Dr. Olusegun Odekunle is the chairman, Forum of Electoral Officers, Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) and the electoral officer for Ibadan North-East Local Government. He speaks with ABIODUN AWOLAJA on voter apathy in the state and sundry issues. Excerpts:
Because of what people perceive as bad governance, many Nigerians are not as excited about elections at any level as they should naturally be. What is your experience in the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) in this regard?
My experience in OYSIEC so far has been good. We have notice that our people don’t have strong belief in the electoral umpire, maybe as a result of what has happened in the past. But things have changed and now votes count. I can say it categorically. The election I conducted in my local government was a true reflection of the wishes of the people, yet I didn’t have great numbers of people coming out for the election, based on the number of registered voters. Maybe people don’t really trust us, even with all the assurances given that we were going to be fair. And I can say it categorically that no rigging ever takes place unless sanctioned by the people. If you say you don’t want rigging, rigging will not take place because you have the total number of voters on the register and you cannot expect more votes than that. If a polling unit has just 73 registered voters, there is no magic you can perform to create, say, 100 voters. You cannot have somebody standing for two people: once you have your PVC, it applies to you alone. And don’t forget we have so many other processes. We have the biometric verification, we can do manual verification. Even when you don’t have your PVC, we can check your data. So, rigging is out of the question but many people still live in the past, believing that election will be rigged.
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What specific steps have you put in place to ensure that elections are free, fair and credible?
Part of it is the electronic voting that has been announced and put in place. You have biometric verification: the essence is that no two individuals can vote twice or double-stand. My biometric details are different from your own. Now you have your registration done and you have what is called 4-4-2. You have NIN registration and all your fingerprints are captured. With any of your fingerprints available, we can bring out your data. It has nullified rigging. As results are coming out, they are transmitted to the national portal. This is to eliminate rigging.
What is the situation with continuous voter registration in Oyo State?
We still have voter apathy. People have not responded well. Even those who initially responded by registering to vote have not looked back. As I am talking to you, presently in Oyo State, we have over 7,00,000 PVCs uncollected, a number which is enough to bring in a new government.
Is that people have not been informed, say by SMS, to come and collect their PVCs?
There are lots of channels and media platforms where people are being informed. As I am saying now on behalf of OYSIEC Electoral Officers Forum, PVCs are ready, especially for those who had registered with INEC before and up till December 28, 2021.
What is the process of collection? Are people supposed to pay any money?
No. It is free. In the process of data capturing that was done, a ticket was given to them. You just go with your ticket to the local government where your polling unit is situated. Go to the INEC office there and you will be given your PVC free of charge.
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A lot of people say that when local government elections are conducted, they tend to be won by the party in power. How do you respond to that?
It may have been like that before, but the elections conducted under the watch of His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde, have not been like that. I had an experience directly and I have been privileged to speak with some people in power. They never mandated us to ensure that election is won by the ruling party. We have given everybody leverage: APC, PDP, Labour Party and so on. At the councillorship level, we have candidates of other parties that won in Oyo area and in Ona Ara. But you know that the chairmanship is an accumulation of votes in different areas and we had PDP winning. But it is not magical. It was what the people did.
What do you want people to do now that they are not doing?
We are appealing to our people in Oyo State. If you are clamouring for good governance, the power to make it happen is in your hands. The continuous voter registration is terminating by the end of this month. That is by law. In just a few days, the online portal will be shut down. We have a little over a month more for the biometric capturing to take place in the respective INEC offices across the 774 local government areas in the country. So, I want our people to go out and do their registration. You can transfer from one polling unit to another. If you were living in Kaduna before but you are now back in Oyo State as a result of terrorist activities, that does not hinder you from performing your civic responsibilities. You can do transfer from Kaduna to Oyo. You can transfer within the same state, from one local government to another local government; and even within the same local government, from one polling unit to another polling unit. The window is open now, but you have only a few days to get it done.
Apart from that, you can do correction of name and gender if there was an error in the previous registration you have done. Also, if you have lost your PVC or it is defaced, you can ask for a replacement. That is why I have mentioned four cardinal points: new registration, correction, transfer, loss or replacement. You can access this on the INEC portal or go to our respective offices in the 774 local governments.
What are the major challenges OYSIEC is facing in Oyo State and how do you thing you can overcome those challenges?
Part of the challenges we face is people’s perception that INEC offices are faraway or far removed from their location. How I wish there would be greater collaboration between OYSIEC and political parties. OYSIEC is an independent body. Also, state electoral commissions should have greater synergy with INEC, not just in Oyo State but all over Nigeria. We look forward to having sufficient resources to organise voter education. INEC staff may not be sufficient for this; that is the reason OYSIEC is available. We can go from town to town, city to city, markets, etc, for voter education, letting people know that the power of change that they are asking for is in their hands.
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