The Independent National Electoral Commissioner (INEC) has weighed in on the debate about Nigeria’s capability to introduce postal voting ahead of the 2023 elections.

In an interview with TheCable, Festus Okoye, a national commissioner, said although the commission is committed to deepening the use of technology in the electoral process, postal voting would require a “functional and robust postal system”.

But an official of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), who declined to be named because she was not authorised to speak, said the service does not have the infrastructure to support postal vote in the next general election.

Okoye, who is the chairman of INEC information and voter education committee, said the system would require amending the relevant electoral laws.

What is postal voting? Ballot papers are mailed to voters who vote and return by post for onward transmission to the election centres. In the United States where almost half of the voters – 65 million people – voted by mail in the just concluded presidential election, the ballot papers, upon arrival at the processing centres, are photographed, converted to text and sorted.

With just about 20 months left before the next general election in Nigeria, some have argued that postal voting would help in addressing some loopholes in the electoral process especially with regards to violence at the polling units.

Okoye, however, told TheCable that Nigeria’s postal system is “not in the best shape” for electorate to vote by mail, and if that is addressed, another challenge would be amending the electoral act.

He said although the electoral act empowers INEC to determine electoral procedures, the commission is also restrained by parts of the law that prescribe specific routine for the conduct of elections.

For instance, sections 49(1) and 52(3), respectively, require voters to be present at the polling unit and that votes must be cast through open secret ballots with the use of ballot boxes.

Okoye said: “The commission has made elaborate recommendations to the national assembly to amend sections 48, 49,50, 53, 54 and other ancillary provisions to introduce electronic voting machines and other technological solutions in the electoral process.

“The commission will also embark on comprehensive and far reaching update of the existing voters register and the continuous registration of voters. The commission and the Nigerian people are attuned to the deepening of technology in the electoral process.

“We want to introduce electronic voting machines and gradually migrate to Internet voting and the use of other electronic platforms and solutions. Mail-in ballots and postal voting depend on a functional and robust postal system.

“Our postal system is not in the best shape and did not fundamentally upgrade in line with technological changes in the world. Even in advanced democracies, the postal system still struggles to cope with the volume of mail in ballots and postal voting.”

He said the chances of adopting mail-in ballots and postal voting in Nigeria is “rather remote” and will involve “a change in the electoral legal framework”.

‘NIPOST NOT READY FOR POSTAL VOTING’

TheCable was unable to reach Franklyn Alao, NIPOST’s general manager for corporate communications, but an official of the service told TheCable the agency is not ready to be deployed for postal voting.

The official said this is is because of the lack of adequate investment in its operations coupled with security challenges.

She also spoke of the sophistication of the US Postal Service (USPS) which TheCable found out has 31,300 post offices compared to NIPOST’s 955.

She said: “The government has not invested in NIPOST for them to have the capacity to handle that. They have to look at the welfare of our staff. If the staff are not adequately taken care of, they can compromise.

“The US postal service is one of the highest paid organisations in the US. But at NIPOST, we are just collecting the normal civil service salary.

“During our own elections, you know there used to be violence and we are not adequattely protected for that; they can burn down our offices and hijack our mail vehicles along the road. We don’t have the security to handle that for now.”

Another senior member of NIPOST staff told TheCable that voting by mail will be beneficial to many Nigerians and will also lead to a spike in number of votes in elections.

“Mails can be sent to people; they will just do their voting and send it back (and) it will be less stressful,” said the official who also asked not to be named.

“They won’t have to leave the comfort of their home to go and queue up in the sun coupled with the violence in the polling stations.”

The Cable

On Thursday, news that the federal government had earmarked N380 billion for the prosecution of Boko Haram suspects went viral on social media. The information, which was shared via a photo taken from a television programme that featured the budget defence session of the national assembly, had the message: “N380 billion projection for prosecution of Boko Haram suspects”.

As the photo was shared across social media platforms, a similar caption was used by different individuals.

The tweets, one of which got over 2,500 likes and nearly 2,000 retweets, compared the said amount to a proposed allocation made to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for revitalisation of universities across the country.

“N380 billion earmarked in the 2021 Budget for the prosecution of Boko Haram suspects. We gave ASUU N20billion to revitalize 90 public universities in Nigeria. Psychological test on our ruling elites is key,” one of the tweets read.

2021 BUDGET OF ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE

On October 8, President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2021 budget proposal to a joint session of the national assembly. This was done after the federal executive council (FEC) approved N13.09 trillion for the 2021 fiscal year.

The 2021 budget termed: “Budget of Economic Recovery and Resilience” is expected to accelerate the pace of Nigeria’s economic recovery, promote economic diversification, enhance competitiveness and ensure social inclusion.

In the proposed budget, total federally distributable revenue is estimated at N8.433 trillion, total revenue available to fund the 2021 federal budget is estimated at N7.886 trillion. This includes grants and aid of N354.85 billion as well as the revenues of 60 government-owned enterprises.

The 2021 Budget deficit (inclusive of Government Owned Enterprises and project-tied loans), is projected at N5.20 trillion. The deficit will be financed mainly by new borrowings totaling N4.28 trillion, N205.15 billion from privatisation proceeds and N709.69 billion in drawdowns on multilateral and bilateral loans secured for specific projects and programmes.

DID FG EARMARK N380 BILLION FOR PROSECUTION OF BOKO HARAM SUSPECTS?

Checks by TheCable showed that there is no evidence to support the news of N380 billion earmarked for prosecution of Boko Haram suspects. Documents from the budget office provided a breakdown of projects under various ministries for the 2021 fiscal year.

Of the N20.2 billion earmarked for the federal ministry of justice, a total allocation of N8.2 billion was proposed for activities under the ministry’s headquarters with a project which has code ERGP17155226 named “prosecution of prison inmates and decongestion of correction centres nationwide”.

For the project, N380 million was earmarked. Other projects in the section include “prosecution of maritime/offshore offences” with N275 million earmarked; “justice sector reform, decentralization of correctional services centre” with a proposed N375 million fund; among others.

BUDGET DEFENCE AND SENATE SITTINGS

Although the project on “prosecution of prison inmates and decongestion of correction centres nationwide” did not focus on Boko Haram, findings from the senate budget defence committee showed that the project is meant for prosecution of Boko Haram suspects.

Speaking before the senate committee on judiciary, legal and human rights matters, on Monday, Dayo Apata, the solicitor-general of the federation, said more lawyers will be needed for the prosecution of 3,000 inmates.

Apata, who was accompanied by Abubakar Malami, minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation, said the ministry of justice has proposed N2 billion to cover its legal services for the 2021 fiscal year.

Ajibola Basiru, the senate spokesperson and member of the panel, had earlier quizzed the proposed allocation over overlapping details.

Reacting to the development while addressing journalists, Opeyemi Bamidele, chairperson of the senate panel, had said more explanation is needed on the proposal.

“There is a need for further explanation and documentation on the figure we have before us,” he said.

“The Boko Haram thing is a war of some sort being prosecuted by Nigeria. It is not just the ministry of justice, all of our armed forces, they are doing a lot of extra budgetary spending because when you are prosecuting a war you deal with situations as they arise.”

CONCLUSION: The claim that federal government earmarked N380 billion for the prosecution of Boko Haram suspects is FALSE. The project on “prosecution of prison inmates and decongestion of correction centres nationwide” has a budget proposal of N380 million.

The Cable