 You're welcome back to the breakfast on PlotsTV Africa. Our final conversation is about the continuous voter registration that will begin on Monday, the 28th of June 2021. Now we already know that iNEC Chief has actually presented a new online registration portal for the voter registration and also something called iVerd is an iNEC, basically a voter enrollment device, iVED. And to discuss more about the election and the registration for voting, we have the resident Electoral Commission of iNEC, Mr Mike Igini. Mr Igini, good morning. Thank you for joining us. Good morning. It's my pleasure to join you. Thank you. All right. So we know that iVerd and the online portal has been launched. Please tell us more about that and how the registration would hold both online and in person. Thank you very much. Good morning, Nigerians. As has been announced in the last few weeks on Monday, the CVR, in line with section 10 of the Electoral Act, that gives power to the Commission to embark on continuous voter registration exercise will take off nationwide. And as you noted in your opening remarks, it will be in two stages. First, we are starting, which is a new innovation with the online from the 28th. We also know that the online is essentially for those who have Android phone, laptops, and any other device with which they can use to embark on this exercise. We also know that majority of Nigerians, particularly in the rural areas, they also do not have access to internet, do not have a laptop or Android phone. So the second in person will be for those categories of persons. But first, for the one we are going to embark on from Monday 28th, you will go straight to the portal, the INEC portal, all right? You launch into it. Now once you get in there, you are going to see various services that will be offered to you, so you have to make a choice. Primarily, this exercise for the first set of people you will see on the platform will be for those Nigerians who have attained the age of 18 and above, who have not registered before. That's what we call fresh registration. They will now upload the system, you put in your personal data, your name, and all some of the questions that's in your interactive with the system, you will all have to put all of them in. Now in the process of doing that, you also have to take your photograph, they're going to take your photograph, you know, while you go through that process. It's just like people who go for what you call it a passport, when you go to immigration office, all right? Or any of those going for visa, that's the kind of thing we are we are pioneering. So once you have put in your personal detail, at the end of the exercise, you have to get a print out, what we call the CVR print out. Take note, it is not a temporary water skirt, it's just a slip as evidence that you have gone through the process. Then of course, through that process, you are going to pick the place, it dates, and the time that you now have to come in person to come and give your bar metric because you know you cannot capture your bar metric online. So you have to come in person at the place, for example, if you are in Lagos, where you are, right now speaking from Akwae Bomb State. So right here in Akwae Bomb State, if you are going to register in Uyo, where I'm speaking from, or any of the 31 local government, you are going to see the picture of the local government, how it looks like. Because for any reason you have not been there before, you know, you will not have problems in terms of direction. So it will indicate that you pay. Hereafter, on that stated date that you have chosen in person, you cannot come to any profit to have your bar metric taken. That is for those who are registered for the first time. Now, you also have a second category of people who previously you had registered. But you have problems in the last few elections getting your bar metric confirmed with the car reader. Now, you also have to now go through that process again. Basically, what you are going to do here is that once you log in, because I told you all the options are there, have you registered before, if you show you are not registered before? If you are registered before, you want to correct your respected name if you shoot to you. So you go for the choice what you want or you want to transfer. Any of the options that are that are available, that will be highlighted on the platform, that is what you go for. So if, for example, you want to also transfer, you have opportunity there to do a transfer. But here is an interesting thing about those who want to transfer or those who have a defaced lost PVC. Once you log in, with respect to the particular issue that you are interested in, for example, a transfer of your registration point that you want to move, you are rather you are moved from one particular area to another local government and in a particular unit as nearest to where you want to vote on that day, it will, in the process of going through that, once it takes a picture, it's going to confirm whether the current person, whose picture has been taken, it is the same person who is writing on the data. Don't forget that for those who are doing transfer, those who are complaining about defaced or lost PVC, you already have your data in the system. It will confirm that. Once it confirms that the current picture you are just taking now is the same person that the data have been there before, it could not allow you to go to the next stage. Okay. Mr. Igini, Mr. Igini, I want us to also talk about registration day, right? So INEC has launched the INEC voter and romance device, IVED. And this IVED, according to what Mr. Yakubu says, it's an Android's tablet, is that correct? Correct. So how many IVED does INEC have per registration centre? Yes, you know, we are going in phases. We have 774 local governments in the federal republic of Nigeria. Now, so for its tax, for its tax, at the local government and the state offices, you are for the purpose of coming for your biometric, because all those who are going to have all their information uploaded on the portal, all right? You don't come for that. You only come in basically for the biometric and perhaps for the, for that capture to confirm what you have before. So we start with 74 local governments. We are going to have each of these in those areas, all right? Then at the state level, the biometric capture is also taking place in the head office of each of the states. So that is the starting point. So you're talking, you're saying that we're going to have 774 IVED on the local government level and then one in each state? When we are going, yes, by the time we start at the in-person, because once, you know, once you have done the portal, the online registration, then we are giving you a time to come for the in-person, at which time also those who have not, those who, categories of Nigerians who do not have access to the online or who are not able to do that, they will also come in person. All right. Mr. Igini, Mr. Igini, I really need to ask you this. We are also going to cascade down because you know that local governments, some of them are very large. So it's not possible that everybody in a very large local government will be able to come to the local government office. So at times, we are going to have a chat, all right, where they are going to move from RA to RA. That is from word to word, you know, who of us constitutes local government. Only you can constitute the world. So that is the way we cascade down. But you want to go in phases, because for example, that equipment is a very expensive one, and it's not something you just go to the chair. In fact, it was designed first by Nigeria. They're taking our engineers, taking out of the country for fabrication. So we are getting them more, becoming, they will be cascading down to the world level. Mr. Igini, I'm going to also ask you about the timing. The continuous versus registration should have started in 2020. Of course, the pandemic delayed that. Do you trust that you have enough time to get as many Nigerians, eligible Nigerians registered for the next elections? And then also, you mentioned about the online process, which doesn't give you a temporary voters card. So do you trust? Yeah, it gives you a slip. So do you trust that between those stages of getting the temporary voters card and then getting the permanent voters card, all of this can happen with the backlog of Nigerians that need to get registered to vote before 2023? Sure. In fact, the beauty of what we are trying to do now is to also on account of the maintaining, you know, the COVID protocol is that the kind of crowd that we are going to find, if we are to go in person as you know what used to happen before, that is completely out. The moment you are the process, first for the online, you have done that, you have your permit to be taken another production will take place as quickly as possible. As a matter of fact, another thing is that once your PBC has been produced, you also have a system where if you can track your PBC, whether it has been produced, the date of registration will be indicated there. If it has been produced, you are able to track it. Whether you have been delivered to the office, you are able to track it. So all those who tend to want to carry PBC to one warehouse, individual PBC, all of those things from the system we are putting in place is to get all of this eliminated. So we can assure you that as we get people registered once you have come to give your biometric, you know, particularly for those who have not registered before, you know, as quickly as possible, production will continue. I can assure you that by 2023, we will do that. Don't forget that even in 2017, which is the first time the current leadership actually complied fully with the provision of Section 10, we talked about but not butary treatment. It started on the 21st of April 2017 and that went on till somewhere around August 2018, just before the election, when the neighbors, you know, cleaned up the entire research and exercise, then get the registered because we must get a copy of the register to all political parties before the election. So if Nigerians will cooperate, you know, address quickly to the procedure, I think we have no problem. All right, lastly Mr Egini, basically with the figures you gave us concerning IVED, it means basically that 810 IVED will be deployed to different states for registration. But how do you think that will be sufficient enough for INEX plan to register 20 million Nigerians for the elections this year? Also in the newspapers today, INEX has admitted that there are security threats at registration centers. What are INEX plans to ensure security as people go out to register to vote? Well, first and foremost, security in this entire process, they are banning their responsibility and accountability. Security is not a job of INEX. It is a job of security, a situation set up and we have had extensive material with them to live up to expectations, to create the ambience that require to do what we need to do. With respect to that of INEX, we will do what we need to do. But more important as we go for this exercise is the fact that the voter registration want to draw attention to the do's and done, particularly conducts that are not expected to be exhibited in the process. First, it should be noted that now is the time to want, to want parents, to want Nigerians not to embark on that age process of registration. The provision of section 24, section and part 8 of the Electoral Act, relinquished offenses with respect to voter registration should not be avoided. It is only those who have attained the age of 18 that must get themselves registered. Particularly, it should be noted the provision of section 24, subsection A and C that prohibit anybody making false statements, either by way of this online registration or when they come in person with a view to registering even both living and dead people who are not absent. In any case, the system itself, the beauty of this particular system where the iPad we are using is that it is not much easier to track people of that nation. All right, Mr. Mikey Guinea, we have to thank you. The offence for that it could attract five years in prison and a minimum of one year. Okay, Mr. Mikey Guinea, I think that's that's where we can draw the line here. We hope to bring you on later on on the show as the registration goes on to discuss how that's progressing. Mr. Mikey Guinea, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Aqaibomb State. Thank you for joining us on the breakfast. It's my pleasure. All right. And that's where we wrap up this morning. Thank you very much for staying with us all through the weekend. Of course, we wish you a great weekend ahead. The news comes up at 9. I am Osaugi Ogbawa. And I am Annette Felix asking you to have an enjoyable weekend.