Nwosu: PVC is Needless Complication of the Electoral Process

Former chairman of the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria, Professor Humphrey Nwosu, has said far from being helpful, introduction of the permanent voter cards is just an unnecessary complication of the country’s election process. Nwosu, who spoke with THISDAY by telephone, also frowned on the production of the PVCs abroad, saying the cost to the country in terms of transportation, custody, and possible slip into wrong hands is terrific.

Nwosu had headed NECON, which conducted the famous June 12, 1993 presidential election that was annulled by former military president Ibrahim Babangida, when the late business mogul, Chief Moshood Abiola, was poised to clinch a victory. That election was widely acclaimed as the freest and fairest the country had seen at the time. PVCs were not used in the election conducted using a novel “Option A4” arrangement that involved a mix of the secret and open ballot systems.

Nearly 22 years after, Nwosu said the PVCs introduced under the incumbent chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, with the approval of the National Assembly, was behind the major tensions and controversies surrounding this year’s general election.

“General elections come once every four years. I don’t really know – they may know the reason for the so-called permanent voter card. There was nothing of that nature in my time. There is nothing like that in the US and other democracies that I know,” Nwosu said.

He emphasised, “The most important thing is for you to be registered in a particular location with your address indicated. There is also need for accurate voters register where, during accreditation, your name must be identified as a bona fide citizen of Nigeria living in a particular area, registered in a particular area, and that entitles you to vote.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know what they really mean by this permanent voter card, who authorised it, how they came about it. The register compiled is your only electoral identity. Why add a problem to a process if you can avoid it? Why did the National Assembly approve it?

“This PVC is an additional problem that shouldn’t have been. But I feel for the chairman of INEC for the pressure from Nigerians for the right thing to be done, pressure from the security agencies, they want to make sure that everyone is able to vote without disturbance, and pressure from the political parties.”

Nwosu questioned the PVC’s contribution to the credibility of elections. “I don’t know what value it adds to making our elections credible, peaceful, free and fair,” he said. “In any case, there have been reports all over the country of people who have gone to where they registered looking for the PVCs and couldn’t find them. There have been stories of some of the cards destroyed or stolen, and so on. These problems would not have been there if we did not resort to one thing called permanent voter card, which is not absolutely necessary to add credibility to the electoral process.

“If people are registered and they are not able to vote, you will not have free, fair, and credible election.”

On the printing of the PVCs abroad, Nwosu disclosed that all the electoral and security materials used during the 1993 elections were printed locally. He explained, “When you deal with printers abroad, there are numerous problems in the process. One is transportation, another is custody. When you are keeping this thing at the airport or harbour, it may provide opportunity for leakage. This is the problem of doing these things abroad.

“Well, there might have been reasons why this thing was being done abroad, but I feel if our security printing agencies are challenged, they can do these things.”

The former chief electoral officer said judging by what was on the ground, INEC did not seem fully prepared to conduct the general election on the initially scheduled dates of February 14 and February 28. “And, of course, you cannot completely neglect this issue of security,” he stated. “These polling stations ought to be manned, not necessarily by soldiers, but policemen. Every polling unit ought to be manned by two police officers and the polling agents of all the political parties and sensitive electoral materials ought to be secured. So it is not just a question of areas of the country where there is insurgency.

“If the military promises to ensure that elections could be conducted in the next six weeks, that will enhance the credibility of the election, more especially when we hear that our neighbours, like Chad, Niger, Cameroon, will be cooperating with Nigerian military authorities to fight the insurgency.”

Last week, INEC announced that 52, 275, 367 of the 68, 833, 476 registered voters in the country, representing 75.94 per cent of the voters, had collected their PVCs.

It would be recalled that the federal government had in 2012 approved N2.6 billion for the production of the first batch of 40 million PVCs. In 2013, N2.1 billion was approved for the second batch of 33.5 million PVCs. The commission had projected that the PVCs would be used by the 73.5 million voters registered during the registration exercise conducted between January and February 2011. But the cards were not used for the 2011 general election. Besides, the number of registered voters came down after the harmonisation of the figures and elimination of double registrations.

INEC believes the PVCs and card readers it plans to use in this year’s election would improve the quality of the elections.

The chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, had said in a statement in 2013, “The PVCs will replace the coldlaminated temporary voter cards that were issued during the voter registration exercise in 2011.

“Experience has shown that these temporary cards are not only fragile, but also susceptible to abuse by unscrupulous persons, who were in the past reported to have illicitly massed up the cards and put them in the hands of cronies to use in manipulating elections.

“Procedures put in place by INEC since the 2011 general election have considerably lessened the susceptibility of these cards to such abuse.”