Meeting Of The Senate And House Of Representatives Conference Committee On The Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021...
At Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja..
On Thursday 21st October 2021.
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GOODWILL REMARKS BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC), PROFESSOR MAHMOOD YAKUBU, AT THE MEETING OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ON THE ELECTORAL ACT AMENDMENT BILL 2021 AT TRANSCORP HILTON HOTEL, ABUJA, ON THURSDAY 21ST OCTOBER 2021

1.​ On behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), I would like to extend our appreciation for the invitation to deliver Goodwill Remarks at this very important harmonization meeting. For almost two years, the Commission has interacted with the Senate Committee on INEC and the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters, including a retreat in Lagos, to consider our extensive proposals to amend the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended). The Commission was invited to join the technical committee that reviewed the draft Bill before the clause-by-clause consideration by the National Assembly. Clearly, we are now at the last stage before the passage of the Bill by the National Assembly and submission to the Executive for assent.

2.​ The Electoral Act is one of the most important laws in any democracy. Election is a process anchored on a legal framework. First is the Constitution, followed by the Electoral Act. In all jurisdictions, the Electoral Act provides more detailed provisions to govern the conduct of elections and the electoral process. One of the unique aspects of the current amendment of the Electoral Act is that it started well ahead of the forthcoming General Election, unlike previous exercises which came too close to elections. The importance of starting early is that it allows for a thorough debate by citizens on aspects of the Bill long after the conventional public hearing as witnessed recently. Clearly, the Electoral Amendment Bill 2021 is one of the most extensively debated Bills in Nigeria.

3.​ Understandably, the issue of technology in elections has dominated recent public discussions in Nigeria. The Commission appreciates the decision of the National Assembly to empower INEC to determine and deploy appropriate technology in future elections. For us in INEC, this is one of the progressive decisions by our National Assembly. As you finalise on the Electoral Amendment Bill, I urge you to continue to endow the Commission with power to determine what technology to deploy in our elections at the appropriate time. One way of doing so is to make broad provisions of the law that will empower the Commission to continue to innovate without restricting us to a specific technology such as the Smart Card Reader which could in due course become obsolete, inapplicable or irrelevant as is already the case following the recent introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) by the Commission.

4.​ The Commission looks forward to the conclusion of the process without which we cannot make the Regulations and Guidelines to give effect to the provisions of the law. Without the Regulations and Guidelines, we cannot finalise on the manuals for the training of officials that will conduct elections. There are extensive provisions in the current Bill that require clear guidance by the Commission. With only 484 days to the 2023 General Election, time is of the essence. In addition to the Anambra State Governorship election holding on 6th November 2021, the Commission has already scheduled three major elections to be conducted next year. First is the Area Council election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) holding on 12th February 2022, followed by the Ekiti Governorship election on 18th June 2022 and the Osun Governorship election a month later on 16th July 2022. The Commission also has five pending bye-elections made up of three Federal Constituencies and two State Constituencies to contend with.

5.​ I want to assure you that in a proactive manner, the Commission has been studying aspects of the amendment Bill and identifying areas that require the formulation of regulations and guidelines as well as the review of prescribed forms for implementation. This will enable the Commission to test-run procedures and pilot innovations ahead of the 2023 General Election. The speedy passage of the Bill will be in the best interest of our electoral process.

6.​ INEC will continue to work closely with the National Assembly and I thank you for the opportunity to speak to you on this occasion. God bless.

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Source:
https://www.facebook.com/100064292065433/posts/249766277176439

I will still continue to trust INEC shaa...
No matter what.
That's the only hope we have left for now.
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it is only “Free and Fair and Credible Elections” that can save Nigeria.
“Free and Fair Elections” is the only saviour that can bring Nigeria out from all these mess that we are currently experiencing..
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With “Free and Fair and Credible Elections”, the elected officers would always be thinking about the people, and not about the INEC or the Electoral Officers on the field.
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With “Free and Fair and Credible Elections”, the elected officers would not be bothered about the godfathers or the cabals. In fact, the cabals themselves would be the ones helping the elected officers in looking out for ways to better satisfy the people so that they would not loose out by the next election.
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With “Free and Fair and Credible Elections”, looting is minimised, because the people now have a very strong voice. The people would from time to time demand for an interaction with the elected officer either through an on-air live radio/television program, or through a press conference, or through a town-hall meeting, of which such an officer would not decline, since he knows the repercussions for denying his people such an opportunity for interaction.
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With “Free and Fair and Credible Elections”, Government would always be under the full watch of the people, and with that, a lot of senseless excesses of the Government would be under tight check. The people would be in full control of the Government's activities, since they now have a strong voice (even though the voice is heard only Once-In-Four-Years).
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A lot of people might believe that the problem with Nigeria is that, the System of Government which Nigeria operates with is a very faulty system, and thus it needs a total overhauling.
But then, who are the ones to do this overhauling?
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Let me make the whole discussions clearer by demonstrating with the analogy of a building and its foundation.
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Let's assume that a multi-purpose building is to be built by some group of persons, which is supposed to harbour lots of commercial and industrial activities as well as serve for residential purposes too, all inside one building.
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The erection of the building and the equipments as well as managing and operating and maintenance of the building and the systems in it becomes the project, and to be handled by Contractors.
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The physical building itself including the foundation is the structure, while the equipments that are to be installed inside it for the purposes of all the activities that are going to be carried-out inside the building are the various components of the system which operates the building, and the various components of the system are manned by operators who are engaged by the Contractors.
The sum of all the equipments in the building makes up the system that operates the building.
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Then, there are workers, and there are traders and merchants, there are visitors, and there are residents too.
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So now, let us start from the analogy of the Foundation.
Before anybody builds a house, the person doesn't know anything about the foundation, and thus, he doesn't know the best foundation which is going to carry the building.
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The person must involve a good Contractor who conducts the necessary tests and assessments, and decide which foundation should serve best for the type of proposed building.
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Then the Contractor can enter the site and erect such a foundation, and then proceed to construct the building itself, including all the necessary equipments.
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Let us now assume that an inexperienced Contractor had already erected a faulty foundation, and then another inexperienced Contractor took over the job and continued the building on top of the faulty foundation, and then, some other Contractors took over the operation and maintenance of the building and the equipments.
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As time goes on, the building started developing cracks and started showing signs that it may collapse anytime soon, and then, the owners of the building have looked around for some Contractors who would fix the problem, but it happened that the Contractors they found around are also inexperienced..
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(The owners of the building thought that they found the new Contractors, not knowing that the current Contractors whom they hoped to replace, were actually the ones who imposed the new inexperienced Contractors on them by making use of the faulty selection equipment which was installed into the building as part of the system that runs the building).
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These new inexperienced Contractors were mixing mortar and binders and were mending the cracks (just the way the inexperienced Contractors that left before they came in were doing), rather that looking deep into the problem and conducting some necessary tests and assessments in order to know the remote and immediate causes of the problem.
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The owners of the building had to tell these present inexperienced Contractors that the problem is with the foundation of the building, and the Contractors responded that they are aware but that it would be disastrous to start working on the foundation at the moment, since there are people already actively occupying the building (which is true).
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So, even if the owners of the building forced these present inexperienced Contractors to start working on the foundation in order to correct it, they will end up somewhere very bad.
Yes..
It is an established fact that the foundation is very very bad, but if the inexperienced Contractors are left to mend it, things will be very worse.
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Ok..
Now, let me stress the analogy of the Foundation And The Building further..
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Nigeria has a lot of Gazetted Laws (so many many of them) apart from the Constitution, and these Gazetted Laws are not supposed to go beyond or against the Constitution.
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So, let us assume that the whole of the Constitution and all the Laws inside it is the foundation of the building, and that all the other Gazetted Laws are the building blocks of the upper part of the building, and then, that all the Ministries and Agencies and Departments and Parastatals that are established as a result of the Constitution and the Gazettes as the equipments that are operating inside the building.
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Now, it had been determined that the building itself and the foundation upon which it is standing are both faulty, and may come crashing down any moment.
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It had also been determined that the Contractors that are currently managing the building are so inexperienced to the extent that they don't care about putting the building in good shape or even erecting a better one in place of it - that is - they had the chance to decide on what to do to the house to make it stronger and more durable, but they ruled out the option of renovation or pulling the whole house down and starting it all afresh, rather they opted to continued operating the building with all the cracks in it, and continued mending the wide cracks in the building, even without caring about what caused the cracks.
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It had also been determined that the occupants of the building have no other place to go.. That means, they must remain there inside the building as the Contractor continues to work on the house.
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Now...
At a point like this..
What must be the option??
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Would the best option be to force the current inexperienced Contractors to try their best on the foundation? When they don't even know what was exactly wrong with the foundation, not to talk of knowing exactly what to do to the foundation in order to fix it; or even sef, if the ownwrs of the building told them what to do to the foundation, they may not even know how to start doing what the owners of the building suggested due to their gross inexperience.. (that is, assuming that what the owners of the building told them to do was even the best option, since the owners of the building themselves might not be experienced too).
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Ok..
Let us try to solve the situation..
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Being that the occupants are not going to leave the house - which had made the situation a very difficult and a very delicate situation - then, the best option should he a batched renovation.
It is not any kind of Contractor can handle this type of work.
And again, the people occupying the house must agree to cooperate within themselves even before the work starts. Because, they are expected to suffer some various degrees of discomfort inside their various enclosures whenever the work is going-on on their own side of the building. The ones at the part where the work started should sacrifice their comfort first, and not be comparing or complaining (or wailing) that the other people are not suffering same discomfort.
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So, to get a very good Contractor (or Contractors) who would handle the renovation (because that's just what the building needed), the owners of the building shouldn't just rush and select another Contractor with the faulty selection equipment again as they used to do all these while (which definitely must end up selecting another inexperienced Contractor again).
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They must agree within themselves to set-up a good selection equipment which would replace the faulty one that was being used all these while..This new selection equipment must be totally within their control as the owners of the building, and not like the faulty one that was under the full control of whoever that is the present Contractor.
By control, it means that the owners can replace the present Contractor even without giving him any warning, and he himself might not even know that he is about to be replaced.
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With this new selection equipment, once any aspirant Contractor finished giving his proposals on how to renovate the building, if whatever he was saying was not convincing enough, then he would not be selected.
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Even when the aspirant Contractor sounded so convincing, and he got the job to renovate the building, and he took over the job and started doing nonsense, the owners of the building would just remove him even before he took too many steps, even when he was still thinking that whatever he was doing was the best.. The owners have decided to replace him because his work is not convincing enough when compared with how convincing his proposals sounded.
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One advantage is that, as the Contractors (as experienced as they are) continued to work and get replaced, the true problems with both building and its foundation would be understood better.
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Now, imagine a situation where the Contractors had always been the ones that were choosing themselves and imposing themselves to do the job using the faulty selection equipment.
All they continued to do was to continue to operate the system in the building and continue to mend the building and be waiting for the moment the building would collapse.
The owners cannot even select Competent Contractors by themselves even if they tried.
The selection equipment that is part of the system is a faulty equipment.
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BUT THEIR IS HOPE.
Some blocks in the building (and in the foundation) are still strong and good, while some are bad.
Some equipments that are installed in the building are still functioning efficiently and effectively, while some are faulty.
Some building-blocks and equipments needed to be removed and replaced once the renovation starts, while some would be retained.
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The selection equipment for sure must be replaced, and the new equipment must be tested and trusted and accepted by the owners and the occupants of the building before it can be used to even select the first series of Contractors who would definitely do their best at putting the building in order (even if the first series of the selected Contractors were semi-experienced, at least it would pass as an achieved progress towards a better structure and a better system).
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It would be better for it to be that the Contractors whom the owners of the building truly selected did their very best, but that their best was not good enough.
Rather than to have some self-imposed Contractors who never had it in their minds to do anything tangible about the building, and they came into the system and bastardised what was left of the collapsing system.

Lalasticlala,
Seun