The recent controversy about underage voting has thrown the legitimacy of the 2019 elections into disrepute.
playUnderage voting has reared its ugly head again and it poses troubling questions about 2019 (Daily Post)The short explanation for the role democracy plays in the framework of a nation is that its result is a representation of the people's choice, a majority of them anyway.
For years, Nigerians have obsessed over ensuring that the process of the country's democracy reaches an optimum level where the interests of the nation are most pivotal.
Every election cycle, this obsession reaches its peak as candidates, political parties and the electorate extol the values of democracy and the importance of making every single vote count.
This obsession with free and fair elections has been the catalyst for countless electoral litigations that have resulted in countless overruled election results and court-appointed victories.
With the way elections have been conducted in Nigeria over the past two decades, it is fair to say it hasn't been smooth sailing. The country's history with electoral irregularities has informed Nigerians' fervent vigilance towards electoral conducts as the 2019 general elections approach.
Judging by recent events, there might be a genuine reason to worry about the sanctity of the nation's so-called democracy.
Kano underage voting controversy
During the Kano State local government elections that took place on February 10, 2018, the rulingAll Progressives' Congress (APC) swept all the 44 chairmanship and 484 councillorship seats.
The election was conducted by the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC)and, unsurprisingly, was heavily criticised by the People's Democratic Party (PDP) for outright cheating, underage voting and ballot stuffing.
Days after the election, pictures emerged on social media showing that children, apparently under the voting age of 18, participated in the elections, brandishing Permanent Voter's Cards that shouldn't be in their possession by the laws of democracy.
The disturbing images solidified the position of the PDP and the party has not wasted the opportunity of piling the pressure on INEC and ramping up concerns about the state of the 2019 general elections.
INEC's initial poor reaction
In reaction to the public storm that gathered over the images that flooded social media, INEC tried to absolve itself of the blame and failed miserably.
According to the commission's Director of Publicity and Voter Education, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, the blame for the underage voting mess was not its responsibility in any way.
He said, "The attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been drawn to videos and pictures purportedly showing some underage thumb printing ballot papers in a recent election. These images have been circulating online since Saturday.
"The Commission wishes to inform the public that the images do not relate in any way to any election organised, conducted or superintended by INEC. As far as the Commission can ascertain, they relate to a Local Government election conducted at the weekend, and over which we have no legal control or responsibility whatsoever.
"As far as we can ascertain, they (the pictures) relate to a local government election conducted at the weekend (in Kano).
"While the Commission remains resolute in our commitment to sanitise the nation's electoral process and deliver free, fair and credible elections, we cannot be held directly or vicariously liable for a process outside our legal purview."
While KANSIEC should indeed take the bulk of the blame for whatever irregularities arose from that election, INEC's attempt to completely float above the scandal fails since it was the one that provided KANSIEC with the national voter register to conduct the election.
Those underage voters only have made it to the voting stage because INEC handed them PVCs and put them in its register.
So, what's up, INEC?
INEC helpless against underage voting
With the undignified failure of its initial response and the increased scrutiny it invited, Osaze-Uzzi returned to explain INEC's struggle with the menace of underage voting.
According to him, registration officers are threatened by local communities to register underage applicants, with their lives under mortal risk.
"I agree that it is the responsibility of the registration officer to do that (refuse to register underage people), but there are times that circumstances are such that where there is present and clear danger that he risks being assaulted or being killed, I think it will be unreasonable to expect him not to succumb to the pressure. But we encourage them to report immediately they get out of that dangerous zone," he said.
In what was a chilling admission, Osaze-Uzzi lamented that despite INEC's best efforts to rid the system of anomalies such as underage voting, it's impossible for the process to be perfect.
He said, "I think the law recognises that being a human endeavour, it may not be perfect and that is why it gives some kind of leeway such that when you weigh everything together, it is a reflection of what the people have chosen.
"If one percent of the register has underage persons; will this affect the outcome?"
An ugly truth
Nigeria's struggle with the multifaceted monster of electoral misconduct has been gruelling as underage voting remains one of the most persistent troubles.
According to a former INEC national commissioner, Prof. Lai Olurode, underage voting was also a problem when he served under the widely-acclaimed tenure of former chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega.
Prof. Olurode suggested that there are certain parts of the country notorious for encouraging underage voting with community leaders taking an active part in the process.
He lamented, "I had to run for my life at one of the election centres in a part of the country because these people said children must vote or there would be no election at all. It is that bad.
"In the course of my service to the nation during the Jega's era, it was happening in many parts of the country but there are specific geographic locations where it is very common which means the problem can be tackled if responded to promptly by all the stakeholders."
It's no secret that the rest of the country has always treated the high electoral numbers of the northern zones with great suspicion.
It's a widely held belief that numbers from the zone, more than most, are always inflated to serve selfish agendas, especially for presidential elections.
Events such as the one that happened in Kano is a manifestation of such suspicions and sort of legitimises it as a genuine concern heading into 2019.
While high off the euphoria of the absolute victory of the APC in the February 10 elections, Kano governor, Abdullahi Ganduje promised to rally 5 million votes in the state for President Muhammadu Buhari if he seeks re-election next year.
According to INEC's statistics, as of January 2018, Kano has 5,149,070 registered voters. When the state had just 4,975,702 in 2015, only less than half (2,172,447) voted, as Buhari got an overwhelming 1,903,999.
The confidence that spurred the governor's brave promise is one of the markers fueling concern about how free the nation's voting system is.
If underage voting is as rampant as many suspect, then how reliable, really, is Nigeria's electoral system?
No one is under any illusion that the system is stellar, or even close to that, but the knowledge that INEC's own Director of Voter Education thinks one percent of illegal underage voters is an insignificant problem is a worrying thought.
On Wednesday, February 21, INEC announced the formation of an eight-member committee to investigate the claims in Kano but the outcome of the committee's probe is not expected to affect the results of the election in any significant form; the deed, it appears, has been done.
However, this event presents a huge moment for INEC to explore innovative measures of getting around the problem of voter fraud.
Prof. Olurode suggests that the Federal Government should effect a system of harmonising several databases in the country to deter underage voting.
He said if the database of people with driving licences, passports, national identity cards and Bank Verification Numbers could be harmonised, it would be easier to get authentic information of Nigerians and curb underage voting.
While that will go a long way in easing the problem of verification for registration officers, the problem of threats to their lives still linger.
Osaze-Uzzi already revealed that there's a process for when officers register illegals under duress as they can report to the commission and expunge the fraudulent names from the register, but it's apparent that this is not effective enough.
INEC needs to realise how much of a pressing need there is to reach a definitive solution on this mess that'll convince the Nigerian public that their votes are not being sabotaged by the fraudulence of a few.
The commission is one of the most significant custodians of Nigeria's democracy and it is vital that it is not perceived as too incompetent to accurately represent the will of legal voters. One percent of illegal voters in the voter register is not a negligible figure.
It is critical that when the dust settles on the 2019 general elections, INEC can boast that it conducted free, fair and credible elections.
More importantly, Nigerians should be convinced enough to believe them.
As it stands, there's so much to be desired.
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