Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Attahiru Jega, on Wednesday requested an additional N6.6 billion to complete voter registration, in disregard of the warning issued by the National Assembly (NASS) November last year for him not come back for more funds.

The INEC already got N87 billion for the entire election process, including voter registration.
The Senate suspended Order 79 (1) of its Standing Rules to hasten the amendment of the Electoral Act and concurred with the House of Representatives by granting an extension of 30 days for the exercise.
When Jega appeared before Senators in Abuja, as summoned the previous day, Senate President David Mark told him that his reputation is at stake, and so, should perish any thought of resigning from office.  Said Mark: “On voting day, there would be a lot of confusion but we can try and rectify the confusion now. We have preached one man, one vote. So, let’s put in place policies that would make that work and not disenfranchise those who want to vote.
“Even if we give you 30 days, it doesn’t mean we would give you money for 30 days. The import of the extension is to ensure that people don’t get frustrated. From what we’ve seen in the field, we believe that you need more than seven days. “It’s better to amend the Electoral Act to have free, fair, and credible elections that would be acceptable to all participants.

“Your reputation is at stake. I would advise you not to resign because you cannot threaten to quit in the middle. Politicians are also determined to win elections creditably because our own reputation is at stake. “I would advise you to move out of your office and see what happens in the field. We are reasonably reassured that the exercise isn’t where it’s supposed to be, but we are reassured that you are taking steps to rectify that.”
Jega replied: “Frankly, I’ve never threatened to resign. I have resolved to give it my best, and frankly, the issue should not arise. The question of my resignation doesn’t arise. I’ll make the place a success.”

He told unimpressed Senators after a question and answer session which spanned three hours and 42 minutes that the fresh funds would address four pressing challenges: personnel (two), transportation, and consummables.
He said the INEC registered only 28.5 million voters by January 22 out of the estimated 65, 783,046 million.

On rerun primaries, Jega reiterated that the Electoral Act clearly says the INEC should announce a timetable for the election “and any timeline we fix has implication for the next election.  All we are doing is to bring sanity and respect into the system.
“The timetable is very clear: all party primaries end on January 15 and nominations end on January 31.  “If  we wake up and somebody says he is going to do primary again, long after January 15, we are obligated to draw his attention to the provision that the date for primary has elapsed.
“That is what we have done, and I do not see how we can be seen to have broken any law or acted contrary to the provision of the law.   We felt we should draw their attention to it.”

Jega dismissed the thinking floated in the Senate on Tuesday that the INEC would revert to the old, manual register because of hitches in the electronic registration.
“Every registration we do in a day is saved in the hard disk of the computer and an external hard disk. In addition to that, we take manual records as well. If push comes to shove, we still have the manual register to fall back on. We don’t see ourselves ever going back to the old register that is not even credible.
“We have not taken that decision and we will not take that decision ever.”
Deputy Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, and Deputy Minority Leader, Olorunnimbe Mamora, asked questions about the cost implications of extending the registration period.
Jega said: “The cost elements are about four: We have 240,000 personnel for those in the field and we would take care of another 9,000 personnel in the registration centres.
“We also intend to increase the transport allowances from N400 to N1,000 and also procure consummables such as ink, paper, and co-laminates.
“Everything adds up to N6.6 billion, certainly under N10 billion. This is the figure and it’s certainly unavoidable.” 
Jega said voting in April would be manual, with motorised boats already provided for the riverine areas.
He disclosed that although 250,000 voters were registered on the first day of the exercise on January 8, an average 4.3 million voters have since been registered per day.
“By the provisions of the Electoral Act, we cannot do electronic voting. We are going to do manual voting. Accreditation for the voting is electronically generated because it covers the biometrics of the voter.
“As of four days ago, with information available to us, we have registered 28.5 million Nigerians. When we close on Saturday January 29, we would have registered between 43 million and 45 million more.
“At the end of the extension, we would have registered more than 65 million Nigerians by February 5. We’ve done our calculations, we’ve done our projections, and we’ve been reasonably conservative with our expectations.”
On lack of facilities in registration units, Jega admitted that there have been “challenges and we have not taken environmental factors into consideration. They are formidable challenges.”
He defended the extension of the registration period and insisted that Nigerians requested it, not the INEC.
“The reality is that Nigerians want an extension. There are clearly problems which have emerged, and based on circumstances totally out of our control, Nigerians still feel that there are legitimate grounds for extension.
“They are asking for it. Given the projections that we have done, an additional week would be sufficient to register those who have not been registered.”


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Jega, we hail thee. . .

even if na 1 thrillion give am .chai people wey get contract from this thing don hammer

the man asked for 10 days extension and what did they give him?

It wuld be beta if he's given d keys 2 d vault of d national treasury. So dat anytym he needs money, he can go take it by himself. All dese incessant request 4 money is tiring.

@Poster, where is your source cause I find this one too hard to swallow.

Where is @Texazzpete? He needs to come "explain" this one for us ooo. 

Jega may not be a perfect human but from every indications, he has shown some signs that draws him apart from the Iwu era. One point is that Nigeria or do i say our politicians are always looking at where money is going into, especially if its coming from the Federation Account.Has anybody asked why poor Jega is asking for this ,more money?Has anybody bothered to question what the law makers are doing for taking huge chunks of our National budget for their person frivolities? Methink it makes sense to spend as much if only we can flush these gluttons out from power,

MORE REASONS WHY WE MUST ASK EVERYBODY WHO HASN'T REGISTERED TO DO THAT IMMEDIATELY

ofala:

Jega may not be a perfect human but from every indications, [b]he has shown some signs that draws him apart from the Iwu era. [/b]One point is that Nigeria or do i say our politicians are always looking at where money is going into, especially if its coming from the Federation Account.Has anybody asked why poor Jega is asking for this ,more money?Has anybody bothered to question what the law makers are doing for taking huge chunks of our National budget for their person frivolities? Methink it makes sense to spend as much if only we can flush these gluttons out from power,

MORE REASONS WHY WE MUST ASK EVERYBODY WHO HASN'T REGISTERED TO DO THAT IMMEDIATELY

First things first, what signs has he shown?

ofala:

Jega may not be a perfect human but from every indications, he has shown some signs that draws him apart from the Iwu era. One point is that Nigeria or do i say our politicians are always looking at where money is going into, especially if its coming from the Federation Account.Has anybody asked why poor Jega is asking for this ,more money?Has anybody bothered to question what the law makers are doing for taking huge chunks of our National budget for their person frivolities? Methink it makes sense to spend as much if only we can flush these gluttons out from power,

MORE REASONS WHY WE MUST ASK EVERYBODY WHO HASN'T REGISTERED TO DO THAT IMMEDIATELY

Poor Jega my foot!. . .It's all part of an elaborate sham to loot the country dry and Nigerians in their helpless state as usual.

Sorry will say it again, this man is not right for the position

He has no clue about this position he is given, dont get me wrong he has good intentions of conducting a free & fair election, but in a jega jega way

hopefully when we give INEC 100billion we will have an election

The registration is already a flop as up to 70% will not register.They will manufacture figures for rigging.As for the extra money ,it is required as a result of the extension.

One day e go better

This na serious issue ooh!!!

Kobojunkie:

This na serious issue ooh!!!

Na more than serious my dear,  But we can't expect anyone to be that perfect in such time frame. Let's still do our part to register and vote and let's see how far that will go.

na wa

i don know much abt politics bt dis registration is jst waste of money.
If everybody over 18yrs in nigeria is given 1million naira each in Nigeria, enough money go still remain sef.
How much did they give d POOR Youth copper that are runnin d registration sef?.
Damnn

Extension!!! Whn al the hausa dude don register m0' than 7 times :O , they (hausas) R movin for 1 DDC machine 2 the other, frm 1 reg centre 2 the other

rebranded:

Sorry will say it again, this man is not right for the position

He has no clue about this position he is given, dont get me wrong he has good intentions of conducting a free & fair election, but in a jega jega way

hopefully when we give INEC 100billion we will have an election

Why did you add the part in bold? So we would not take you for the total loon that you are?

violent:


Poor Jega my foot!. . .It's all part of an elaborate sham to loot the country dry and Nigerians in their helpless state as usual.

Rebranded, looks like there are many of you. By the way is there a full moon?

Methinks digital rigging is in the pipeline. The bush guy can teach joe boy aka the water boy!

i see this whole process as an exercise in futility. Jega was never aware of the kind of heat and pressure that will meet him on the seat. This is just registration, we have not gone to the elections proper but everything spells failure, confusion, disenchantment and distrust in all corners. They are wasting our money, time and future. Let's just be realistic, the eletronic system can not work in nigeria yet.

speechless God save nigeria

Hmmmmm, Nigerians are just Nigerians no matter who dem be! Na wah o even Attahiru? Ok o!!

Obviously,the project is bigger than prof Jega.alot is going onbehind him.He might have a pure motive but ohow about his leutenants?but much as i know the process will not be hitch free,i will still implore us to register and vote when it is time.

Very funny, but extremely worrying.
I remember when I started questioning this guys moves, I was quickly and swiftly shot down and dragged out with blood all over the floor by a lot of apologist on this forum.

Let us step back a bit. Right from the inception, a lot of people were already singing his praises even before he lifted a finger, well for me I was looking out for a proper programme plan, one that showed promise that some of the issues from the last exercise had been tackled and addressed properly. I even recounted my 12hr experience during the last voter’s registration, on this forum.

Anyway, then came the Delta state re-run. No matter what people say, it was very clear to me and those who wanted to see that the whole thing was a sham, with the same problems bugging things down, even Jega in his own words admitted that ballot box snatching and rowdy electioneering was the order of the day. Some were fixated on the point that my preferred candidate did not win, however I was more interested in a system which had shown very little signs of change, in fact in my candid assessment, I think it had regressed badly. People were failing to see my point of a man, who definitely wasn’t suited for the job. In times like this, our lack of honest assessment always gets the best of us.

2 weeks later, the voters registration kicks off, then we start getting all these horrible stories, including the wicked and false blaming of corpers. Well honestly I wasn’t surprised that the whole thing was going to be like this. Anyone who wanted to be objective, could see that proper planning and consultation had not being done, and the likelihood of a smooth and credible exercise was very remote, but being the Nigerians we are, we don’t face up to it and start making silly excuses.

Key questions:
1: why was this contract not awarded to an organisation that has good solid experience of Biometric registration be it local of foreign? After all with a budget in excess of £300 million, you can get the brightest and the best.
2: Where is the accountability, why were Nigerians not updated regularly on the progress of the whole thing from planning to delivery?
3: Who is responsible?

As far as I am concerned, no more money should be thrown at this thing, until Jega comes with a very detailed, credible and plausible plan. If he can’t, he must be relieved on the position, and someone with a better understanding brought in.
The way things are going, I can guarantee you guy, we will be going through this same thing come 2015

Why are u all blaming Jega. If you can not curb the excessive spending and take home of the Senators and the miscreant in the house of Assembly.
Please, if that is the only way he knows to get his own share of the national cake as so called let him do.
But i know that nemesis will surely catch up with them a day they do not expect.

They are dark angels in the light.

this man called jega is notin but a fraudster, i dey suspect glj na their plain to reak naija,all the money way den give am no dey enough for am, now he needs another, na theifs them be .them jus dey waste money while some good nigerian dey die for hunger and thirsty, well na only god go judge them

A brief mathematics show that the figure may not be that big.

The cost of paying 240,000 ad-hoc staff at the rate of N15,000 per week is N3.6 billion.

When combined with 9,000 staff and more supplies, the figure is not much.

We seriously need to stop making mountains out of molehill

Kobojunkie:

First things first, what signs has he shown?

Exactly. Why do people blindly back officials as being benevolent when they have no proof? What is going on here?? In Nigerian politics people should be guilty until proven innocent

foreman:

A brief mathematics show that the figure may not be that big.

The cost of paying 240,000 ad-hoc staff at the rate of N15,000 per week is N3.6 billion.

When combined with 9,000 staff and more supplies, the figure is not much.

We seriously need to stop making mountains out of molehill

Well written and calculated. God bless you!

Another N6.6Bn!!!
Arrant nonsense!!

N6.6b for just 1 week extension? Yeepa!!!