Senators resume, may debate voters’ registration, primaries

[NewsCaster]

MORE than a month it went on a recess, the Senate will today reconvene amid complaints by senators over the handling of the ongoing voters' registration exercise as well as the conduct of the party primaries across the country.

The Guardian learnt that though these issues were not listed on the Senate's Order Paper, some lawmakers are poised to discuss them and ask the chamber to take positions on them.

The Senate was initially billed to reconvene on January 18, 2011 but its leadership shifted the date to allow senators participate in the voters registration exercise.

It was gathered that senators might take on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as some of them who spoke on condition of anonymity yesterday argued that the commission had no reason to take Nigerians through the current harrowing experiences in the registration process.

A senator said: "INEC asked for money and we approved, believing that with the cooperation we gave, Nigerians would have a smooth exercise. But look at what is going. In some places, their fingers could not be captured and in some other cases people have to book in advance for days before they could be registered. If these things continue like this, a lot of people may not register and we don't want that situation.''

Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Communications, Ayogu Eze, said: "We have always assured Nigerians of our readiness to ensure the success of this exercise. You saw that we approved all that INEC asked for. All we are saying is that measures should be taken to improve on the registration process. Nigerians are going through hardship and it is our hope that the improvement will come so that all eligible voters who make themselves available for registration could do so. If the issue comes before us, it will be taken immediately.''

Another crucial issue pending before the chamber which may engage the attention of senators is the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

Also speaking on this yesterday, Eze assured that "all the issues before us will be given expeditious treatment."

Similarly, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called for the extension of the on-going voters' registration exercise by 10 days to give room for more Nigerians to register and afford the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the opportunity to rectify the problems associated with the exercise.

A statement by the NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar, yesterday in Abuja explained that the call became imperative following the hiccups experienced by Nigerians in their attempt to register.

The statement read in part: "The attention of the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has been drawn to the ongoing registration of voters across the country and the attendant problems being witnessed as a result of logistics as well as technical hiccups the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is witnessing."

However, Labour lauded INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, for admitting the lapses that have trailed the exercise in the face of overwhelming turnout of eligible voters.

Also, ruing hitches in the on-going voters' registration exercise, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) yesterday called for its extension to enable more Nigerians to register.

To make them register, the party has attached the payment of this month's salary of its workers to the voter's card. National Chairman, ANPP, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, disclosed this while receiving a delegation from the party's Southern Nigerian Youths Parliament in his Abuja office.

Onu said INEC was not doing a good job of the exercise so far, despite the claim by the commission that the situation had improved tremendously.

He said reports by the party's senior staff dispatched to mobilise members for the registration exercise across the country indicated that there were still a lot of problems contrary to the claims by INEC.

But some rights groups, including the Coalition of Youths and Civil Society (CYCS), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and Network for Good Governance (NGG), among others yesterday stormed the Lagos office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to protest the hiccups trailing the on-going voter's registration exercise across all the federation.

In a statement, the groups urged INEC to extend the exercise by two weeks in order not to disenfranchise qualified Nigerians. 

And, Ijaw elders and leaders have called on INEC to extend the voters' registration exercise by at least a week to make up for the time lost due to the technical challenges faced by the commission's ad hoc staff in the registration process.

They also urged INEC to take urgent steps to deploy more DDC machines to the Ijaw areas because of the challenges imposed by the non-contiguity of most communities in Ijaw land.

The Ijaw made the call in a communiqué issued at the end of a one-day interaction at Kiagbodo, Delta State at the weekend.

At the meeting were Chief Edwin. K. Clark, High Chief Bedford Agidee, Chief J. G. Orubu, Hon. Chief Eddy Akangbou, Prof. Dime, Prof. Bedford Fubara, Prof. Obuoforibo and Dr. Abiye Seikibo. 

Others were Chief Douyi Douglas-Naingba, Mrs Marie Ebikake, Mr Tony I. Uranta, Mrs Janet Alek, Mr. D. Dimaro and Chief Aduba.

The NLC wrote: "We commend Prof. Attahiru Jega, INEC's chairman, for being forthright by immediately coming out to acknowledge that the electoral body is facing serious logistic and technical challenges that have led to a very slow pace of registration in spite of reported huge turnouts by eligible Nigerians."

While Labour welcomed INEC's assurances especially with regard to the distribution of outstanding Direct Data Capturing (DDC) machines to more centres and the deployment of technical personnel across the country to aid the process of registration, it called on the Commission to extend the duration of the exercise by at least 10 days or as may be allowed by the amended Electoral Act 2010 in order to register all willing eligible voters.

The NLC stressed that Nigeria's dream for a free, fair and credible election could only be realised if there was a dependable databank of voters.

It charged the citizenry to take up the challenge by supporting INEC in its quest to ensure that the problem of electoral malpractice was tackled with a credible voters' register.

The NLC flayed those who engage in acts inimical to the registration exercise, saying: "Congress condemns those who are bent on sabotaging the registration exercise through various dubious means such as stealing of DDC machines, misinformation of voters, double registration or registration of under-aged voters, etc.

"We call on INEC not to give those hanging around the latitude to truncate the process and in that respect, we urge the Commission to quickly resolve the issue of the payment of ad-hoc staff some of whom were reported to have protested recently.

"While Congress expresses its appreciation to Nigerians for turning out en masse for the registration exercise, we particularly call on Nigerian workers to lead this process as we are convinced that it has the capacity to enthrone a populist leadership through popular vote as against instances of imposition ofleaders by so-called godfathers."

Source: Senators resume, may debate voters' registration, primaries