Registration Of Pains

After several attempts to register at the ongoing voter registration exercise at a location in  Abule Egba failed, Mr. Paul Femi decided to try another plan to ensure that he registers so  that he would not be disenfranchised.

By 3.30 am, he woke up and made his way to the registration point to wait for the ad-hoc staff  of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, so that he could be among the first to  be registered.

Femi was wrong. As he was hatching his plans, some people were also hatching the same. To his  consternation, when he got there, he saw a huge crowd already at the scene, waiting for INEC  officials.  That day, he was lucky, but it took him about 14 hours to register.

Another woman, Mrs. Ulelu Smart, a civil servant took permission from her boss to register,  fearing that if she did not register, the state government may victimize her; so, off she went.   The heavily pregnant Smart thought she would get some favour from the INEC officials, but she  was told to come back by 5.00 p.m.

Her protests fell on deaf ears as the INEC officers told her that their policy at that  registration point was to register pregnant women around 5.00 p.m.  Smart went to other  registration points to register but she was not successful.

On returning around 4.30 p.m., she was told that the Direct Data Capture, DDC, machine had  broken down.  Her hope was dashed and frustration set in; what would she tell her boss? Would  she tell her stern boss that she could not spend a whole day to register? She was indeed in  trouble.

Smart just wanted to get registered at all costs, not because she wants to vote, but to have  the voter’s card in her possession in case government wanted to use it against her. She took a  cab to another INEC registration point and begged the staff for assistance.

The INEC officers who were about rounding off told her that they had closed for the day but her   persistence paid off and she was registered.  She was so elated that she called her husband to  break the good news to him. Smart had indeed got the voter’s card but she will not vote on the  day of the election because of the restriction that will be placed on movement.

The above scenarios are the pains and frustrations Lagosians are encountering while trying to  get  registered in the ongoing exercise in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria. The people in the  metropolis are still trying to register despite the fact that INEC had extended the voters  registration exercise by one week to allow more people to be registered.

Two weeks into the registration, tales of broken down DDC machines, poor handling of the  equipment, deflated battery, among others are the several hiccups faced by Lagosians. The irony  of the whole thing is that millions of Lagosians are willing to register but INEC was not fully  ready to register them as the body was ill-prepared for the exercise.

The N78 billion voted for the exercise seemed to have gone down the drain as the several  hiccups encountered by the ad-hoc officers, mainly youth corps members, revealed that INEC had  not spent wisely.

Millions of Nigerians complained bitterly and feared that they would be disenfranchised as they  could not register despite their efforts. INEC officials always complain of broken down  machines or run-down batteries aside other funny excuses.

Many of the youth corps members are harsh. They complained that the N10,000 stipends they were  promised had not be paid to them and that they had no money to buy food during the exercise.  Some resorted to sleeping when their machines broke down while some vent their frustrations on  the hapless Lagosians who were trying to register.

Many of the corps members did not get to registration point until around 10.00 a.m. or 11.00  a.m., keeping people waiting for hours and when they did come, they had no apologies for  anybody. You dare not challenge them. If you do, you will get what you asked for because some  of them are too saucy.

Some time ago, some of the corps members went on strike, after complaining that they were not  paid their allowances. Many Lagosians waited for them the whole day and could not register.  Some have resigned to fate while some, wanting to get registered at all costs, left their  vicinity for very far places to register. To such people, they will never vote but they take  pleasure in having the voters’ card with them in case the banks demands for it as means of  identification.

One of such people is Mr. Pius Ojojoh, a resident of Abule Egba. Since he could not register,  he went to Agege and after some time, he registered and got the card. To him, voting at the  coming election was out of it.

The same goes to a mother of two, simply called I.J. Since she could not register after several  attempts in her area, she went to another place to register. She was very sure she would not  vote because of the distance. She just wanted to have the voter’s card in her possession. There  are thousands of such people who registered in distance places outside their immediate  environment who will not vote on the Election Day. This is the result of INEC’s faulty  machines.

For two consecutive days, Mrs Omobolanle Fakeye, a business woman had been trying to register  to no avail. On the first day, she got to the centre late but on the second day, she got to the  centre at about 5.00 a.m. and was number 18 on the line. She could not be registered because  the process was very slow and the INEC officials arrived in the afternoon.

“I have locked up my store for two days now and I am not willing to go beyond this. I can’t  understand why everything seemed to be done to discourage Nigerians and kill our enthusiasm in  the entire process.  It is a pity,” she lamented.

A teacher who craved anonymity said when she reported at the registration centre, she picked  number 101 the previous day and left the place because she needed to go back to the office.  When she got to the same place the following day around 6.00 a.m., she was told that another  tally had been given which overrode the one she got the previous day. She became frustrated and  discouraged about the whole process.

The shoddy preparations by INEC for the exercise led to massive protests in Lagos last week by  students, coalition groups and others who wanted the commission to extend the closing date for  the exercise.

The protesters, under the aegis of the Coalition of Youth and Civil Society and the National  Association of Nigerian Students, NANS stormed the INEC office in Lagos to protest the slow  pace of the ongoing national voter registration. The INEC’s office became a theatre of protests  as students and coalition members protested vehemently, chanting anti-Attahiru Jega songs and  called for the extension of the exercise.

About 100 students carrying placards stormed the INEC secretariat around 10.00 a.m. with  placards. Some of the placards read: “This is not credible election,” “Jega has started  rigging,” “Jega is doing jaga jaga registration,” “We shall fight rigging,” “Jega, don’t steal  our votes,” “No to fake machines, among others.

Chairman, NANS, Lagos Area Axis, Mr. Ogundipe Olanrewaju told the INEC Resident Electoral  Commissioner, Lagos State, Dr. Adekunle Ogunmola that “we are here to express our grievances  about the ongoing voter registration exercise.  It is not going on well. Looking at the DDC  machines, things are going very bad and millions of Nigerians and students will be  disenfranchised if the exercise is to end on Saturday. If the exercise ends on the scheduled  date, it will be another form of rigging the coming election.”

Olanrewaju said the students wanted the INEC to extend the duration of the exercise by another  two to three weeks so that everybody could be registered to vote at the coming polls.

As the students were rounding off their protest, the Coalition of Youth and Civil Society  stormed the INEC office over the same reason, saying that the exercise was nothing but a sham  and called for extension to give every Nigerian the opportunity to register.

Co-ordinator, Network for Good Governance, Mr. Oluremi Olaleye said the coalition was  canvassing for extension of the exercise, saying that “we are the one canvassing for credible  election and to get such, we have to start from the voter registration.

“We should start on a good note, but if after one week, less than five per cent of the populace  was yet to get registered, then it is very bad. We want an extension of this registration  exercise. INEC should provide more machines to capture the entire population,” he said.

INEC Resident Commissioner, Lagos State , Ogunmola said “I can assure you that we will not wind  up this exercise until all intending voters are registered. We want to make sure we give  Nigeria the best.”

While admitting several hiccups, the INEC Resident Commissioner called on Nigerian to be  patient and assured that all eligible voters must be captured “before we can conclude the  exercise. We now have many DDC machines, by Saturday, we will know whether lots of people have  been captured or not.

“All we need is patience; any attempt to disrupt this exercise will not be good.  It has  started on a faulty note, it will end well. I can give you assurance that the exercise will be  extended,” he stated.

It was as a result of the massive protests across Lagos State and complaints by Nigerians that  led the INEC to extend the registration exercise by another week. Certainly, the usual hiccups  are still being expected to trail the remaining days of the exercise.

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, who monitored registration centres at various  locations urged all Nigerians to see the exercise as a community action which everybody must  get involved in.

According to Fashola, the hiccups could not be left alone to the INEC and the Federal  Government to contend with. “It is a common  problem that we will all benefit from its common  resolution and that is why we have been telling our people to first, be patient and secondly,  to cooperate with the youth corps members, to support them, to give them relief.

“They need water, they need food refreshment. We must understand that these young men are on  national assignment and must be given all of the comfort that they would require to carry out  all of the assignments.”

The governor said in places where ink had run out, there was nothing wrong in replacing the ink  by the community as a contribution to making it better, stressing that government was not about  people who were elected or appointed alone but about so many people who were not fortunate to  serve, “if we play a role that is of public interest, we make things better.”

Fashola lamented that the problems being encountered by INEC were still the same problems such  as the machines being slow and the scanners not responding very well, adding that in some  places, the complaint was about inks being out of stock, while in some others, the complaints  were about allowances of corps members having not being paid.

“What we are doing is to ensure that any logistic, administrative hindrance that stands in the  way of achieving that exercise of right for people who are 18 years and above is removed. That  is what we are doing and that is why we are going around finding out what the problem is from  place to place,” he added.

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