I attended the Splash 105.5 fm/INEC public interactive meeting organised by Splash fm in Ibadan yesterday, the 12th of August 2014. The main aim of the event was to get voters sensitised on how to go about exercising their rights to vote in the forthcoming 2015 elections.

   In attendance were the Regional Electoral Commissioner of Oyo state, Alhaji Nasir Ayilara , the commissioner of police of oyo state was ably represented by the Police Public Relation Officer of the state, DSP Olabisi Okuwobi-Ilobanafor, also represented was the Oyo state Commandant of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corp (NSCDC)- I didn’t catch the name of the representative-, also present were various on air personalities from splash fm Ibadan.
   A lot of issues were discussed amongst which are,

- How to aquire the new permanent voters card which distribution would commence 15th of this month even if your temporary voters card has been misplaced
- How to go about voting in a polling unit which you didn’t initially get registered in due to relocation to a new area, local government or state.
   Many more issued were addressed but since they are not the essence of this piece I won’t dwell too much on them, however, if you have any question on the issues stated above or any other concerning you voting in the forthcoming elections, I’ll advice you visit the INEC website http://www.inecnigeria.org they also have a quite responsive twitter @inecnigeria . If these seem like too much trouble for you and you seek a “lazy” way to get your answers, you can relay your questions to me, I’ll take it upon myself to provide credible answers (I’m nice like that *wink*).
   The last two governorship elections conducted by INEC, in Ekiti and most recently, Osun state, have drawn significant praises for the body from both citizens of this great nation and foreign observers alike as they have (to the greatest surprise and amazement of Nigerians) turned out to be truly free and fair. This is a huge surge of life to our previously fainting infant democracy. If the electorate can truly be given the mandate to decide who rules us come 2015, I assure you, irrespective of who we end up choosing, we can only go up from here.
   That said, INEC still has a lot to do to aid the growth of our budding democracy. The United States electioneering process which ours was modelled after has some structures in place to ensure the healthy thriving of their democracy. These structures, for some reason best known to our founding fathers were avoided and till date are yet to be incorporated into the system.
   Firstly, once a candidate from a political party is elected by the people, such a decision is respected and the party on the losing side goes almost incognito for the duration of the tenure of the elected(also four years). In contrast, our political parties are always bitter losers (in their defense, most of our elections have been far from free and fair). Immediately after the election, the party on the other side of the pendulum swing, from going to tribunal to bombarding pages of dailies with stories of how the election was rigged, never stop in their attack of the elected party. They are always quick to point out the disadvantage of any move made by those in office, forgetting that any decision, no matter how small, has its pros and cons. They deprive the elected of the needed breathing space to carry out any promised transformation. This phenomenon has made the political scene to be crowded with more of politicians and less of leaders. I know there is a 3 months window before any election for campaigns (yes, just 3 months) but, how far does INEC go to ensure that any form of campaign falls strictly within this 3 months period.
   Secondly, the stomach infrastructure which has been the modus operandi of all political parties of this nation, but has been gaining a lot of attention lately because of the rice-loving people of Ekiti state is a very dangerous trend to be allowed for our democracy. If I give you one bag of rice and you because of that vote for me, before I go on any transformation I might have promised, my first duty would be to give myself a hundred bags of rice. As the administration progresses, my justification for embezzling money would be as simple as “afterall they have gotten rice” and if it’s my first term, my strategy for re-election would be “I’ll just give them rice again”. The United States has a law prohibiting the sharing and distribution of material gifts during any campaign season by any political party. This law is no where to be found in our electoral system.
   Some argue that the United States of America are where they are today via 238 years of democracy and our meagre 53 years can take us nothing close to them. True!!! But does that mean that we need another 185 years before we truly benefit from our democracy. NO!!! One advantage of modelling a system after an existing one is the ease at which mistakes and portholes can be avoided. May I remind you that those 185 years will always remain an excuse as not a year can be gained off it. The United states of America will always be 185 years older than Nigeria. We need to copy those parts of the U.S democracy that favours the citizens and not only the politicians only then can we make our growth accelerated.
   INEC certainly has more to do than any other body in ensuring our democracy, the two issues stated above must be addressed, implemented and enforced as soon as possible. Whatever we do before then could be likened to chasing shadows.
   God bless Nigeria.

Source: http://sirelaw./2014/08/13/inec-and-our-budding-democracy/