 Alright welcome back, it's the Ballots 2023 from PLOS TV Africa. My name is Justin, we're giving you all the details concerning the presidential election of course, the national assembly elections as they break, you can just count on us. But we have a guest that joined us via Zoom all the way from Lekhi here in Lagos, Mr Bayo Oluraki, thanks for joining us on the Ballots 2023. Thank you for having me and good afternoon viewers. Alright it is indeed a pleasure. Let's just start from you, I'm sure you have been following the exercise. Did you cast your vote already? Well I didn't vote because I just returned to the country a couple of months ago, so I was not around when registration was being done. But I've been quite excited at what I've seen, there's been a lot of fervor across the country, people are very much excited about the elections and of course we cannot but mention the renewed interest especially of young people considering that in the past elections that we witnessed they've always not been particularly excited. So I think there are a lot of positives to take from this current election as we watch and see how it eventually unfolds. Bayo, from the reports that we have seen so far most of the presidential candidates have indeed cast their ballot. The APC presidential candidate Bola Amir to the Bouddid just a few years ago around Malaosa in Ikeja also Peter Bid also cast his ballot in Anambra State. But so far what we hear is that people are excited but in some places reports that we got the elections did quite start as they should as in on time that they said did that come to you as a surprise? It didn't come to me as a surprise in the sense that we've always had these kinds of issues around elections. As a journalist I covered the 1979 elections when the military turned power. I was very very young, very young reporter and I've always of course shown an interest in subsequent elections ever since. What will you know I would like to express the disquiet though that at this stage we shouldn't be having this kind of problems. So while it's not a surprise to me I am not happy because we should no longer be having this kind of problems. I don't think elections should be you know they should just be routine you know they should be routine there should be nothing particularly difficult about that and because I know that for example for each polling station there's usually a backup to the electoral staff that are deployed you know there's always a plan that they want not to don't show up they can easily cover up with another to understand things like that. So I am I am you know not happy even though it's not a surprise. Okay still reports reaching us indicate that some people had a bit of confusion earlier today as regards to a polling unit they went to where they were supposed to vote but when they got there they said the unit or polling wards have been moved to other places so how does that really hit you? Not too well but but then we need to look at this from two perspectives because I think we need to get the context. INEC had actually asked people to double check where they're supposed to be voting before the election itself. We also had that some voters were moved away and INEC was quite clear about this that some voters have been moved to other polling units. Now because we don't have the full information it's difficult to say if this people had previously checked where they were supposed to be voting before today or if they assumed that since they've always voted in a particular polling booth then that's exactly where they are still going to vote today. You know so this is the lack of clarity that I had but if people checked where they were supposed to vote and actually went there and then are not being allowed to vote then that's a different matter entirely. Okay so you wouldn't really say it is the fault of the electoral empire but would you say enough sensitization and education was made for the voters? I believe we could have done more without prejudice to INEC and I don't actually think this was an INEC issue to be honest. I think the national orientation agency should have done a lot more work and if you notice in the build-up to those elections a lot of commentators had expressed on you know their you know how do I say that a lot of commentators had not been happy that we've not been hearing about the national orientation agency. Some are even wondering if it still existed because usually when we build up to elections it's a national orientation agency that complements the efforts of INEC to sensitize people to voting and to registration and so on and so forth but the national orientation agency has been completely out of business so to speak in the build-up to this election and I think this would account for why we are having some of this confusion because INEC has in terms already filled with trying to get the register put in place trying to sort out a lot of logistical issues trying to mobilize security agencies that the question of mobilizing people I believe should have squarely fallen on the shoulders of the national orientation agency but they've been away without leave so to speak we haven't seen that. All right let's talk about the level of security that has been deployed to polling units across the country because the Inspector General of Police just just they showed Nigerians that you know the polls would be as secure as possible but we are getting reports that indicating something completely different right now because why would I've thought that some hotbed some hot sport would have been given more deployment as it is reports are reaching us indicate that around them Osho the isolo axis that there's been a bit of commotion and some people were actually being forced to vote although it's alleged of not really confirmed though they said that people have been forced to vote on for some political party and right now what we hear is that around color close Osho the reports of a bit of people fighting at the electoral the polling units how should we have been able to tackle this before now personally I have always expressed a bit of worry about our policing and this is not blaming the IG or anybody now this is just reality something we've carried on I think ever seems present the possible left office the size of the police and the sheer number of police officers who are performing what is called VIP escort duties according to read publications some months ago almost 150,000 police officers will be performing VIP escort duties but from from what the IGP said before this election most police officers have been withdrawn from more sensitive duties so I know that the police are trying to close the gaps but even at that we have over 170,000 polling units for the presidential election and if you have to deploy at least two police officers to each polling units that is over a hundred and so that's 170,000 times two so do we have that number of police officers to deploy of course this will be complemented by single defense and so on and so forth you know and of course voters themselves will ensure you know amongst themselves that everybody's for that implies but the people who are determined to make trouble come to a polling unit you actually need the police now the military has been deployed to to man sensitive areas so that there can be enough police officers at the polling units because you cannot there's no country where you keep the military in polling units it's always the police you know and usually they are not supposed to be armed in polling units according to international best practices so given the peculiarity of the next year's situation I feel that a lot more uh it's it's just about 12 that is something so a lot more can still be done to improve the security situation and I hope that the authorities are monitoring and following and will do just that okay let's move away from a security situation and still talk about um the electoral umpire that is under independence national electoral commission so far uh accreditation and voting uh was done at most polling units and a lot of people are actually very excited and they said that the process so far have been smooth would you really see uh this particular style of voting should be what we should be going forward with no absolutely absolutely there are a lot of lessons to take from the 2023 elections not just the voting going on today but the build-up to this election all the issues around voter registration the issues around collection of pvcs there are a lot of lessons to take going forward and I'm hoping that after this round of elections we can totally simplify voter's registration for instance the day you turn 18 you're just supposed to walk into the eye net office and register and get your voter's card not to wait until there's an election that way we will completely remove all these bottlenecks that we keep having when we have elections but as we know as well eye net has been burning from previous elections the beaver's machine which has been used for accreditation for this particular election is a product of the experience that eye net has had from previous elections and we need to commend them for that you know I think on top of it all the success of any election you know and the successes that we achieve you know in this particular one we in going forward with those everyone everyone is a stakeholder and we all should ensure that we don't fall back you know below the standards that are not moving off and that we have left behind voting has come as thankfully but I do hope that eye net is taking note of all these things and might need to extend the voting time in some of these places or generally because the materials either arrived late or the beaver's which is also an eye net's thing didn't work well initially in some places that they may even have gone early and all that I hope they're taking note and have made provisions for extension in the areas where things began really late maybe you you have a comment like I've said several where we're reactive and not proactive what we're experiencing today shouldn't actually be happening eye net should be prepared and that preparedness is to ensure that these materials arrive usually the material should arrive a day before and working and working so you know these excuses are part of the reasons why a lot of people get franchised a lot of people don't come out to vote because time means a lot to a lot of people if you say you're going to start voting by eight I expect that by as early as six seven everything is set how can you be pasting names by nine ten and you want people to come and confirm their names it's it's it's like we keep going backwards we're still in the stone age we're not taking advantage of modern technology and I don't know why we're not doing that we should as today as a today we shouldn't be talking about where is my polling unit it boils down to the fact that I like just like most Nigerians has concentrated on social media forgetting that the people in the rural areas are not on social media and this is where I keep saying the national reputation agency the various state ministry of information and the INEC itself the education unit of INEC should have been out there educating people informing people kind the Nigerian people along the Nigerian people today are hungry for a government that they can hold accountable and that government you can hold accountable is a government you elect into office if you don't elect someone into office you can't hold the person accountable so this whole thing that we keep going you know in circles you know it's not helping this country it's it's not really happening this country to some of us it is annoying you know it is painful it is sad but this is what happened in the last election but today they arrive on time people didn't know where they were going to vote it is repeating itself when will this come to an end quickly we have less than two minutes to you know take a break now but colorually let's talk about the beavers from the report we got from crossover state that you know to some extent the beavers were not functional and they were not working up until the attention of some persons were called and then instead of working what exactly could be wrong with these very precious beavers that we are really and highly dependent on don't forget 2015 there were also complaints of the smart card readers not functioning could it be because we don't know but I'm just asking could it be technical man power issue like no technical knowledge of how to operate it what exactly could we be dealing with I think it's a function of all that like all machines they are prone to break down when least expected it could also be even network problem because the beaver is supposed to be linked to some server somewhere and if the network is pulling that earlier in which they buy vice and look at another it are not a functional and of course too I never had the time and enough space and the resources time but they said they had enough time why do I say this and I like official why do I say this I'm a worker 24 hours before this election the chairman of a professor we're still going to the CBN governor to beg for money which is to give to some of these adult stars to train and then to mobilize them and to carry material from one destination to the other you know it is a miracle I have been saying maybe this election might not even work because the resources were not there you have the fuel crisis you also have this narrowly designing the policy which has crippled almost every facet of our life that I like is able to do this they were even direct money from CBN this is where this is where I like to disagree with you we always want to give excuses for inattitude yeah for laziness for lack of competence I make has no problem when it comes to funding I next should not be complaining no they are just no they shouldn't complain they should not complain because I make should not be affected with the financial situation on ground because they have a responsibility to deliver to Nigerians they as well as because they have become the bride overnight so this whole idea of every time we have election you will see I mean talking about money they when they want to spend money building structures they don't tell Nigerians they don't have money when they want to spend money going abroad for all sorts of training they don't tell Nigerians they don't have money we must stop this idea of holding responsibility or taking responsibility for those failures are you aware where there was a meeting between the CBN governor and then the chairman I mean yeah but in that meeting I went to as a request which I am a which I was promised that they would be given cash and they were they confirmed that they confirmed that the right time they got the money but you see apart from you know the allocated budget for this election Ina gets you know a certain annual which is not part of the money they get an annual allowance so what exactly are you saying time how much money is allocated to Ina on paper but releasing the money at the appropriate time and but you know in all of the things that Ina compared I Ina complained about let's be realistic I mean we have been very vocal yeah we have been taught that we can be docile as a people and then we have seen Nigerians engaging and speaking out you know and we have seen that people have been response to some of the actions now one of the things that I remember vividly yeah Ina complaining about what's the security situation in the country they talked about they really talked about what they were very vocal about was that the security situation was a major concern for them especially when there have been several attacks on their facility as a matter of fact the chairman of Inaq it's in public domain and he said this election we are going to raise the bar it's going to be different he also made reference to the fact that logistic has always been a major issue but 2023 will be different so yes the beavers I mean we had elections that we had you call them trial elections the ocean state elections we saw the performance of the beavers we never had that the beavers had functionality issues so what exactly are we hearing that beavers didn't work could eat what exactly is wrong technical issues is it that the people don't know how to operate these beavers because we can continue like this every other time and hope for a different outcome let me give you an example the antenna with which the service provider those the mt and the starling they're not using that we are using starling but do you know that most of those the antennas are powered by generator and they probably will put this in those things and other so if for example in the location with the beavers to be used and which there must be some connectivity and all that the antenna they don't have okay okay i understand where you are let's move now to kogis state where we have nataniel uh standing thank you very much and it's a pleasure having me okay uh you are in kogis state tell us what is going on right now uh yeah at the moment kogis state is peaceful elections have started our cretations are taking place with um massive uh quite a number of appreciable people turn out to cast their ballots um as we speak across kogis state from the reports we have also gathered and um be also on the on the field we rightly observed that uh our cretations across the states took place between 8 30 and 9 p.m and for exceptional places where we recorded a delay in you know by our cretations and voting processes are quite minimal and um as we speak voting is progressing gradually and uh quite a number of people are turning up but to to to be accredited and to eventually vote and of course the beavers uh is operating where we have cases of beavers not really working um we see how it was managed properly and then the cretations also take place in such places however we today also have some issues around some places uh i mean in ajaputa local government precisely where uh as at 11 noon um both of the line officials have not even resumed most of the polling units around ganaja uh old polly quarters and the godmore areas put together and we are still in touch with ineg to see how that could also be a result however as we speak to you um the voting is progressing gradually and people are turning up to vote is that in kugi where are you standing right now and talking with us yes i am standing in one of the local government precisely as i speak to you i am in pata world in basa local government area of kugi state pata world is the coalition center for the the uh the all the uh polly units around the world and um i just have to move a distance a bit from the polly unit because within the polly unit the network is not useful so i needed to move down into the part of the community to so that i can be able to speak with you at the moment however in in in that same polly unit uh quite a number of issues came up but were addressed and of course you know in this election despite the issues of the um the naira swap and the withdrawal limits issues of both buying is still finding its way into the system and for the first time we'll be seeing people voting uh they probably voting and then putting down their names in such a way that uh maybe later time there could be paid for their vote i think these are the things virtually going on and of course from also um i am the one particularly in charge of kugi eastern senatorial district and of course some of our servers deployed into other areas have also been feeding us back with issues and challenges of um they calculated uh a new dimension of how both buying could also be achieved in this election okay thank you yeah um we understand that um president buhari has cast his vote in daora polling unit uh i don't know if we have that footage we'll play it a little bit later but i want to stay with you uh nataniel uh we heard reports before now you are in kugi so we want to confirm we had reports that there are some places that because of the way the road is right now uh inek materials may not even get to that place we even though in the story it was like the political rival of the governor uh is living in that place and possibly the road was made in that way so that inek will not get the vote like to confirm from you do you have any report like that on ground that there are some places that may not be accessible whereas uh last year yesterday when the story surfaced uh we took our time to see how we can project that story and eventually we discovered that the story was actually true because even the state government have to come up with um excuses of um trying to call security yeah i don't see any reason why cutting off a road has to do with covering security but that is on the other side um the one of the frontline uh contestant in the uh uh uh under the pdp that is natasha have put your door uh came up clearly to state and even show how the roads leading to our areas were cut off um uh i don't see how that has to do with um security as we speak but however um i think there were one or two measures that were put in place to see how uh materials could also get to uh those only unity but as we speak the same senatorial districts is where i also i reported that materials have not been able to reach one of the places very close to the state capture if you see the proximity between ganaja openly quarters and the areas of the state is just a stone throw from the state chapter uh uh lock order but yet as i speak to you i am still confirming to you that materials have not reached those areas although it's coming from the local government airport since i like i've been able to move the materials to the island airport but i don't know precisely where this incident of road cutting and what have you just to please is to note an excuse to call security probably it could be another strategy to see how materials will not be there but however i start yesterday i think um the the senatorial candidate of uh for this central was able to to fill part of the rules that were important and we saw them in the studio uh put it where uh all those us were used in covering those places so that materials could be moved to that place but however i as i speak to you and yet to get in touch with one of our correspondents our observers that were deployed in that place quite another of them are reporting and accreditation have also started is some of those things hello hope you enjoyed the news please do subscribe to our youtube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates