 The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has suspended the coalition of Results of Adamawa Governorship Supplementary Elections after the resident Electoral Commissioner, Bairsta Hoodu Yunusa, declared Senator Aisha Dahiru Binani of the all-progressive Congress APC winner of the poll. The REC on Sunday morning, without a figure, declared Binani the winner of the supplementary elections. Now, in a statement on Sunday morning by INEC National Commissioner on Information and Virtual Education, Bairsta Fester-Zokoye, declared that the action of the REC was null and void and of no effect. Joining us to discuss all that has transpired in Adamawa State is Paul James, the head of elections, Yaga Africa. Thank you so much, Paul, for joining us. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Can you hear me? All right, great. Paul, I understand that you monitor this election in Adamawa State. It's incredible that the Adamawa elections have dragged on. It's almost a month and we're still here and we're yet to get, you know, the results, the accurate results of that particular election. But let me just take you back to the elections in February, sorry, in March. We heard that Binani had been given a contract by the Commission to print ballot papers. A lot of people kicked against this, that there was already vested interest. We also heard that, I mean, there are people who are also rejoicing that she might just emerge as the first, you know, governor, female governor in that area. But then the circumstances that have surrounded this election have so many questions, Max, and that's why we have you here to talk to us. What has been the situation that had led to what happened yesterday, even the lynching of the REC? So do you want me to speak to the supplementary election? Yes, yes, yes. Can you hear me? Well, I can hear you. For the supplementary election that happened on Saturday the 15th of April, we deployed observers to all of the 69 local government polling units where REC had conducted the polls. Now, what we saw on that day was an attempt by REC to try to remedy the wrongs that it has done in the past election, especially in the way I managed to engage the process. The only thing that was concerning about the process was the late commencement of polls. Across several polling units that we visited by 9.30 in the morning, REC officials had not arrived. In fact, only 48% of polling units had REC officials by 9.30. By 12.30, there were still some polling units that had not commenced accreditation and voting. But then for those polling units that had opened up, the moment REC came and started the process to a large extent, we saw the attempt on the part of the commission to be able to give the people of Adama state the chance to engage the process. The other elements of the process worked very well. The beavers, for instance, were deployed in every polling unit. The beavers functioned, there was no report of any beavers malfunctioning of any beavers that were replaced. At the end of the election, all of the results of these 69 polling units were also submitted on the INEC online results, very important. What is also interesting is that for every of these polling units that we visited, we saw at least one of the party agents of the two major parties, the APC and the PDP. And in all of the polling units, these party agents signed the results form and they collected a copy of the results form. Now, where the issue started was during the results collation. I got a call on the evening of Saturday from our coordinator in Adama that drew my attention to the fact that they had moved the collation center to a location called Dugeri in Yola town for security concerns. But then at INEC commission, I returned and asked them to go back to the original location where INEC had designated for the collation. By the time they returned to that location, it was already time for the Muslim brothers to bring their fast. And so they asked that they go back and reconvene at 9 p.m. They returned at 9 p.m. and were only able to collate for 10 local governments. A decision was reached that they should continue on Sunday at 11 in the morning to allow also the Christians to go to church and all of that. I got a call also in the morning of Sunday to say something is really fishy in Adama that the wreck was just about to make a declaration. So I asked the coordinator to quickly go and see what was happening. So as coordinator saw through everything that happened, the wreck simply just came in for hoot with either the commissioner or police or a high-ranking officer of the police came to the hall and decided to make that declaration. According to him, by the power vested on him as the rest of the electrical commissioner, he made the declaration and declared that the APC had won the election. And swiftly, as if it was preplanned, we saw immediately that the APC candidate for Adama also addressed the price to also, I mean, share her own acceptance speech for the nomination as the governor of the state. So for us at the end, we were appalled by what happened and then immediately we called that INEF should nullify the process one, two, arrest and prosecute everyone that is involved with that because we thought this is an illegal act. According to section 64, section 65 of the Electoral Act, only a returning officer that is appointed by Adem can make a return from an election. So we thought that for the wreck to be doing that the wreck is overstepping its own pounds, it is an illegality and that we shouldn't even be allowed to start. In fact, we thought it was not just suspending the wreck, but then that the wreck should have been arrested and be prosecuted for constituting that problem in Adama State. Interesting, we saw videos, some of them very disturbing of the protest and the outcry from the people of Adama State and interestingly, at least Einig has come out to say that his actions were null and void and as we speak, we hear that he has been fired. We get to authenticate that from Einig, but we hear that he's been fired. What kind of response or what kind of reaction do you think that this will one way or the other envisage? Knowing that, we've seen several questionable wrecks. I mean, we saw what happened in River State. There are several places in Emol State also that never saw election materials, neither did they see election officials, but their results were uploaded by some form of magic to the IREV. And with what Einig has done today, will it one way or the other salvage the face of the electoral commission in the just concluded elections? So Mary, I think what we saw happen from yesterday through today is Einig's attempt to redeem himself, especially Einig trying to assert, I mean, Einig at the center here trying to assert his own position as the true electoral empire that is trying to do what we think is right in the eye of the law. But then you begin to also worry about Einig's inconsistency. If Einig can do this for other Mawa, why wouldn't Einig have done similar for other questionable outcome from other states? Now, the biggest problem for me here is the so much discretionary powers that some of these Einig electoral world, especially in their own states, and this also goes back to the concerns around who appoints them. This is a conversation that we could have later, but I think in terms of reform, we need to begin to look at who does this appointment because I think to some extent the hands of the Einig center is even tied. The much they can do is to deploy. The president appoints the Electoral Commissioners and then they are confirmed by the Senate. Now, before this election, we are actually raised concise. We came up with what we call an election manipulation risk index, and we flag some say that we thought are possible places where election could be manipulated. We came up with three iteration reports. When I say we, I mean at Yaga Africa. And for all of this report that we had released, Ademar has been flagged at one of the states that have potential risk of election manipulation because of the history of elections manipulation that we have seen in the state and some of the indicators that we have seen building up to the election. If you recall before the election, Einig had to even move the ICT director from Ademar to the center. There were calls also before the election that Einig should move the rest Electoral Commissioners, but for us, Einig did not act when Adiris expected them to act until now. But the signs were visible before now that of course, the Einig was partisan and was not willing to do what was expected of him to do. I just want to take you on a bit on this reforms issue. It makes me go back to the process, the vetting process. And you also obviously as a Yaga, you must have seen the push and shove and the dragging when some of these people were recommended as commissioners. We saw the fight against one of Mr. President's aides who was also being submitted alongside some of these recs. And a few of them also still had red flags but these men and women got a knot from the National Assembly. So again, when you talk about the vetting process or who appoints them, it all boils down to the National Assembly. Just a few minutes ago we talked about the democratic setting on the floor of the National Assembly and the questions as to vote buying and financial inducements. Who's to say that that's also not the situation when it comes to appointing these men. And I'm not in any way saying that we do not have responsible men and women who are resident electoral commissioners but how many of these people come through the right route? So Mary, the question here is, or the challenge here is that this is a constitutional problem. The constitution recognizes that only the president can make such appointments and then the senate confirms it. And then when you think about political interest, of course the president is a party also in all of these and therefore the party in government always want to do something that also tends to support or align with whatever interest they have in the election. So that is the first concern. Now in 2007 if you recall after the elections, the president elected them, the later question the process that also brought him into power and recommended or set up the Justice Waste Committee. Justice Waste Committee, one of the recommendations it made is to set up a judicial panel that is going to be responsible on charge with appointing resident electoral commissioners and election. But then the challenge is sadly who do you even trust now in the judicial system with all of this that is happening? I would rather with the current situation that we have in Nigeria to say we have an independent committee, independent in the sense that we are together like minds, say from the academia, CSO, media and all of that, that will make recommendation to the president and then the president will then review the recommendation and then submit to the national assembly. But this will also have to go through constitutional alteration. The point I'm making here is when this committee will make this appointment or recommendation, they will subject this to public scrutiny. Let the public decide, maybe come up with two or three names, let the public decide amongst this name, send the name to the president for vetting and therefore the president to the national assembly. When will we be able to institute these checks and balances? Maybe you will have to review some of these discussions. Now perhaps you will have seen, we question the timing of the appointment the last time. These appointments were done barely five months of the election, sometimes in August of 2022 or July of 2022. And this has some persons that don't even have experience in managing the election. These are some persons that did not have the chance to understudy how elections are conducted in other times. You just throw them into the rig like that. For some of these appointments, for instance, the CSO committee raised concerns about the appointment of the other red from Sokoto State who had contested in the elections in 2015 under the APC. Were raised concerned about the appointment of the red for Adria State that also has questionable character. The senate didn't list it to the CSOs of course, but at times some of these appointments were confirmed and the red from Sokoto State was deployed to Jigawa State. We saw how people reacted. People actually protested that deployment. So that in a sense is even enough to dampen citizens confidence in the process. We saw what INET tried to do to revamp the senate before the election. It suspended the red for Sokoto State and has the red not to participate in the election. It suspended the red in Adria State as well. So we thought INET could have looked through what they have across the state and what they have happened also from the first round of election and ensure they do the same across the state so that the people that will manage the process and people for instance that INET can hold accountable that Oh Paul, I think that we lost that connection with you but if you can hear me I just want to just walk back a little bit to something that you said the points that you made that if we can see directions that we probably will get it right in terms of our electoral process but then you made mention clearly the fact that there are interests political interests, party interests when it comes to picking these men and women who will be working in the so called independent national electoral commission which is supposedly independent but then if the president as you said needs to constitute an independent team that will make decisions to him, host to say that these independent people will still not have will not be people that you know Mr. President picked out of vested interest. How can we be certain that these people will not be people that either affiliated or have interest the same as members of the president's political party. Again when we talk about national assembly members pushing back on some of these people again I always wonder is it possible for these politicians to cut off their nose in spite of their faces? How possible is that? Paul can you hear me? Can I hear you Mary? Can you hear me? Yes yes go ahead please. So like I said it's always about political interest and it is time to begin to put the interest of Nigeria first and I will tell you if you want to put this election that has just happened side by side with the 27th election you will see a lot of similarities with the way I manner the elections are conducted and we should stop lying to ourselves as Nigerians we cannot be doing the same thing as we are expecting different results. Confidence is where it is. Is it in the hands of the average Nigerian to make this call because you see the average person will say well they told me to get my PVC they told me to come out and vote and protect my votes and some of them will say my vote didn't count within their reach is it their power within their power in fact my last question is what's the possibility that we will ever have a free or independent electoral body in this country going forward? I think we are getting there but the first thing that I think need to happen is perhaps a complete overhaul of the present INEC that we have I had mentioned what I thought has been the problem is that we don't know how to put round boss maybe square boss I mean we put square boss in round of that so you have to go back to the appointment to begin to see what sort of people are even nominated into certain offices in INEC. If you go back and reflect throughout this election cycle that happened I am sure you can appoint fingers to certain names that feature prominently in the election cycle and you begin to ask yourself we have 12 national commissioners we got 36 or 37 resident electoral commissioners what are they doing that people don't get to see or hear much about them I mean we need to cut up some of these redundancies sometimes and also professionalize the engagement of these INEC resident electoral commissioners. I next spend so much about training and all of that what are there you don't see any impact this has been one of the most expensive election as citizens maybe we need to begin to ask questions sometimes what are truly the kind of democracy that we want to practice. There are certain elements of this election that worked that we shouldn't throw away for instance to a large extent that technology worked it was the human elements that disrupted the process can we start dealing with those human elements because for instance INEC has shown that determination in just this recent election that these days could actually work so let's continue with the human issues perhaps our elections will be better for you. Well thank you so much and I'm hoping that those who need to hear this hear this and of course the Nigerians we don't detach ourselves because I guess that as a result of this election there's been a lot of detachment for you know the voters but Paul James is the head of elections here in Africa always a pleasure to have you here Paul. Thank you Mary all the best. All right thank you very much and that's the show tonight I'm Mary Anakon have a good evening tomorrow we'll be back talking for development bye bye