In keeping with an age-long tradition, the Independent National Electoral Commission on Friday released its comprehensive report on the 2023 general elections and responded to some of the issues in the public square on its conduct. The Commission also made recommendations on how to improve the future electoral process.

INEC in its 526-page document, structured into 13 chapters and enhanced with 60 tables, 14 boxes and 10 graphs, offers an in-depth analysis of the election’s key processes, achievements, and challenges, alongside valuable lessons learned.

According to the INEC Chairman in his foreword to report “One key outcome of the Commission’s interaction with stakeholders was the replacement of the Smart Card Reader (SCR) with the INEC Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for voter accreditation using the twin option of fingerprints or facial biometric authentication of voters at the PUs The same system is used as the INEC Voter Enrollment Device during voter registration.

“The BVAS which also has the application to scan and upload PU results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal eliminated the possibility of anyone being able to vote more than once or do so using someone else’s Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC).

Professor Yakubu also stated the willingness of the Commission to learn from its different experiences “I must also reiterate the Commission’s willingness to learn useful lessons from the successes and challenges of the past as we all strive to make our elections more credible, transparent and inclusive”
The report listed some of the issues and challenges encountered in the course of the conduct of the 2023 general elections.

“However, the implementation of electoral activities were not without challenges, the most devastating of which was the spate of attacks on Commission’s personnel and facilities by thugs, unknown gunpersons, and arsonists nationwide. During the period between the 2019 General Election and 12th December 2022, the Commission suffered over 50 attacks on its buildings and facilities in various LGAs and State Offices across 15 States of the federation in which vehicles, office equipment and election materials were destroyed”.

Other Issues and Challenges
“In the run-up to the 2023 General Election, the Commission was confronted with several issues and challenges that were beyond its control. The first major challenge was the spate of attacks on its personnel and facilities by thugs and unknown gunmen and arsonists nationwide. In the period between the 2019 General Election and 12th December 2022, the Commission suffered over 50 attacks on its buildings and facilities at various LGA and State offices across 15 States of the federation during which vehicles, office equipment and election materials were destroyed as shown in figure 8.3 below. This is apart from damages to the Commission’s facilities because of burglary and destruction of election materials as well as fire accidents and natural disasters such as flooding and rainstorms.

“In one such attack on the Commission’s State Headquarters in Enugu State on 16th May 2021, the attackers set the foyer ablaze, vandalised offices and equipment and cause extensive damage to properties including burning down and damaging eight Toyota Hilux vehicles In another attack on the Commission’s Abeokuta South LGA office of Ogun State on 10 November 2022, the entire building with all the assets was destroyed, including critical election materials comprising of 904 ballot boxes, 29 voting cubicles, 30 megaphones, 8 electric generators and 65,699 uncollected PVCs. The cumulative effect of these attacks impacted negatively on the preparation for the 2023 General Election. The Commission was compelled to request for supplementary appropriation to among other pressing and unanticipated expenditure to meet the exigencies of relocating its electoral operations away from the destroyed facilities and to replace lost election materials.

Currency Swap
“Another major challenge the Commission faced was the currency swap by the Central Bank of Nigeria. It would be recalled that on 26th October 2022, the then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria announced the redesign of the highest denominations of the Naira and gave a deadline of 100 days to the 31st of January 2023 for the deposit of the old notes in exchange for the new ones. Although the deadline was later extended by 10 days to the 10th of February 2023, it did not alleviate the acute shortage of currency and Naira scarcity resulting in economic hardship, social unrest, and political tension across the country.

“For the Commission, the situation was quite serious since emergency situations do arise during election requiring cash payment from the Commission. There are also some critical transactions, especially payment to transport providers and certain categories of ad-hoc staff that the Commission can only pay either partly or fully in cash. Furthermore, the limit placed on cash withdrawal from the bank constituted an encumbrance on the ability of the transport providers to service and fuel their vehicles for election duty. To mitigate this grave situation, the INEC Chairman met with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria on 7th February 2023 to express concern about the Naira swap policy and how it might affect the general election. Given the criticality of the situation, the Central Bank made necessary arrangement to provide the Commission with some cash for the purpose of the election.

“The Commission was also confronted with the challenge of election logistics delivery arising from the prevailing fuel scarcity across the country as well as the lack of adequate vehicles and boats for the transportation of election personnel and materials to the field within the required timeframe. Given that the Commission required over 100,000 vehicles and over 4,000 boats, this situation had to be addressed to facilitate the expeditious deployment of election materials and personnel, especially to locations with difficult terrain and riverine areas.

“The Commission took necessary remedial actions to mitigate these challenges first by meeting with the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to seek its support and assistance in making petroleum products available for the purpose of the election and secondly by signing a revised Memorandum of Understanding with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN) for the timely transportation, delivery and retrieval of election personnel and materials”.

“Given that the Commission required over 100,000 vehicles and over 4,000 boats, this situation had to be addressed to facilitate the expeditious deployment of election materials and personnel, especially to locations with difficult terrain and riverine areas. The Commission took necessary remedial actions to mitigate these challenges first by meeting with the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to seek its support and assistance in making petroleum products available for the purpose of the election and secondly by signing a revised Memorandum of Understanding with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN) for the timely transportation, delivery and retrieval of election personnel and materials”.

Commission’s State Headquarters in Enugu State on 16th May 2021, the attackers set the foyer ablaze, vandalised offices and equipment and cause extensive damage to properties including burning down and damaging eight Toyota Hilux vehicles In another attack on the Commission’s Abeokuta South LGA office of Ogun State on 10 November 2022, the entire building with all the assets was destroyed, including critical election materials comprising of 904 ballot boxes, 29 voting cubicles, 30 megaphones, 8 electric generators and 65,699 uncollected PVCs. The cumulative effect of these attacks impacted negatively on the preparation for the 2023 General Election. The Commission was compelled to request for supplementary appropriation to among other pressing and unanticipated expenditure to meet the exigencies of relocating its electoral operations away from the destroyed facilities and to replace lost election materials.