Six weeks to this year’s general
elections, the Federal Government has yet to appropriate the remaining
N75bn out of the N120bn budgeted for the conduct of the poll by the
Independent National Electoral Commission.
This, according to social commentators,
lawyers, and other concerned stakeholders is already hampering the
INEC’s preparations for the much awaited elections.
Saturday PUNCH reported that INEC
had estimated that it would need N120bn to prepare for the elections,
but only N45bn was appropriated by the Budget Office of the Federation
in 2014 budget, leaving a shortfall of N75bn.
The House of Representatives had
recently raised concerns over the general elections, saying that
adequate funding and security would determine the credibility of the
polls.
The House Committee on Electoral Matters
said it had resolved to summon the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru
Jega, to brief the lawmakers on the preparedness of the commission to
conduct the poll.
Chairman of the committee, Mr. Jerry
Manwe, in an exclusive interview with one of our correspondents, said
while Nigerians expected INEC to conduct credible polls, they were not
asking questions about the funding available to the commission and the
“disturbing insecurity situation in some parts of the country.”
Manwe said, “We expect a credible, free and fair polls, but this will again depend on funding of INEC and security.
“My committee will summon Jega to brief
us on the INEC’s preparation for the elections. Jega has to come and
meet with the committee because there are sensitive issues we have to
look at, one of them is insecurity.
“Funding and security play a role in the
credibility of any election. So, we will have to look at all these with
the INEC chairman.”
In June, the House had raised the alarm over alleged shortfall in funding of INEC, especially as regards the general elections.
After going through the proposals for
the 2014 budget, the committee said it found out that of the N120bn the
commission proposed for the general elections, the Budget Office of the
Federation only made a provision for N45bn.
The committee noted at the time that the approved N45bn left a balance of about N75bn.
“Of the N120bn that INEC proposed, only
N45bn was given to the commission by government. It means that the
commission is short of a huge difference of N75bn. As the committee on
electoral matters, our work is to alert the relevant authorities on our
findings and the implications for the 2015 elections,” the committee had
warned in June.
Manwe had expressed doubts that the situation would have improved remarkably.
The International Crisis Group, a
Belgium-based advocacy organisation, in a report titled: “Nigeria’s
dangerous 2015 elections: Limiting the Violence” released on November
21, 2014, also claimed that dwindling allocations to INEC was already
hampering its preparations towards the 2015 elections.
According to ICG, one of INEC greatest challenges arises from funding gaps.
It said, “In 2011, the commission was given
N85bn (then approximately $515m) from a special fund that enabled it to conduct that year’s elections successfully.
“However, in 2012, its allocation
dropped to N35bn (some $225m) and then dropped further to N32bn (about
$200m) in 2013. This year (2014), the commission had estimated it would
need N93bn ($560m) to prepare for the 2015 elections, but it was
appropriated only N45bn ($272m). The reduced funding and the
inconsistent manner in which it is disbursed have hampered some of the
commission’s preparations.”
The ICG noted that inadequate funding had affected the storage of voters’ data.
Explaining difficulties with equipment
for updating the voter register, INEC Chairman, Jega, had said, “The
major challenge was storage. For the last three years, every time we
prepared our budget, we requested funding to create a facility in order
to appropriately store our equipment. Regrettably, we never had this
funding requirement met, and the way the equipment was stored really
left much to be desired.
The ICG, in the report, gave this as one
of the reasons INEC had not been able to produce a “clean” voter
register few months to the elections.
The spokesperson for the INEC Chairman,
Mr. Kayode Idowu, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, said, “On the
issue of funding, the commission is engaging the authorities and the
response is encouraging; we must state that clearly. We are expecting an
invitation from the National Assembly to appear before it as regards
this issue.
“The funding of an election is not
usually in the election year. Like I said, we are meeting with the
authorities and releases are being made. There is no shortfall of
funding anywhere. We don’t know where the figures being peddled come
from and how it is being calculated.”
On financial constraint being the reason
for the poor distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards, Idowu said,
“Clearly and categorically, it is not true. We didn’t distribute the
cards at the same time.
“As regards the issue of timing, it is a
function of the budget. We have certain number of days at the polling
unit level. It does not make economic sense to spend endless days at the
polling units.
“All over the country, we are using
about 350,000 people, paying them about N2bn per day. How can that be
budgeted for? We don’t have the luxury of shedding off that kind of
money for many days because we also have to look at the big picture.
“Many people are looking at the
microscopic picture. For how long can we pay N2bn per day? That is why
we said we would spend three days for the exercise. It is good to have a
model that will save costs. That is why we said we are distributing the
cards at the local government offices.
“We cannot keep these workers at the
polling units for days because we cannot keep spending billions of naira
every day. It simply cannot be budgeted for, it doesn’t make sense.
“We do not see any possibility that the
election would not hold because of lack of funding. We should be
optimistic that the elections would come and go without any hitches. The
economic condition will not affect the election process, since the will
is there.”
A Lagos-based economist, Mr. Babatunde Abrahams, said that inadequate funding could affect the integrity of the elections.
He said that if there are no funds to
carry out the electioneering process in details, there would be certain
flops that would be created which electoral fraudsters could exploit to
rig the elections.
He also said that if the Federal
Government and INEC were to be honest, the global slump in oil price
would affect the funding of the upcoming elections.
He said, “When INEC presented its budget
for the elections, the oil price had not fallen. They had based their
budget on the oil price benchmark for the year, the only commodity on
which the country survives.
“Now by my calculation, if the oil price
has slumped and some of the countries that used to buy from us are not
buying again either because they are finding alternatives to oil or have
discovered the commodity in their own lands, then how would it not
affect the funding that accrues to INEC?
“Yes, the commission may claim that they
are receiving support from government to avoid hitches, but the truth
is there is going to be some form of problem or the other except we want
to be economical with the truth.”
Abrahams added that if the commission
were receiving any financial support from the Federal Government at the
moment, it meant that the latter was dipping its hands into funds meant
for other sectors of the economy.
“Ultimately, it would require sacrifices
here and there to make the next elections feasible from the economic
point of view,” he said.
A social commentator and lawyer, Mr.
Rasheed Bamisile, said it was embarrassing that the budget was released
by the Federal Government in piece meal.
He said releasing the money in tranches
was an indication that the Federal Government was not prepared for the
smooth conduct of the much expected elections, especially if approval of
the INEC budget was total.
Bamisile said, “Before the sum of the
N45bn initially given to the INEC was released, there must have been
approval by the ministry of finance or any other relevant government
agency. So, withholding part of the money budgeted for the execution of
the elections may be interpreted to mean that government is already
putting a spanner in the wheel of the electoral process.”
According to him, the development may
mar the credibility of the elections as some of the electoral officials
may be lured or compromised by corrupt politicians, if their emoluments
are not promptly paid by the INEC.
Bamisile said, “The general elections
are less than two months away and if the remaining N75bn is not released
to the INEC in the first week of January for the commission to address
some likely challenges in terms of logistics, it means the commission
will have to use one vehicle to convey election materials to about four
or five local government areas and if this is the case, there is
possibility that the credibility of election may be marred.
“The election may not be rigged, but if
the process is underfunded, its credibility can still be doubted. The
development can also affect the credibility of the INEC Chairman.”
Former Chairman of the Ikeja branch of
the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Monday Ubani, said the slashing of the
N120bn proposed by the INEC to N45bn in addition to the non-release of
the fund justified the fear that there might not be free and fair
election in 2015.
He said, “If that is true then my fear
has been justified that INEC will not conduct free and fair election in
2015. If a budget proposal of N120bn was made and only about N45bn was
appropriated; even up till now the money has not been released.
“Then it means they are bent on ensuring
that the election is not credible or that it does not hold. An alarm
should be raised about the danger ahead.”
He added that slump in oil price should never be a basis for non-release of the fund.
He said, “Nigeria has been experiencing
oil boom for many years, and we experience slump in oil price just for
three months and you started imposing austerity measures on key sectors
that do not affect the budget. That is baseless. Meanwhile, the
austerity measures they are introducing have not reflected in the budget
of the presidency.”
Another Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Malachy
Ugwummadu, said the non-release of the required fund to INEC would only
compound the threat already posed by insecurity in the North-East to the
credible conduct of the general elections.
The activist said, “The security
challenges in North-East especially in three states still pose threat to
the constitutional requirement that should be attained by a person that
can be validly declared as winner of the presidential election.
“That alone should be enough challenge.
The budget is a law, it is meant to be implemented. INEC must not be
allowed to reel under underfunding. If INEC is not properly funded,
there will be excuse for them to conduct elections that are not free and
fair.”
