 We're glad to know you're still there. Right now we're taking our second hot topic which is also on iNEC as it is and elections and voting and especially registration. Voter registration is essential to democracy and should be easier especially as every day people are born, every day people get to 18, every day people get to the ages that they were not in the last four years and it seems as if it's every four years that we wait to hear about voter registration even though we have something called continuous voter registration and so I have here with me via Zoom anyway the team lead for DimNet Nigeria, democracy network Nigeria DimNet. I'm talking about Uzoma Aneto. Good morning and welcome to the program. Thank you very much. Good morning everyone. Okay now why is there need right now for this clarion call? Why do you need to call on iNEC or any other body for that matter to make registration easier? Thank you very much. I think the last elections that just came and gone revealed a lot of things and prior to the elections we discovered that all this why there has always been identification of why people don't turn out votes and one of the reasons is that there's a party, people don't like to go get their voters card, people don't even come out, they don't believe in the system, they don't believe their voter count and all that and the last voting period showed that there was massive, massive turnout of people who wanted to make their votes count and it was like a rush and it appears that even iNEC could not handle it from the time of registration to collection of voters card and all that, it wasn't too seamless and it led to some people even being differentiated. So after this I think it's part of the lessons learned that iNEC should now take up a measure to see that such events don't occur anymore and that is why we say if there is a provision in the act for the continuous voter registration what is stopping us? iNEC should go ahead just like a child turns 18 and wants to go get driver's license he walks into the licensing office and gets the license so what is the big deal about voter's card? Let it also be the same thing, a child turns 18 I want to go get a voter's card and he goes to get a voter's card so that towards the electionary period when the start of what kick starts he doesn't pose a very big threat or a very big challenge just like what we noticed in the last election so that is just the background to that. But is it really an iNEC thing because like I said in the opening and you have also said it there is continuous voter registration is it not a Nigerian thing that they wait for the last minute before this kind of things are done or take for instance the national identity card or identity registration a lot of people waited until sanctions were placed on whoever did not have it and so many other things before they went and there was rush hour do you think it's really an iNEC issue or it's a Nigerian thing Nigerian people think? iNEC has come out on several occasions to state that the whole idea why because you can't just walk in and say I want to get a voter's card it doesn't happen and the main mention of the fact that they want to they like to start it up at a particular time so as to give them the opportunity to do cleaning up and all that so it is in the law quite all right but it's not practicable you cannot walk into iNEC office right now and tell someone I want to register or open the portal and you're able to register so is that actually an iNEC issue not necessarily the people's problem yeah I understand the fact that yes people like to do things in Nigeria at the dying minutes but no one it is not in practice that iNEC portals are open for voter's registration or maybe their staff available for voter's registration it is actually an iNEC problem not the people's problem have they advanced any yes it's a reason that they want to do cleaning up and all that but what is the challenge that they face because one of the things that people kept saying when they were having problems registering was the fact that you can walk into a bank for instance and get your ATM the same day and no hustles because everywhere you go to these ATM cards are available your data is available so everybody can do that have they given any reason so far that makes them want to have it at a particular time that makes them find it difficult to do the cleaning up like they say so that you know an attempt to make the people understand with them yeah thank you very much like I rightly stated this has been the practice over the years at least from 1999 we started the real democracy um uh uh on uninterrupted it has always been the practice that iNEC only calls for voter's registration towards the period of elections they call it open they don't really advertise it don't really sensitize people that you can walk in and get your voter's registration and it is because one the complaint of manpower too but we have discovered that almost all the local governments almost let's say zonal zonal iNEC offices they have manpower and we are saying after the elections these people are almost like redundant they're not doing anything so and we discovered also that when you call for voter's registration towards the maybe close to the election a period you find that that it's is also difficult because by the time you keep compiling because all this why it has always been that people are not willing to come but following what happened in the last election should make iNEC rethink and say how do we curb the systems how do we make it it will not be difficult so if there is proper sensitization oh you can walk in and get it there is no way because the last uh political dispensation or the electionary dispensation has showed us that the Nigerian people can actually uh come out to vote if the right system if the right things are put in place so for me it's it's it's a kind of a system review we have been doing this thing this way why don't we try this other way so that we'll uh stop uh accepting uh functions we saw in the last election because if the timby population which is the young people and they are not they don't have that feeling that oh they can get their voter's card is only towards a particular time then there is there is there is the disconnect and it shouldn't be so if the law has provided for for it then iNEC should make every plan to start early to start early what should start early you find out even the things you have decided that might come up with time you start seeing that you start on time to start walking towards avoiding those things so the issue is it's iNEC thing they've always had this problem that they don't have enough manpower but we believe that if you start it on time you'll be able to identify things you're going to start out before or close to the next election uh uh period it's really funny talking about manpower because if 1000 people are supposed to come close to the election to look for their registration or to get registered maybe at least 50 to 100 or 200 or 300 will come before that period and you have less work to do and the manpower is that they don't employ new people towards election except the ad hoc staff that will go into the election itself so i don't know why the manpower issue is there but what is the level of engagement right now are you still planning to engage them or you have already engaged them and how far so far then that Nigeria is walking across the sectors because in trying to tackle issues like this you must have to think broadly you must have to look at ways not just one way it has to be a multi-sectoral ways of engagement so obviously iNEC has to be visited Kotsico has to be paid to iNEC and we are on the verge of doing that where there's already a request to do that and we'll be getting feedback any moment from now and also we also want to engage the political parties and they use themselves catch them in the school higher institutions colleges and all that and also carry out online campaign and all that so iNEC is very key we have to engage with them we have to also because they are not the only observers during the elections and all that we know that people came up with a lot of results or information concerning the elections that took place even the EU came up and it was one of the recommendations that nobody should be differentised and that voters registration should also be continuous to avoid last minute issues and disappointments are you engaging them are you are you trying to let them start early or or to never stop just for clarity well starting early never stop you're the same thing that is just the whole idea start now never stop you have the same thing because if you only leave it for a period of time to start engaging that is very dangerous and that is one of the outcomes of the reports of the EU so let it be continuous let it not stop start early because if you start early that means towards the electionary period or you will not see certain issues that you encountered in the last election at least the last election was a very good or a real eye opener to issues bordering about voters registration so start early never stop vote of them should work together now that you're talking about engaging INEG this is like final engaging INEG if you do get them to start or to continue the registration without any stop do you also have any plan for the orientation of the people who have to access this of these registration portals or water offices and everything to keep them sensitized enough to engage or to to take advantage of it thank you very much engagement with INEG bring about policy change that is the whole idea that want to see a situation whereby INEG will start adjusting and this means also that's the manpower will be trained the manpower will be retrained or reoriented or will be resensitized to the issue that you need to now start the continuous voters registration if there are things that used to be maybe from INEG planning how they plan their whole period to close to the election period these things will now be factored in so it's all about advocating for a system change or a policy change that would not accommodate it okay because all this why it's always towards a period of time but the advocacy is get towards changing the policy that would not make voters registration continuous one and it should be seamless okay thank you so much Azoma for coming on the show and telling us your thoughts I would do hope that you are going to get your target you know get INEG to continue the registration as they say they already have continuous registration for the people so that they don't get to get that clog when the time comes very close thank you so much for coming on the program today I am delighted thank you very much okay that was Azoma Anneto team leads democracy network or Demnet Nigeria talking with us on the need to get INEG to continue the registration of voters and not wait till the dying minute before they do that and we are going to wrap up the show at this moment but before we go here is the quote for the day every new experience brings its own maturity and a greater clarity of vision that is according to Indyara Gandhi and that's how it's been on the show this morning we take about now but we hope that you join us again tomorrow for the same program and at the same time on behalf of the entire team of breakfast on PLOS TV my name is Nyamu Aghaji to have a wonderful midway