 The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said it is reviewing its level of preparedness ahead of the forthcoming elections. As preparations for the 2023 General Elections picks up pace, channel of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Makhmudi Akubu, is not mincing words as regards the Commission's commitment to raising the bar of the standard set in previous elections. The unique thing about the next month's General Election is that it would revolve around the Electoral Act of 2022, which paves way for technology to be deployed in the cause of the exercise. For instance, it empowers the INEC to transit election results electronically from the polling units to a central portal in the Commission's headquarters. But there are uncertainties that still loom as INEC has warned that next month's General Election faces serious uncertainties. Well, joining me to discuss INEC's preparedness ahead of the polls is Dr Ndubisi Wokolo, he is the Chief Executive of next year. It's so good to have you join us, Dr, good evening. Hi, thank you. Hi there, good to see you. Great. For someone who is interested in the civic space and the engagements that happen, and of course every Nigerian has their eyes fixed on 2023 polls and most people want to participate. How well do you think that we have raised the bar in terms of preparedness, whether it be an INEC's part or an electorate's part? Do you see a change or a departure from what it was in 2019? I think so. I think just like you said in your opening speech, the 2022 Electoral Act is the game changer. Technology is coming in and it's going to drive the election. So this is all like 2019 when even with the use of technology, those issues were contested in the pot of law and because it was not part of our act. So it didn't mean anything, but now it meant so much, especially with Beaver as convening. Like you said, there will be electronic transmission of the result. But importantly is that it has given confidence to a lot of voters, especially the young people who understand technology. So to most Nigerians, they believe that their vote will count. And for me, I think INEC's doing everything humanly possible to make the vote of Nigerians to count. So from the Electoral Act to other preparedness in terms of logistics, in terms of security, they're doing all they can to make sure they dot their i's and cross their t's. But I have to equally wonder, election is not just a standalone thing. You know, it revolves around a lot of things, especially our own infrastructure, which INEC cannot do more than what they should do, like Internet penetration, like electricity, like roads and all that. But most importantly is that Nigerians, we're going to give it our shot, we're going to give it our best. And I believe that our best is going to be enough, good enough for Nigerians to elect whoever they want to elect, whoever is going to be their leader. Whoever they're going to elect into the previous positions will be contested. I'm sure that you probably must have been eavesdropping on the first segment of this conversation. We're talking about an unknown aircraft that appeared from nowhere and killed many people and not just anyone, people who were protecting their community, vigilantes. The same thing happened also in Nassau State where according to security agencies, it was a bomb that was dropped by a drone. And you and I know that drones cannot be flown anywhere just like that in this country. I mean, even if it's your personal drone, there has to be some limits to it. But that drone was able to get as far as Nassau to kill 27 people. And I'm wondering, just like you say, the election is not a standalone thing. So we have to take into consideration all of these things that are happening within our domain and how these might play out on election day. Don't forget, on the other hand, ionic facilities have also been attacked day by day, mostly in the southeast. This can also be a plug in a spanner, you know, in the will of things, wouldn't it? Yeah, sure. If you, for most Nigerians who are following publications by our organization next year, you could see that the last two to three months we've taken out time to look at all the security implications, you know, that could affect between the two to the three elections. We did it in geopolitical zones and we're even beginning to deepen it more. Like I said, or like all most people know, especially people who understand security, it's going to be an important role in this election. How we handle it, how the state security agencies act, how the non-state security agencies will act. So for me, I think that there need to be a kind of collaboration even within the state and non-security state actors who are providing security to make sure that people are giving that confidence to come out. However, people need to know that if we start having a situation where you over-secretarize an environment, it might change the people their way, they wouldn't want to come out. But however, it is really important that the way you provide the security, ensure people come out and vote, they will surely come out. So for instance, let's try taking examples now. In the south is where we have organizations like IPOB and ESN asking people not to come out to vote. How will the state security services like the police, the defense corps and other security agencies, what would they be doing to make sure that a lot of people will come out to vote? It's equally important that the way you try to secritize the place, deploy army and the rest of them, they change the people their way. So you need to make sure that there's a lot of messaging, there's a lot of strategic messaging that will show the people that we are not here to help you, we are not here to prevent you from voting. We are here to only provide that security. Even around the pulling boots, how will the police act, how will the other security agencies act so that the people will not think you're there to either favor one political party or the other. So that's around the south is. Now let's look at the north central, north west, where you have the boundary trees going on. How would you act in places where they've taken over? In places where a lot of people are referring to ungoverned spaces, someone like me will always tell you there are no ungoverned spaces but rather alternative government spaces. So how would the state act to make sure that INEP is able to deliver in those areas? So if you move to places like north east, as you're trying to move security around the country to balance security provisioning, are you going to leave spaces for Poco Haram and ICSWAP to think they've left the opposition who cannot act? So these things you have to put all these things in context. You know the number of security you need to deploy at a particular area and at a particular time. So that's why I said it's not a standalone. So you need to make sure that you're able to do your mapping very well, your security mapping very well and able to deploy as you need them. And that's why in elections like this, it's not only the state security services you need. You might need the services of other state alters who, you know, could assist one way or the other. Let's talk about rhetorics. We've seen that, you know, in Nigeria's campaigns, we have a lot of jamboree as opposed to, you know, strategizing and telling people the how to or, you know, how the guides to how they're going to give us what they're promising us because like I always say, I have a statement that I say, they promise that they will turn water into wine just because they want our vote. But then there's certain rhetorics that we've seen, you know, or heard during these campaigns that also somewhat might be adding sorts to the injury that's already been done, knowing that we are a country that's very divided along ethnic and religious lines and those lines continually are being broadened by these so-called politicians who are trying to ask for our vote. How do we also get in front of these rhetorics and make sure that it doesn't cost more division? Already, many have said that this election is more of a regional election because most of these people who are coming out as frontliners seem to be representing different regions of the country. What do you stand on that? Yeah, so I've seen a lot of them. Some of them are pure speech. Some of them are disinformation. Some of them are misinformation. So especially through social media, you could see most things you look at. You marvel at how people are able to sit down, draft and concede these kind of rhetorics against people. So it's important that we know that some of those things are either not true, either half-truth or even something that is out of this world. But most importantly, some of the questions I have asked and I'm sure a lot of Nigerians are wondering what is the need of the peace accord that most of these people have signed? So you listen to most of the campaigns. Some of them are things you will not even want your child to want to see because they are discrepancy. Situations where people stand on the podium instead of talking about their programs. They are busy casting us, especially on all forms of negative rhetorics on other political parties and all that. And incidentally, it cuts across all, especially the big political parties. And I think it's not something we should continue to condemn. So part of my thinking is that as our politics and democracy evolve, we might start looking at probably a Headswitch Commission, something close to that. People who say such things, especially the ones that are identified, they should be brought to law, something should be done about it. But what's the guarantee that this would not also be used as a tool in the hands of whoever the sitting government is to cast a special on whoever is the opposition? Because we saw that the media bill and the Headswitch thing that the government of Buhari was trying to push and many Nigerians shut it down. And that's because many were afraid that this was going to be a clamp down on those who oppose government. So again, if we must put together something that would criminalize or deal with that, who and who must be on the panel or on the commission or the committee that will draw up that plan? For me, it might not even be a commission. It might even be for the law enforcement agencies to take an issue of such issues to a level where people start getting convicted. So if you look at most developed countries, if you find out that there are things you can post on the social media page and the state security services would do their job and is that linked to you? You have your day in court. In Nigeria, he was jailed for five years in London for what he said on social media and things he wrote against some ethnic groups in Nigeria. And he got five years. So nothing stopped the situation where once someone is identified to be spreading Headswitch that could lead to ethnic rivalry and wars and stuff like that. So why can't the person not be there in court? So that's what I believe. Okay, fine. I'm going to ask you a two-pronged question because of time. So let's see if you can do justice to that. Now we know that with the technology that's been introduced into the electoral process, there's going to be a lot of things that are going to be cut out. But then it seems to be heightening money politics now. So there's going to be a lot of vote buying. Maybe at some point, even in the open glare of all, because that is the only way that politicians might be able to get through to the people they want to get votes from. And how do we deal with this going forward? Because you see that Nigerians have devised so many means and there's that saying that poverty has been weaponized already. I mean, you know what's going on in the country. The economy is bad. People are unable to buy fuel. You can't light your house. You can't light up your business. I mean, it's a portfolio of issues. But again, many have also queried the lack of leadership in the past few years and the president's local standing in terms of holding the country together even as we're getting ready for an election. Many people have even said that there is no government as we speak. What I think is that we deal with vote buying. Of course, I think that would be. What extent I don't know. But look at what I think. If I'm looking through my crystal ball, look at what I think. I think the money, the redesigning of the Naira buy but CBN will have an effect on how much we're able to do the vote buying because the politicians, some of them who have compiled all their money waiting for this day when they will use it may not likely have that amount of money to spend. That's one. Two, equity and ocean relations showed us one thing. And that is that if we are vigilant about how a lot of things will work out on that day, it's not going to happen the way we want it. I remember what happened in equity. And when it got to ocean, civil society organizations, especially who monitored the election, who saw the strategy they're using getting people to show who they voted for were able to convince INEC on how to put both the voting pooling booth and the pooling booths thereby stopping them from being able to identify how you voted. It made them to lose a lot of steam. And then three, if they have a massive turnout of people to vote it will short into how much they will be able to spend on good buy because people will come out. How many 10,000 or 20,000 are you going to give to millions of Naira? So a lot of people might say, I don't need your 10,000 to sell my future for four years. So if a lot of people don't come out then the money of the vote buying is going to work or it will have an effect. But if a lot of people come out it will reduce the effect of good buy in that thing. And finally, just before we go, do you see Nigeria on autopilot as we speak? Because again, nobody seems to be hearing from Mr. President as to the price of the people. It seems to be taxed. Who is in charge of regulating the fuel price? It seems to be a free-for-all. You know about the oil theft and the fact that a lot of things have flown under the radar and don't forget Mr. President is of course the Minister for Petroleum and the Commander in Chief and all of these things are happening directly under his watch. What would posterity remember Mr. President for? Well, let me start from the issue of autopilot. We know that in this country, two years into every administration, especially where the government is going to go for a re-election, the last, the next three years is used for electronics and other forms of activities that would lead to re-election. But I think what we've seen in the last one to 18 months is unprecedented. There hasn't been seen before. And from the point of view of somebody who works in the development space, I think we've done badly. We've done badly in the sense that even people who should be working in the government have, a lot of them have abandoned what they should be doing and have joined the campaign for an instance. There's no reason why face this scheme who will be paying him his salary as a minister and he's there campaigning for a political party. He don't do that. So it shows that the control of this government is very low. So well, I believe that probably whatever mistake we've made in this government in terms of what didn't work well, whoever wins next election will learn from it and be able to rewrite most of the history and be able to take Nigeria's where we want to go. I know that Nigerians have really not felt very well about how other things have turned out. But the most important thing is that once there is life there, so hopefully things will start shaping up from May 29 this year. Well, here's hoping upon hope that things will change and will not just be going from bad to worse. And to be seeing more color is the chief executive of next year and always a pleasure to have you all talk to you on issues such as this, hoping that you come back and speak with us as we get ready for the elections. Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right. Well, that's it on the show tonight. Don't forget, go get your PVC. It's been moved from the wards back to the local government areas. Go get your PVC because that is your passport to a new Nigeria. My name is Mary Anna Kun. Have a good evening. See you tomorrow.