 Diolch eraill Gynaeth elufeidliadau i gefnogaeth, neu'r agorll29 cael y dypa sydd o gyfafolig arferfod Farns, yn armgyrchu'r bwrdd honno i'r wybodau Lleiduniadol Cymru a'r prof diseiswyd Gweithredu chi'n gweithio i mewn blynedd arloedd i seven miliwnc rhagorion, sydd wedi'u cymryd i'r rhagorion i fynd i ydynt i ddych chi'n gweithio. Aleddol yn ymgredigon, mae ddechrau phobl yn gweithio'r drosdyn nham gyda'i hynny i rhagorion y ddigonwch ar hyn o'r cymryd yn rhaid i'r prysgwyr yn y prysgwyr. Ionic rwy'n credu rwy'n hyn o'r 10 miliwn a 10 miliwn ar hyn o'r prysgwyr yn cymryd ar y prysgwyr hanfod. 3.4 miliwn mae'r prysgwyr ar y ddigonwch. Rwy'n credu y ddigonwch ar 30% neu 32% o'r prysgwyr. joined us to discuss this is first as a CoE national commissioner information and voter education committee, INEC and also Lluwadare Colorwale Deputy Director, Serap. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for joining us. Thank you so much. Thank you. Let me start with Mr Lluwadare, who is obviously representing Serap. Two months ago, you had said that you were suing INEC over the extension of voter's registration ac mae'n ddim yn ddod o'r hynny, yw'r hynny'n gwneud mae'n gweithio i Einech yn ddechrau teimlo i Ddwyr Bwyd. Mae'n helpu i weld y ffawr i'r cymhwyllt, ym mwyaf, ond ymweld yn ei ddweud i'r cyfrifio i ddweud y CBR, ac mae'n dweud i'r cyfrifio yn ysgrifennu, mae mae'n dweud i'r cyfrifio. Thank you very much. The initial suit that you've mentioned is Sarah, asking on behalf of Nigerians for an extension to the period where I need to end the continuous water registration. But in this instance, this is a reaction to what the INEC itself has put out. That is the data that out of 10 million Nigerians, more than 7 million Nigerians, started the process and could not conclude that process of registration. So what we're asking now is not to, we're not asking INEC to extend the time, the cuts are determined at the end. And we're not asking INEC to reopen the continuous water registration as it's worth for all Nigerians, even though that would be bizarre. What we're asking is, if INEC is saying that 7 million Nigerians have started the process, can INEC allow these individuals to complete the process? And the law supports this position in this aspect. Equity is also on the side of these individuals. And even the facts as we have today supports these individuals. These are Nigerians and we're talking about 7 million people. This is not 700, this is not 7,000. 7 million Nigerians have taken a step in good faith to start the registration process. INEC should merely allow them to complete that process so that they can't participate in the electoral process come to an entry. I really see nothing that INEC would lose in this instance. And Nigeria, not only Nigeria and Nigerians, they have a lot to gain by allowing the 7 million people, would be voters to be able to complete the registration. And most importantly, INEC has not come out. That would be interesting to hear from Mr Awkwye whether we'll hear that during this conversation. INEC has not desegregated the details of the 7 million and shown us possibly, which I think is the least INEC could do, telling us the details of the 7 million people, why they did not come out of the process. And part of our own investigations with your security present, if this ends up in court, is we have seen details of many of these individuals who for no reason out there could not complete the process at the physical registration centres. So it is only in the instance of Nigerians that these 7 million people allowed to complete their registration. Mr Lewadari, I did speak with the INEC guys in Lagos and they did say something about the fact that when the extension date was announced, a lot of people, there was a lax of sorts, people, you know, there was no longer a rush of sorts. And then they waited until the last minute, again, to crowd their offices. I think I also had a conversation with Mr Awkwye, but I'm not holding brief for them. So I'm wondering, this 7 million, those who fall in this category, can all just lump them as people who waited for last minutes. But Cudi, I've also been that certain people had taken the timing for granted, hence what INEC has put out. Because maybe we like last minute things. That can't be. And I really add that over time in public. And sometimes, and we repeat this also, it's too often, it takes on a semblance of truth that cannot be true. 7 million people cannot conspire to register a late. Really, that's not the issue. But like I've told you, we are compiling different data, a data set of these individuals, if this ends up in court. And I can tell you a lot of these individuals completed those things online and could not conclude the registration in physical centres, mostly because of the various challenges in those centres, including cases of bribery and corruption by some of my next steps in some of those centres. So really, it cannot be their fault. And it cannot be the fault of 7 million people to wait till the last minute, so to speak. They will be interested to see the data of those 7 million engineers that INEC has set to be able to make a headway as to the modus of getting them to complete their registration. Mr Coye, let me throw it to you. First and foremost, INEC syrup is saying they have a case that 7 million people cannot conspire to not do the right thing or to not register and finish their registration on time. The other question that some other people are asking is what's the rush? Elections are next year. Why end it now? I think that we should really begin from syrup acknowledging that they went to court to ask for certain release. And part of the declaratory release they asked for is a determination whether the Independent National Electoral Commission has the constitutional and legal rights to put a seal on when the CVR should end. They also asked for a determination whether the Commission can conclude the CVR within a period of 90 days to the election. Now, there were two fundamental issues that the court made a determination on. The first is that the court affirmed the constitutional and legal rights of the Commission to make a determination on when registration should end and when registration should begin. Secondly, the court made a determination that the syrup did not have the local standard to approach the court on behalf of those who claimed it approached the court on their behalf. That is one. Secondly, I think that rushing to court will not help our democracy, will not help the electoral process and will also not deepen the democracy which syrup claims to be defending. I thought that the first thing to do, the first approach should be for syrup and his leadership to approach the Independent National Electoral Commission in a consultative manner and find out from the Commission why the Commission ended the CVR the day it ended the CVR and why these seven million persons that syrup has isolated and is fighting for why they exist. I thought that that should have been the best approach. But having said that, I want to say that we do not have seven million Nigerians that started their registration and do not complete, who are waiting to complete their registration. When we desegregated the data for the first and second quarter of the registration process, we found that out of the total number of registered of those who did pre-registration, I thought to say, over 1.8 million were Nigerians who were in diaspora and who thought that maybe during the December period they would come back and complete their biometrics, but they did not come back. So there is no compulsion that anybody who started the pre-registration must complete the pre-registration. It's not compulsion. People from all parts of the world who are Nigerians, some of them started the pre-registration. Not only that, there were some Nigerians who started the pre-registration, abandoned the pre-registration and went and registered physically. There were also some Nigerians who started the pre-registration, abandoned it and started afresh. It is an aggregation of these figures that Seraph is saying that they have a store of seven million Nigerians that have no register. Section 10 subsection 2 of the electoral act is very clear. It says each applicant for registration under the continuous registration system shall appear in person at the registration venue with any of the following documents and release the documents. The pre-registration was an attempt by the commission to ease the process of registration for Nigerians. It is called pre-registration. You have no register because if you do pre-registration you must still appear in person before a registration officer in a registration centre designated by the commission for you to complete your biometrics. If you don't do your biometrics, the implication is that your pre-registration has lost. So these seven million that Seraph is talking about, their pre-registration has lost because they did not show up to complete the registration as required by section 10 subsection 12 of the electoral act. Ms Okoye, as much as I appreciate that you're doing your job, but how much information is out there because you've quoted this section of the act? How many of these people know that section? How many of them know that there's a time lapse for that biometrics segment of their registration? Because I know that a few media houses have tried to rigorously, I beg your pardon, have these conversations with INEC officials in their different states or cities, but how much information is out there because seven million is quite a number, and if they do not have this information at their fingertips, how would they know if they have a problem or not? In the portal, in the INEC online portal, it is very, very clear, it was very clear that what they are doing is pre-registration. In the portal, we have seven services. Pre-registration for new registrations is only one of the services. For those who lost their PVCs, for those whose PVCs are damaged, their own platform is completely different. For those who want to do information review, their own platform is completely different. For those who want to locate where their PVCs are, they can use the PVC locator in our platform to locate their PVCs. So, those who are engaged in pre-registration understood that they engage in pre-registration, and when you pre-register, you are given a time within which you are going to go to any of our state offices or local government offices or any of the rotational centers to go and complete your biometrics. So, all of them were aware, those who entered the portal were aware that what they were doing is pre-registration and not registration, and they were aware that after some time, if you don't complete your biometrics, that your pre-registration will last. They were aware. So, we're presuming that these people who all go online or use these online platforms are learned enough to understand English as plain as it is that's on that platform. Don't forget some of them have to use someone to help them, and if that help isn't there, I'm sure most of them are unable to. But again, I'm not in any way trying to make excuses. We're just looking at scenarios, possible scenarios that could have cost these seven million people to not complete their registration. But are there other languages on that portal? Let me just say this. Let me just say this. This pre-registration was the first portal that the commission opened, and this portal was opened on the 28th of June 2021. That was when we started the pre-registration. So, if for a period of one year somebody did pre-registration and could not complete biometrics in one year, the implication is that the person was not really or is not really interested in carrying out any form of biometric registration. I'm coming back to you, Mr Luadare. You have continued to say that if Nigerians have doubts about the independence and impartiality of INEC, they are more likely to have less confidence in the electoral process thereby undermining democracy. But then he's saying that there are directions, there's information that has been clearly written on the site for those who are registering or re-registering or pre-registering, and these rules or regulations are supposed to be followed. But if it takes over a year and the person has abandoned the process, then it means that they were not in any way interested in it. So again, can INEC be really totally blamed for all the laxes that these people who have not necessarily registered, can they be blamed for it? Of course, INEC has that responsibility. So, aside from the constitutional responsibility of INEC to conduct pre- and AI elections, section two of the electorate itself includes civic education as one of the core duties of INEC, and that means that INEC-educated Nigerians will be both as their duties and obligations, including the various procedures set up by INEC. So, the duty of all is in INEC's court in that regard. But that is really decided point. While I appreciate Mr O'Coye's invitation for consultation, INEC has not been coming with information, which is part of what the freedom of information that mandates public institutions like INEC to proactively disclose about the disaggregation of the 7 million. Natural, this kind of data should be available to all Nigerians. And really, I do not think that 7 million Nigerians started online and did not commit the physical registration in the centres. Like I've told you, we are collaging data of a whole from Nigerians who have been affected by this. Who will be the applicants if this ends up in court, not Sarah? And we've seen that quite a lot of them that we have seen completed the registration online, went to the physical centres, and for various reasons, including cases of bribery and corruption, could not complete the second phase of the process at the registration centres specifically. Definitely, those are not those who started online and did not complete within one year. And then, to Mr O'Coye's point about the online registration being pre-registration as an innovation initiative of INEC, that is great. INEC did well, but during that, but you should understand, if INEC has set up an online platform as a pre-registration process, then INEC is also committed for those who have started that to complete. INEC cannot start an initiative, get diverse people, so to speak, to do that, and now tell them that, like Mr O'Coye is telling us, that it's simply pre-registration and as it were, they did not have any right to have said the register. That is not fair. At all, he, at the least, he could support these individuals who have done what INEC said they should by going online to start the process. Whether we call it pre-registration or by whatever name so called, I don't think that is important. What is important is that they followed INEC's procedures and they started the process. And now, what we are saying with asking INEC is to allow them, because if INEC has not set up an online platform for pre-registration, naturally, whatever INEC tells these individuals, do they will do, they will have any problem with the physical standards. But INEC has used this discretion, which is wonderful by the way, to set up an online pre-registration and these individuals have committed to that. And that is not, we are not even talking of those that completed that aspect and went to the physical standards. Mr Awkuye is not talking about those ones that went to the physical standards. And we have these facts. And in this sense, of course, this we put before the public by way of our court processes. These, we have individuals, lots of them out of the seven million that completed the process online, that went to the physical standards, but could not conclude that. Can you say INEC would not be responsible for that? Definitely INEC is responsible for that. And lastly, the facts that we witnessed in Nigeria over the years is that we've seen low voter turnout, we've seen voter poverty in Nigeria, and it scales down that we see people register, take a lesser number of those that register to get their PBCs, a lesser number of those that got their PBCs ends up in accredited, coming out of accredited on election day. Only who a lesser number gets to vote and then we see the number shrinking every step of the way. Don't you think it is INEC's responsibility to ensure that as many people that want to participate in that process is allowed to participate? We cannot on the one hand complain of voter poverty and INEC is doing everything it can to ensure that these needs continue to really know. The least INEC can do is to do everything possible within its powers and within its statutory mandate to allow these people, they've shown interest, equities in their favour, the laws in their favour as well, to start the process, to allow them to conclude the process. We're not asking INEC to extend time for all the years. No, but like you said earlier, seven million is an age number and it would make a lot of difference. And when you look at our historical incident in 2019, how many votes do we have in the presidential elections to for a win? Seven million will go in the long way in all aspects of elections to determine who would win and who will follow the affairs of this country at various levels for the next four years. We really cannot trade with this number really in the interests of democracy and even in the interests of INEC's own duties to the public. And if anything, INEC needs to demonstrate this to end up more in that public trust so that people can see INEC for what it is, independent and making it the best place of Nigeria. Well quickly before we wrap things up, because time is almost gone, but it's okay, let me come back to you. What's the possibility that INEC would be open to allowing these seven plus million to conclude that process? Is there any possibility, any chance whatsoever for this to happen? Mr Coye, can you hear me? Mr Coye, are you there? I think we lost that connection. Mr Coye, can you hear me? I'm here. All right, quickly. Yes, I can hear you. Did you hear my question or should I ask it again? Please answer the question again. So I'm asking, is there a possibility that these seven million people can be re-accommodated by INEC before the election proper? Will there be any possibility whatsoever? I'm telling you that we don't have seven million people who are waiting to be registered and who registered online. What I'm saying is that the moment you use our online platform for pre-registration, you are scheduled for a biometric capture and you are given a date when you can go to any of our state or local government offices or rotational centres for biometric capture. If you do not go on the date you were given for biometric capture, you are supposed to reschedule your new date of appointment. I'm saying that we don't have seven million Nigerians waiting to be registered. The over three million Nigerians who are in diaspora, who did pre-registration and who are still outside their country and who have not come back, cannot be registered. The section 10 subsection 3 says you must appear physically. So, if you don't appear physically, there's no way you can be registered. Moreover, the commission has suspended the CVR and it can only be reopened after the 2023 general election. If you look at section 9 subsection 6 of the Electoral Act, are you ready together with section 19 subsection 1 of the Electoral Act? It is very, very clear that when the lawmakers make a law and use the word not letter down, what they are saying is that the Electoral Management body or the body that has been given that responsibility can end a particular process before a certain date. So, the lawmakers have given us the right to end the registration process, the CVR before 90 days to the election and that's exactly what we have done. We are cleaning up the register now. We have gone very, very far and it is too late in the day for us to come back. Hmm, interesting. Well, unfortunately, that's all the time that we have on the show tonight. I want to say thank you. First of all, Coye is the National Commissioner Information and Voter Education Committee, INEC, and Oluwadari Kolawale is the Deputy Director, Sarah. Thank you so much gentlemen for having this conversation with me. Thank you so much. Well, I want to thank you all for being part of the conversation tonight, but before we go, I would like to give you my take. Here's my take. Great leaders are supposed to unite the people for a great purpose. However, this leaves me to consider the nature of our country and the great divide that's between us. I mean, we've already had one civil war in our history and the sentiments that led to that has never really gone away. Hence the conversation about restructuring and even secession. Conversations that some people won't even entertain. When former President Goodlock Jonathan speaks of failure of past leaders to unite us, I am actually left to wonder if we aren't avoiding our own duties. If the way to treat each other is any indication, parental lessons about being cautious and kind, obviously we never really took them. The responsibility of building and sustaining a democracy rests with us, the people. Abram Lincoln's definition of democracy as a government of the people by the people for the people makes it abundantly clear that the people determine its failure or its success. As Nigerians, we must unite if we want to put an end to insecurity, to corruption, to voter fraud and continued incompetence leadership. The leaders that have had their chance to unite us and jettisoned it, well, I think it's time for us to take on that burden and show them the door. After all, a house divided against itself cannot stand. My name is Mary Annacol. Have a good evening.