The Hard Fact

Nigeria, once again, proved its uniqueness last week, especially in the area of politics. The two-week period allotted for the voter registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was already drawing to a close and many potential and eligible voters were still making fruitless efforts to  register their names. The registration centres and the INEC’s Direct Data Capturing (DDC) machines were just nowhere to be found in many areas.

Yet, Nigerians woke up to the galling news that even when normal Nigerians who are qualified to be eligible voters were still searching in vain for where to perform their civic responsibility of registering their names to be able to vote in the April elections in the country, registration centres were discovered in the abode of the gods, after about 40 minutes journey into a thick forest.

According to reports, in Anambra State, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Professor Chukwuemeka Onukogu and the deputy governor of the state, Mr Emeka Sibeudu, acting on security reports, discovered four fully equipped registration centres in a thick forest that belonged to the gods and their shrines. That was after 10 days into the two-week registration exercise. At the time of discovery, only 200 “voters” had been registered at the four centres discovered in the forest. INEC did not tell Nigerians whether the names recorded were those of normal human beings or that of the gods of the Nigerian politics.

No wonder, the distraught INEC commissioner was quoted as saying that it was “painful to discover four centres serving nobody in the middle of a thick forest, when there were no enough machines for potential voters in places like Awka, Onitsha, Nnewi, Adazi, Agulu and others.” Expressing his consternation further, he said “I have heard of floating/flying polling booths. Today, I have seen one. I am sad that there are four machines wasting here, whereas there are no machines in Onitsha, Eke, Awka, Ozubulu, Nnewi and parts of Anaocha, where thousands of people are waiting to be registered.”

The machines and the centres were probably serving the gods of Nigerian politics who must be fully registered for the politicians to have their ways at the polls in April. Eligible voters may not be able to register in Nigeria’s political milieu; there must be enough materials for the gods to register. As far as Nigerian politicians are concerned, INEC must satisfy the needs of the gods electorally before thinking of the authentic voters.

In the community where I live, no single registration centre or DDC machine is located and yet, eligible voters resident in the area would not be fewer than 5,000. Some electorate who saw the exercise as compulsory must have registered (those who are lucky) in other areas that could even pose some problems in terms of proximity during the election time.

In fact, the story of the exercise for some communities in Ibadan, for example, is pathetic. There were cases of some potential voters who had to prepare and carry their lunch to the few available registration centres (most of which are very far from their residence), since the time they would be through with the exercise could not be predicted. There was the story of a woman who went to one of the few available centres outside her immediate community early in the morning, only to be given a number that was over 3,000. In other words, if such a person would have to endure the rigours of such exercise, it would take her not less than two days to register her name.

That is the reality of the registration exercise in Ibadan and probably in many parts of the country. Yet INEC materials are easily made available for the gods at their shrines inside thick forests. Only that of Anambra State was uncovered. No one should be surprised if such centres are more than the normal centres all over the country.

Unfortunately, as it is normal in Nigeria, nothing would ever be heard again on how the scarce machines were taken to the abode of the gods, neither would those behind the anomaly ever be brought to book to serve as deterrent to others. This is because such anomaly is normal in our own socio-political milieu.

It won’t be a surprise if the current voter registration exercise turns out to be the most contentious one in the history of the exercise in the country. With the way things are going, Nigerians might be forced to ask questions on how such an exercise had seemingly turned into kalokalo that now specialises in swallowing the nation’s petro-naira.

For instance, the consternation of many Nigerians on the colossal amount of over 80 billion naira which INEC said the exercise would gulp was yet to receive any attention when the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, again, demanded for additional N6.6 billion. According to him, the amount would take care of the extension of the exercise by one week.

It is pertinent to sound it loudly and clearly that Jega’s INEC is heading for undiluted failure in this crucial exercise. It appears the gods of the Nigerian politics had hijacked the exercise from Jega. Therefore it is pertinent to tell Nigerians to face the glaring but hard reality that it is not yet uhuru.