SOUTH EAST AND VOTER’S REGISTRATION BY EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO

The ongoing exercise of enlisting validly qualified Nigerians as prospective voters in the national data by the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be implemented with all sense of decency and patriotism.

This is because of the primacy of the voter’s card to the electoral process in the country and because there is just no how a citizen can be deemed eligible to vote if he\she does not have a valid voter’s card.

During  the headship of Professor Attahiru  Jega, there were proven cases of systematic exclusion of voters from the south under different dubious guises to an extent that  millions of potential voters of southern Nigeria origin cried foul that the electoral panel has deliberately disenfranchised them prior to the 2015 poll.

The immediate past hierarchy of independent national electoral commission (inec)  totally messed up the voters registration exercise to such ridiculous extent in the last dispensation that hundreds- of- thousands of so-called permanent voters  cards were hoarded in the offices of this electoral commission whilst hundreds -of -thousands  if not millions of potential voters were actively disenfranchised.

The Professor Attahiru Jega led INEC so destroyed the efficacy of seamless voters registration exercise to an extent that Nigerians who could not withstand the elements such as the burning sunlights resorted to hiring mercenaries to stand on the long queues for them pending when it is their turn to be so enrolled.

In Abuja some prospective voters seeking to register with the electoral commission even went as far as hiring street urchins from Niger and Chad who loiter around to stand on the lines for them.

Voters registration exercise under the last dispensation was so inelegant that suspicions grew that there were plots to scheme out certain segments of the population from exercising their constitutionally guaranteed human right to vote and be voted for.

There were insinuations that the then chairman of INEC who hails from Jigawa state deliberately frustrated the south from obtaining the voters cards as a way of conferring advantage to a presidential candidate from the north.

Again, the independent National Electoral Commission is conducting continuous voter’s registration exercise and allegations have surfaced that in the south East of Nigeria the officials of the electoral commission have deliberately introduced bureaucratic encumbrances/obstacles to frustrate eligible and prospective Voters from enlisting their details for the purposes of being issued their valid voter’s cards. 

There are allegations that the officials doing the registration are demanding the production of valid national identity or international passports before accepting to carry out their statutory duty.

Other officials are even said not to have been given the necessary tools for work even as the officials of the same commission in the North are said to have more working tools even as underage voters are being captured and issued voter's cards as i write.

This obstacle placed in the way of prospective voters must be dismantled because apart from the fact that it is unconstitutional, it is discriminatory because in other parts of the federation those who have showed up to be registered are not being required to possess valid national or international passports.

 By the way, where does INEC expect prospective voters in the East to afford the extravagant costs of obtaining international passports? Moreover, registration for national identity cards have never been seamlessly accessible to all those residing at the rural communities.  

Section 12(1) of the electoral Act, amended on the 29th of December, 2010 spells out the qualifiacation for registration to vote for all Nigerians.

Section 12(1) says; "a person shall be qualified to be reigistered as a voter if such person- (a) A citizen of Nigeria; (b)Has attained the age of 18 years; (c) Is ordinarily resident, works in, originates from the local government area council or ward covered by the registration centre; (d)                        Presents himself to the registration officers of the commission for registration as a voter and (e) Is not subject to any legal incapacity to vote under any law, rule or registration in force in Nigeria.

Section 17 (1) of the Nigerian constitution provides as follows; " (1) The State's social order is founded on ideals of Freedom, Equality and Justice. Subsection  (2)(a) of this section affirmed that: “ In furtherance of the social order- every citizen shall have equality of rights, obligations and opportunities before the law”.

Section 42(1) of the constitution absolutely prohibits such practice of discrimination when it averred thus: "(1) A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such a person:- (a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action of the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions are not made subject; or (b) be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any such executive or administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions. (2) No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth".

In all of these  relevant provisions of all the extant electoral Act that relates to qualifications for registration to vote, there is no where that it is obligatory that a potential voter coming forward to obtain the voter’s card must produce the national or international identity card even when it is as clear as the day light such a person is a citizen of Nigeria in accordance with section 25(1) a-c of the 1999  constitution.

For avoidance of contradiction and doubts,  the above provisions regarding citizenship provides as follows:  "25. (1) The following persons are citizens of Nigeria by birth-namely- (a) every person born in Nigeria before the date of independence, either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents belongs or belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria; Provided that a person shall not become a citizen of Nigeria by virtue of this section if neither of his parents nor any of his grandparents was born in Nigeria. (b) every person born in Nigeria after the date of independence either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents is a citizen of Nigeria; and (c) every person born outside Nigeria either of whose parents is a citizen of Nigeria".

A meticulous perusal of all our laws relating to citizenship and qualifications to participate in election shows that the extra legal requirements being bandied about by officials of INEC in a part of Nigeria remains absolutely unlawful, null and  void and must be discontinued forthwith.

Therefore the Bauchi state born Professor YAKUBU MAHMOOD  the head of INEC must be wary of any subterranean plots to scheme out any member of any segments of the Nigerian society from the voter’s registration exercise under any guise.

 The hierarchy of INEC must note that public policies are to be implemented transparently and in such a way that equality before the law for all becomes sacrosanct.

In the book titled: “public policy: formation, implementation and evaluation,” the author stated that: “public policies are formulated by what Easton calls the “authorities” in a political system, namely,” elders, paramount chiefs, executives, legislators, judges, administrators, councilors,  monarchs, and the like.”

Flowing from the above fundamental  knowledge, the way to know who a citizen is does not amount to rocket science.

Almost all of the INEC’S local government offices are located next to  where the traditional and local authorities reside.

There is virtually no Nigerian citizen that has no original parental place of origin which is traceable using the knowledge of the trado-local institutions such as the paramount chiefs and local council officials.

This is the reason for the letter of place of origin that are usually issued by the trado-local institutions. 

Even for purposes of obtaining international Visas a letter of place of origin authored by a local council office is valid and acceptable as a public document.  

So if for instance United kingdom or USA amongst others recognise our Reference letters of origin from our Local government councils, why does INEC in the South East of Nigeria require the production of valid International passports or national Identity before enrolling a citizen as a voter? 

This discriminatory policy is odious and must be abandoned now.

As we learnt from the aforementioned book on public policy, "a policy may be general or specific, broad or narrow, simple or complex, public or private, written or unwritten, explicit or implicit, discretionary or detailed, and qualitative or quantitative".

"Here the emphasis is on ‘public policy’ which is what a government chooses as guidance for action. From the viewpoint of public policy, activities of government can be put into three categories", the author R.K. Sapru affirmed. 

The author wrote further: "First, activities which are attached to specific policies; second, activities which are general in nature and third, activities which are based on vague and inconsistent policies. However, in practice, a government rarely has a set of guiding principles for all it activities. Important public policies are often made more explicit, particularly where the issue of a law, a regulation, or a plan and the like is involved."

A certain book titled "Globalisation, national development and the law" is of the view that public policy which aims at promoting good governance standards must be devoid of discriminatory applications.

The editors of that book aforementioned affirmed that good governance involves above all, improving the social and material conditions of people.

The editors averred that the United Nations has identified several attributes of good governance which include the following: (a)  Territorial and ethno cultural representation, mechanisms from conflicts resolution and for peaceful regime change and institution renewal; (b)Checks on executive power, effective and informed legislatures, clear lines of accountability from political leaders down through the bureaucracy; (c)An open political system, which encourage an active and  vigilant civil society whose interests are represented within accountable government structures and which ensures that public offices are based on law and consent; (d)    Attention not only  to central government institutions and processes but also to the attributes and capacities of sub-national and local government authorities and to the issues of political devolution and administrative decentralization.

These noble objectives may be farfetched should officials who ought to register voters be seen implementing a divide-and-rule policy which offends our laws.

 Let the supremacy of the law be restored in the current exercise of registration of voters in all parts of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  

Let state governments and non-state actors like civil society organisations and community based organisations  be vigilant to ensure that nobody is deprived of his/her CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS to participate in determining the caliber of Nigerians who should form the central and sub-national governments.

 *Emmanuel Onwubiko is head of the Human rights writers Association of Nigeria  (HURIWA) and blogs @www.emmanuelonwubiko.com; www.huriwa@blogspot.com.