 Group asks INEC to conduct CVR exercise before E-mode by ELSA and Colgui Governorship elections and the People's Democratic Party National Working Committee reserves or reverses McCarthy's suspension. This is Post-Politics and I am Mary-Anna Cohn. A civil society organization catch them young community initiative has urged the independent National Electoral Commission INEC to conduct continuous voter registration before the forthcoming General and Governorship elections in E-mode by ELSA and Colgui State. The group said it is concerned about participation of youths in the November 11th Governorship elections in E-mode State. The group noted that while youths constitutes the majority of registered voters in Nigeria they also constitutes the highest number of citizens that are yet to register therefore called on INEC to ensure E-mode youths are able to register and have their voices heard during the November elections. We're joining us to discuss this. I have Reverend Raymond Annolieffo. He is the Director Justice Development and Peace Centre and also joining us will be Mosheud ESA who is a development expert. Thank you very much Reverend Annolieffo for joining us. I hope I got it right. Yeah you did do it. I tried. Okay now it's very important because in my opening I noted that Nigeria's population is mostly useful and every single day whether we like it or not somebody turns 18 that means that there is more and more need for us to have a continuous voter registration but INEC calls what it does in a short space of time a continuous voter registration but then they stop and then conduct elections and after that the process is stalled. Why is it so difficult for us to have a portal that's open to young people to continue voting every time they turn 18? Thank you very much Annolieffo for having me. Section 9 of the constitution, sorry of the 2022 electoral act, does provide that registration of voters of dating and prohibition of the register of voters shall not stop later than 90 days before any election covered by this act but like you pulled it out what we call CVR in this country is probably not in the best it's not CVR it's not continuous voter registration as much as we will go behind it to live up to its billing and do what the electoral law requires of it but we are in a country where INEC itself will go back on its guidelines will go back on its laws and probably nothing happens INEC already has ruled out a lot of activities leading up to the November 11 election for the three states in the upcycle elections but nothing has been said concerning continuous voter registration I think it's important like you pointed out a lot of young persons have just turned 18 and we saw you happen in the last in the election we just concluded that a lot of persons still couldn't collect their PVCs some couldn't even register I think it is only appropriate that INEC will do what it's needful by opening up its portal that young people and all many well many Nigerians in those three states who desire to be part of the electoral process should be allowed to vote and how to register. We also noticed that there are so many gaps and problems in terms of voters cards after the registration process we saw again that there was a high number and in fact unprecedented increase in the number of young people who registered just before the general elections in February but most of the complaints that were recorded were either that these people were unable to get their PVCs or their PVCs were missing and I'm sure that if you followed the news you had seen PVCs that were recovered in different places in sacks in bags for instance in Lagos on Election Day a bag of PVCs were recovered and people started going to knock on doors to ask people if you know they could receive their PVCs I mean so registration yes is one very important key issue that we're discussing today but again why does it seem like even if INEC throws its doors open to those who would register getting the cards might also be an issue the elections are almost around the corner whether we like it or not in a few months we will be gearing up for those off-cycle elections what's the guarantee that even if people are registered today those PVCs will be gotten in time for them to participate well there are no guarantees there are no guarantees but I could be a stickler for laws the law is clear that not later than 90 days so all that INEC needs to do is to open up exporters for people to register let we just get to that point in this country where we do what is expected the right thing I just think with all that INEC has said leading up to this to the off-cycle elections the focus was mainly on the political parties and of course on the politicians who are the third-year hearts in the ring in the race but not much consideration was actually given for the electorate no consideration okay as simple as register now let's register that's one thing when the registrations are done hopefully if we talk to calculate 90 days from November we'll be talking about the registrations and ending about sometime in August now after that INEC can do what it needs to do print the cards since the the states are fewer it shouldn't take them so long and then make a border and then of course with the push of civil society organizations and all the other interested groups for people to go and pick up your PVCs now the truth is because it's a smaller election the area must cover it's not so large I don't think we're gonna have the same problems especially logistics or preparations from INEC and all those bottlenecks that we experienced in the general elections which was of course a much wider coverage but I don't think we are going to experience that I think if INEC is interested in inclusivity if INEC is interested in working the talk then they have nothing else to do than to at least even if it's for a month or two allow for continuous voter registration a lot of persons are angry for it a lot of young persons are angry to get registered to be part of it you know the last election the general elections have already shown us that we can we can we can change the the status quo we can do something if given the enabling environment and that's simply what we're asking INEC to do in this regard allow for continuous voter registration at least up until 90 days to the general to the elections okay well Masud Issa is just joining us via telephone Masud just as we've been having this conversation before you joined us groups are calling on INEC young people are calling on INEC to open its portal and allow for continuous voter registration which I have a problem with I'm wondering why we call it continuous if it's being stopped from time to time what do you think the major challenge is for INEC and why is that portal not being open being that INEC doesn't need any serious logistics to keep that portal open Masud can you hear me well I don't think you can hear me so I'm gonna throw that question back to you Raymond well I don't think continuous like you pointed out it's ongoing probably not necessarily it has to continue add infinity probably at a certain point in time it can always stop so that we the data collected can be properly aggregated and then of course processed and then some and cleaned up generally that's what INEC is expected to do and that's why there's a provision of the law if the law says 90 days not later than 90 days before the election can INEC please try at least not to go back on its own guideline INEC has a guideline for this the electoral law has been passed in 2022 and these things are clear there we it's not so the truth is we're not supposed to be arguing about this we're not supposed to quarrel or fight about it or begin to make me make bones out of this but because of the country where we are where there are no penalties for reaching offenses no serious penalties to such malfeasance coming from a body like INEC who is supposed to be the electoral empire I think at this stage INEC has a lot of redeeming of its image to be to do and this this can be a process this can be at this step in the right direction by INEC. Lovely Moshouk can you hear me now? Yes I can hear you. Perfect let's talk about INEC redeeming its its image in the eyes of the average Nigerian because many people would say that INEC talked to a good game just before the elections but then they delivered something that looked like nothing close to what the you know apparently billions of trillions were sunk in the sunk into into the electoral process and the whole elections in fact if INEC had asked for more money I'm guessing INEC could have gotten it but here we are still looking at what happened during the general elections and the governorship's governorship elections that held across the country how what do you tell an 18 year old who sat and watched what played out in February and in March the fact that several people did register they could not get access to their PVC's and also the fact that hey we're asking them to register so that they can be ready for another election what exactly can we tell those people to get them involved in the process okay not not to hold a sweep of INEC or not to say INEC has done well but what it tells you an average 18 year old is that democracy is a process and then the process doesn't used to be as good as this like 10 years ago or 15 years ago of course we expected something much much better considering the fact that a lot of civil society organization had pushed and ensured that a new electoral law was passed to encourage electoral reform to encourage transparency of course we are not where we wanted to be but I promise you we are not where we need to be as we got our electoral process just that we had get a lot of hope and expectations to Nigeria in the 2023 general election and unfortunately we did not meet up to that expectation especially during the presidential election but we could see that the presidential election during the governorship election there was a bit of improvement from the process it means the process can actually be better than it used to be and it can actually be better than what we delivered in the 2020 presidential election from what we saw in the governorship election it means there is hope it means there is a good framework on ground to ensure that we have a very credible election we just need the right people we just need the right political will to ensure that we deliver credible election and when we talk about the right people and the you know the willpower people who have the you know the the interest of the avid Nigerian at heart who are these people because it sounds like these people are not anywhere within the space that we're conversing in we just finished an election are we supposed to hope that those people who have emerged will be the people that you're making reference to that will help us to push this process further because I wanted to ask you in the middle of the conversation if you because you said we're not where we're supposed to be but should we still be where we are right now in 2023 when the whole world is trying to go to the moon so our democracy is 24 years old consecutively right from 20 right from 1999 to now and when I say we need the right people to be in the right place I will need the political will I know there are a lot of accusing fingers on the on the island chairman but alone he's not the only person I recall that there was a time that the president's nominated some set of people to be resident electoral commissioners to be national commissioners and there they were agitation that this set of people are carrying members of political parties they are partisan they were called around that so those are the political will I'm talking about it is wanting to have a good framework it's a matter to have the right people in the right place we have national commissioners we have residents electoral commissioners we have electoral officers at the local government level that were known to be car carry members they are known to be partisan so this to a reasonable extent could have affected the delivery of credible elections in Nigeria of course in 2023 we should have gone better than this obviously but again democracy is a process and then of course we are hoping to have the right to put in the right place we're hoping the those those that have the power will appoint the right people in the right place remember in twenty two thousand seven when the yard you are the president it came out to say the process that brought him to power was a float process and that was one left to the development of the committee and one of the recommendation of the committee says that the appointment of the iron next shaman and national commissioners should not be in the hands of the president should be in the house of the state the judicial and maybe a judicial committee or something but then we have not been able to actually implement a substantial part of that recommendation again is a process for every electoral law that has been passed there is an opportunity that with every election that comes that opportunity to take those laws and see where the gaps are in those laws and see where we can bridge those gaps so beyond the appointment of the chairman we notice that some residents electoral commissioners are partisan some national commissioners are partisan some electoral officers in the local level and I'm not like yes boys to the governors of those things but those are some those gaps that we need to bridge but at the moment we need to harness the law we have we need to implement those laws to the latter to ensure that them this are these laws deliver a credible election to a very very large extent all right let me come back to you Raymond almost a similar question I asked and must shoot a few minutes ago we're here to canvas for people who are going to keep turning 18 so that we can increase the number of people who vaults who decide who leads us at state federal and local government levels but how easy is it going to be a task to get these same people like I said to him to register and be part of a process that they somewhat have lost trust in I'll tell you what there are people who the media was in the forefront with civil society trying to get people to register to pick up their PVC is telling them how important and how powerful that piece of card is but of course after the elections people still don't feel the same way they felt before the election how easy a task is this going to be Raymond well it's definitely not going to be an easy task you know at this time generally as the people we we have not fully trusted the independent national electoral commission and so there's a trust deficit that we are working from and somehow the hopes that the 2023 general elections we're going to assist greatly to assuage the hopes and the belief in the system once again to a large extent was dashed a lot of persons didn't feel that the 23 general elections went on as expected and hopes were lost we practice incremental democracy and then I quite agree with the machine when he finds that we were not where we used to be as much as we are not where we are supposed to there's some progress there's some progress but that said I think it's like it's like we a child who goes to school and out of 20 students and he comes in class and there's a query as to why are you performing badly in studies and the person points that at least there are those who came 19th and 20th you know we should I wouldn't want to always always cut the slack for the institutions of government I think the government knows what they are doing I think we have the enabling environment when these laws are put in place but the the people to drive these process just like Mr. Mashu the same the people the persons to drive this process we just have to keep fine tuning fine tuning hoping that we get the right people to do the right thing so that we can get square pegs into square holes and then hopefully things can get better I know a lot of young persons I work with them a great deal a bit devastated and sad and some are not particularly optimistic about future elections but this is where like we said at the introduction part of this conversation where I think INEC needs to do better to ensure and give the hope give hope to some sort of a hopeless situation it's not all doom and gloom but we must continue to push the agenda that things can be done better that we can actually get this process right and then of course we'll continue to encourage the young persons this is the only country that we have no matter what we say about it it is because we love this country it is because we want this country to be better and as much as it's possible we have to constantly constantly speak truth to power not because we despise or we are going to attack anyone but because we want this country to work for the greater majority of us for the benefit of everyone because I can tell you we have all it takes both human natural and all the resources that we have we have all it takes to make this country the toast of the world let's talk accountability quickly before I go back to Mahshoud how do we get at the independent National Electoral Commission to be accountable to Nigerians bearing in mind also that it stacks payers monies that was you know given to INEC to deliver on this election of course we know that many were many applauded when mr. president was finally accented to the Electoral Act that was amended recently it was you know an applaud people were excited that it was one of the things that mr. president would be remembered for when he does leave office but then in terms of getting the Electoral body to be accountable who holds INEC to accountability how do we go about getting INEC to be accountable including the man at the helm of affairs accountability is key accountability is key and even after the elections we had a press conference in the office where we give a preliminary reports and part of what we said was also the fact that there is a need to audit if not in else the voter register the voter register so that to a large extent when we begin to ban the figures INEC said we have 94 million about 94 million registered voters and then it is something about 86 to 88 million voters collected their their PVC's but the turnout of the elections left a lot more to be desired now the question is what exactly happened with that in that regard what exactly happened what happened to the cards we probably had a lot of ghosts or maybe fake registrations or people came out but somehow the entire voters were just under 35 million and we are wondering where exactly did we get it wrong and then when we talk about holding INEC accountable I think of course this where the National Assembly must come out hopefully the 10th Assembly as we said as they go about having what we call a gender setting for this 10th Assembly that is going to come probably they might have to we might also have to review again our electoral law beginning from the appointment of the INEC chair must it have to be the must it be the president so that some of those processes we can get them right and we can actually hold them to account for what has happened look at the how bevers to a large extent performed its function of accreditation but then when he got to transmission of results real time it was a completely different kettle of fish up until now I rev doesn't have the entire results from the country uploaded so there's a whole gamut of issues and a lot of money was voted for this election and I'm sure more money will be voted for the upcycle elections as well and who is going to account for all of that I think the National Assembly has some work to do the institution we must begin to build strong institutions that can you know possibly after the elections the professor Mahmood the Anna chair should be able to answer questions should be should be held accountable for certain things questions should be asked and answers should be provided because tax plans money like you said so I think transparency and accountability is key and this we must continue to emphasize okay back to you Mahmood let's talk about other issues aside from the accountability because you know when we say that though the National Assembly if the National Assembly seemed to be benefit or benefited from the lapses in INEC or the electoral process why would they want to in any way hold INEC accountable that's one thing again what are the other avenues that we can use to reach these young people because they are our target this conversation getting more and more of them to register and see the importance and the need to be part of the electoral process our young people today have been given to all kinds of vices whether we like it or not and they're very the the attention span is pretty short how do we go about to get the attention of these young people aside from those who go to school that have some access to civic education what about those who do not have basic education how do we get about go about getting their attention okay thank you very much again there are various tools for communicating and reaching out to to these young people no matter your educational status and then there's always opportunity to collaborate with other agencies and whenever this discussion comes up I always make reference to the National Orientation Agency the National Orientation Agency have office in Abuja they have 36 states offices and they have 770 local government offices it means they are down to the grassroots there's an immense opportunity to actually collaborate with these agencies to actually reach out to young people irrespective of their educational status religion or tribe there are also a lot of civil society organizations doing a lot of grassroots grassroots work so we have immense opportunity to actually collaborate with different groups and reach out to these people it is one thing to have an electoral law it is one thing to have an electoral process but it's another thing for people to understand the importance of participating in this process and they're nothing for people to even know how to participate in this in this process if you educate people enough to tell them why and how their votes will count and the importance of their votes and the importance of the fact that their cost of living their standard of living is connected to all the political decisions they make then it should go along with enabling them to participate but before then if you educate them that and promise them you are going to be starting things to make sure their votes count then you actually also also do your own past and ensure that their vote actually counts and there's also power in storytelling in 2003-2007 to the honest you might be on the tree wanting to vote and the results of that polly unit or the results of that state will even be announced if you tell them that story and how we were before and how we are now and tell them the progress we've made and tell them the potential of progress we'll make if we participate and ask the right question and demand accountability then it should go along with ensuring that their participation will not be futile. So my thought is that we have to collaborate with the right agencies to reach out to people irrespective of their educational strategies or their standard background and also do our own part in ensuring that the promises we've made about their votes being counted also goes a long way but again beyond the election we also know that citizens the role of citizens is just beyond voting you have to also demand accountability you have to also make the politicians know that immediately they emerge into position of power you have to ask them the right question you have to ask them to fulfill their promises I have to remind them that if they don't fulfill their promises you have the power to vote them out. Okay well I want to say thank you on that note to Moshudi sir he's a communications and development expert and of course Reverend Raymond Annolieffo he is the director justice development and peace center thank you so much gentlemen for having this conversation with me and we have to continuously have these kinds of conversations. Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right thank you so much well we'll take a quick break and when we return we'll be discussing the reversal of the PDP's suspension of former governor of Kaduna State Ahmed Makarfi stay with us.