenges. For example, at the height of the pandemic, heads of state of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) appointed me as the ‘ECOWAS Champion’ on COVID-19,” he said.
Buhari reminded legislators of the ECOWAS Parliament on the need to align their programmes to those of the founding fathers of the sub-regional body.
The president, at the opening session of 2022 Second Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament yesterday, said “the vision of the founding fathers of ECOWAS was to have a West Africa sub-region that is integrated economically with harmonised policies, enjoying a source of concern. This shouldn’t be allowed to continue.
“So, we will continue to engage with the security agencies to make sure that these offices as well as personnel and our facilities are protected ahead of the election.
“We may express some concern about the attack on these facilities but it will never deter the commission from going ahead with the election as scheduled.”
Yakubu reiterated that the deployment of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) for voter accreditation for uploading of PU results in real-time have come to stay.
He said there was no going back to the deployment of those technologies because it was a requirement of the law making it mandatory for INEC to do so.
He added that between August 2020 and July 2022 the technologies had been deployed for about 105 off-cycle and by-elections including Anambra, Ekiti, and Osun Governorship elections.
The INEC boss continued: “We are happy with the pilot that we have conducted and these are results you can still view on the portal.
“We kept asking particularly political parties to compare the results given to them at that point, that is the hard copy signed by their agents and what we uploaded on the IREV portal and we have been asking them if there are discrepancies.
“So far, all the political parties have confirmed that it's 99.9 percent accurate so we are happy with that pilot.”
Yakubu reassured Nigerians that free movement of persons, goods and services, as well as seamless right to establishment.
“We must continue to strive harder to attain those objectives. Let us take advantage of existing mechanisms and our enterprising population to turn our dreams into reality.
“We have the capacity to do so. Let us collaborate more and remove our outdated physical and psychological boundaries and other colonially-inspired differences so our region can fully attain its full potential,’’ he said.
On the election of members of the ECOWAS Parliament by direct universal suffrage, Buhari in a statement signed by presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, declared his support for the process, provided it is conducted with minimum or even at no cost at all, to the community.
Buhari said the ECOWAS Parliament could only fulfill its true mandate when it has a set of directly elected and dedicated members.
‘‘I believe that a membership of the ECOWAS Parliament, not drawn from serving members of parliaments of member states, would be a good step towards injecting our regional integration
INEC may suffer a little hitch here and there but overall, the Commission was required to proceed with the election.
“We are required to proceed in the manner that the law requires us to do using the deployment of technology for accreditation and uploading of Polling Unit level results from the PU on election day for transparency.
“The good thing is that since we started this process, we hear less and less of litigation arising from the conduct of elections by the commission.
“Now we have more litigation arising from the conduct of primaries by Political parties rather than the main election conducted by the commission.”
Yakubu further said that INEC was better prepared for the 2023 general election.
He boasted that INEC was now in a better position than it was on the eve with new energy and initiative,’’ he said.
The Nigerian leader reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to ECOWAS efforts, with the support of partners, to keep the region peaceful, secure and politically stable, pledging that the country would continue to support the restoration of democratic rule in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
‘‘We are convinced that the sustenance of democracy and the rule of law should remain the norm in this promising region.
‘‘There will be multiple political activities in some ECOWAS Member States, including Nigeria, where general elections are due to be held in February and March 2023.
‘‘Let me seize this opportunity to reiterate my commitment to free, fair and transparent elections and smooth transitions.
‘‘This is one legacy that I want my administration to bequeath, not only to Nigeria, but to the region as a whole,’’ he said.
Citing upcoming elections in Sierra Leone and Liberia, President Buhari declared Nigeria’s readiness to stand by any country in the region that is committed to organising free and fair elections. of the 2019 general election, as the 2022 Electoral Act now assisted the commission with provisions that gave it more time for preparations.
His words: “The reason is that learning from the experience of the 2019 general elections, INEC made a case for the amendment to the Electoral Act to allow us more time from the nomination of candidates by political parties to the election, as against the 60 days we had under the old law. Now parties are required to nominate their candidates 180 days before election day.
“So, this will enable us to determine which political parties are fielding candidates for which constituency and to proceed with the procurement processes as well as the production of both the sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the election.
“We have done very well indeed. I am very comfortable to say that at this point with about three months to the election, we have 50 per cent of the non-sensitive materials that have already been deployed to locations so we’re making very good progress indeed.
“The law also requires the executive to make funds required for the election at least one year prior to the election.
“So, in terms of disbursement of funds, we’re also in a more comfortable position than we were before the last election and that’s why we have made the kind of progress we have made.”
Earlier in her remarks, the leader of the AU Special Pre-Electoral Political Mission, Mlambo-Ngcuka, said they were in Nigeria as a partner on a supportive mission.
The president highlighted that the global economic downturn has deeply affected the economies of member-countries and resulted in dire economic hardships for the citizens of the Community.
In this context, the President urged the parliament to perform their sacred responsibility of considering the Community budget with diligence, conscious of the sacrifice of various countries in the payment of Community Levy.
“Working with three Ministerial Committees comprising Member States’ Ministers of Health, Finance and Transportation, we developed an effective response by mitigating the effect of COVID-19 on our citizens.
‘‘Our efforts yielded positive results as the ECOWAS region became one of the sub-regions least affected by the pandemic, in terms of mortality rate,’’ he said.
President Buhari noted that in spite of several challenges, the regional bloc ‘‘has continued to wax stronger as a Community and has remained strong and resilient and shining example of regional integration and solidarity.’’
He lauded the organisation for evolving in many aspects, since its formation 47 years ago.
Federal government’s ongoing efforts to reposition Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system must include collaboration among different levels of government and the private sector to ensure proper implementation of reforms that meet the needs of Nigerians in the 21st Century, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said.
At the opening of a two-day Presidential Health Reform Committee Retreat in Abuja yesterday, Osinbajo said, “We must recognize that reforms can be complex. And the lessons learnt are there, no silver bullets and no perfect approaches. This is especially true in huge areas such as healthcare. Previous efforts must be taken into account. You may have several small and even local reforms going on at different times.”
The vice president, in a statement issued by his media aide, Laolu Akande, acknowledged the contributions of past administrations, but maintained that reforming the health sector remains a front burner issue for the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
He said the ongoing efforts would “chart out a health system that best meets the needs of Nigerians in the 21st century, with special emphasis on strengthening primary health care, improving access to health insurance and establishing a platform that enables the country to better respond to future pandemics.”
Osinbajo said: “What is crucial is that we set the broad parameters and vision for the health care system we desire for our people, we adopt a flexible approach that enables us to track and incorporate other reform initiatives.
“We ensure that we always have the right people around the table, that there is wide ranging consultation, and that all views are properly considered, that we keep our vision clear through the process and we develop a robust and viable implementation process,” he said.
Noting the lessons from the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the VP emphasized that “healthcare, especially public health emergencies cannot but have a multi-disciplinary, multi sector approach…. serious health reform must have the same multisectoral approach.”
Speaking further on the need to improve the country’s healthcare system through effective collaboration between state and federal governments, Osinbajo said while previous attempts had been made in the past, the implementation has “either been incomplete, non-systemic or haphazard.”
Pointing out the constitutional responsibility of State Governments in ensuring primary and secondary healthcare, while participating in tertiary healthcare, the VP noted that “any reform without the full participation of the States will fall short of a national health reform effort.”