2023: INEC To Monitor Campaign Spendings, Finances Of Political Parties
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has made it clear that it will monitor the campaign spendings and finances of Political Parties in the 2023 general elections.
The National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education(IVEC), Barrister Festus Okoye, who made this known today, January 24 in a keynote address he delivered at a 2-day Capacity Building Workshop for Heads of Voter Education and Publicity and Public Affairs Officers of the Commission from 17 States of Nigeria in Delta State, said that at the operational and administrative level, the Commission will monitor the Congresses, Conventions, Meetings and Primaries of the Political Parties.
Full text of the speech reads:
On behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), I welcome our Heads of Department and Public Affairs Officers from 17 States of Nigeria to this Capacity Building Workshop.
Knowledge is central to democracy and communication is at the heart of our work as election managers. It is imperative and fundamental that we continually and continuously build the capacity of our frontline staff to understand issues in the electoral process and communicate effectively.
I congratulate the Director Voter Education and Publicity Victor Aluko and his team for putting together this program. Let me also thank the European Center for Electoral Support (ECES) for supporting this program. We expect additional support as we progress to the 2023 general election.
The year 2022 will be busy and challenging for the Commission. It will present complex realities and showcase the complexities of our democracy and electoral process. In the year 2022, the Commission will release the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 general election. The Commission will give the statutory notice signifying the date of election and the place for the submission of nominations. The Timetable and Schedule of Activities will contain the period for the commencement of campaigns and rallies in public by Political Parties and the last day of campaigns by Political Parties. It will contain the period for party primaries and submission of names of nominated candidates and resolution of issues and challenges arising from party primaries. It will contain the period for the submission of personal particulars of candidates, withdrawal, and the replacement of candidates and publication of the final list of candidates. It will contain the period for the submission of the names of Poll Agents. It will set out the period for the publication of official register of voters.
At the operational and administrative level, the Commission will monitor the Congresses, Conventions, Meetings and Primaries of the Political Parties. The Commission must track campaign spending and finances of Political Parties. The Commission will procure sensitive and non-sensitive materials and deploy them as at and when due. The Commission must identity, harvest and recruit ad-hoc staff and various categories of collation and returning officers. The Commission must identify, prepare and equip Registration Area Centers, Collation Centers and other Centers for various and variegated activities. The Commission will hire vehicles, boats, and motorcycles and engage human carriers for the movement of personnel, materials and reverse logistics. The Commission must train and assist in the deployment of security personnel on election duty. The Commission must also defend pre and post election litigations and petitions.
The 2022 is loaded with activities and all Heads of Departments and Public Affairs Officers must be abreast of these activities. Elections take place at the base level and it is important to build the capacity of our communication experts to undertake the arduous challenges that comes with election management and organization.
The Commission has reduced pernicious human interference in the electoral process and deepened democracy through greater use of technology. The Commission introduced the Candidates Nomination Portal through which Political Parties upload the List and Personal Particulars of their Nominated Candidates. The Commission introduced and deployed a Portal for the Accreditation of Observers and the Media. The Commission deployed a Portal for the accreditation of Polling Agents (Party Agents). The Commission developed and deployed the INEC Voter Enrolment Device currently being used for the enrolment of qualified applications desirous of registering as voters. Coterminous to this, the Commission deployed a pre-registration portal for eligible Nigerians to start their voter registration exercise before proceeding for biometric capture. The Commission retired the Smart Card Reader and introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for purposes of Voter Accreditation. The Commission introduced and deployed the (Irev) through which it uploads Polling Unit Results to a Central Portal for public viewing in real time.
As communicators, you must devise and deploy creative and innovative approaches of communicating issues and challenges in the electoral process. You must be dynamic and imaginative against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic that has completely altered lifestyles and ways of doing things. More Nigerians now patronize the social media. We must find the right balance between the traditional and new media.
We must wean ourselves of dogmatism and orthodoxy and extricate ourselves from the trap of “we have done it before and there is nothing new to learn or do”. The society has changed. The old ways of communicating issues and developments have given way to new approaches. Door to door means of communication is receding and no longer feasible. The demography of Nigeria has changed and a lot of young Nigerians are using the social media. The implication is that printing posters, handbills and banners are no longer fashionable. As a Commission, we must compete and dominate the social media on issues around the electoral process. We must understand the language of young people and their interests. It is a fight of ideas and a fight for the minds of young Nigerians who constitute the bulk of the voting population. We must use info graphs, short messaging and other creative and innovative approaches to capture their imagination.
We cannot in truth and in fact communicate what we do not know or understand. We must read and have a basic understanding of the constitutive constitutional and legal instrument underpinning the work of the Commission. We must understand the powers and the duties of the Commission as set out in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999(as amended); the Electoral Act, 2010(as amended) the Rules, Regulations, Guidelines and Manuals of the Commission made pursuant to the powers conferred on it by the Constitution the and various laws. We must therefore read and be very versatile. A Head of Department or Public Affairs Officer that is ignorant of the basic duties and functions of the Commission is a danger to the electoral process. The Nigerian people expect us to be upfront with information. The Nigerian people expect us to clearly, simply and comprehensively communicate changes and innovations in the electoral process. We can only do this when we understand these processes and procedures and communicate them effectively. If we fail to communicate and communicate simply and effectively, rumour mongers and the rumour mill will take over and define the narrative and present us with a fait accompli. It is better to be upfront with information rather than being reactive or defensive.
The year 2022 is the year of preparation for bye-elections, off cycle elections and the 2023 general election. Most of the important events in the electoral calendar will take place this year. Political Parties, Aspirants, Candidates and their Supporters will position to gain advantage. Some of them will attribute their problems and challenges to the Commission. They will praise the Commission when they win and denigrate the Commission when they lose. Some of them will analyze every action of the Commission and our press releases and comments may be tendered in court and become objects of litigation.
Some of the critical stakeholders may misunderstand some of our actions, processes and procedures and read different meaning into well intentioned processes and procedures. It is our responsibility to provide clarity and dispel negative notions and insinuations with potentially damaging impact on the electoral process. Some persons may go to the extent of planting negative stories about the Commission and in the process attempt to drag the Commission into a mud fight. Some people may by acts of commission or omission portray the Commission in bad light. It is our responsibility to remain firm, focused, courageous and engaging. The Commission is a public trust and must be open and transparent. We must on no account personalize the issues. We must respond to those that deserve our response and allow the Nigerian people to take a position on others.
The Commission regulates the organization and activities of political parties but in the heat of campaigns, rallies and nomination processes, attempts will be made to turn the table. We must continually and continuously remind political parties and their candidates and supporters that the Commission is the regulator of political parties and the table must on no account be turned.
As Heads of Department and Public Affairs Officers, you must assist your Resident Electoral Commissioners to engage the media. You must also engage the media. Running away from the media will not make them go away. Engage the media within the ambit of your own ability and expertise. You must not be an orator. You must not be charismatic. Your business is communication and you must communicate in knowledge and humility.
When the new electoral legal framework is passed and assented to by the President, we may have additional engagement with our Heads of Departments and Public Affairs Officers and clearly and comprehensively explain the issues in the new Act. There are clear and differential timelines in the Bill. There are new provisions and new innovations that change the dynamics of the electoral process. There may be new ways of determining over voting in the electoral process. The method of accreditation will change using the BVAS. You will be called upon to explain the architecture of the Permanent Voter Card (PVC). With the shift of accreditation technology from Smart Card Reader (SCR) to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) the new technology, the BVAS extracts voter data in four ways:
By typing in the Voter Identification Number (VIN)
By typing in the last name of the voter
By reading the Barcode on the PVC
By reading the QR code on the register of voters.
You will be called upon to explain Issues around Campaigns and Rallies. As some of you are aware, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is empowered by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, (1999) (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2010(as amended) to regulate the activities of registered Political Parties. The Commission issues Regulations, Guidelines and Manuals to give effect to the intendment of the law and the Constitution. Section 99 of the Electoral Act, 2010(as amended) prescribes and circumscribes the period of campaigning in public by political parties. Based on the existing law, campaigns in public shall commence 90 days before polling day and end 24 hours prior to that date. However, section 99 of the Act recognizes that Political Parties are not the only operators in the electoral process. Therefore, section 100 of the Act provides that a candidate and his party shall campaign in accordance with such rules and regulations as may be determined by the Commission.
You may be called upon to explain issues relating to finances of political parties, limitation on election expenses; election expenditure by political parties and disclosure of sources of income by political parties.
You may be called upon to explain the concept of validity of party primaries and other related issues. You must therefore be prepared and arm yourself with the requite information.
We must see improved permanence by our Heads of Voter Education and Publicity and our Public Affairs Officers. We want to see better and robust engagement with the media. We want to see well written press statements that represent the clear intentions of the Commission and convey same in simple language. We want to see clear engagement in the social media. Policies of the Commission and innovations must be cascaded to the grassroots using the best and most effective means of communication.
I once again welcome you to this program. On behalf of the Commission; I hereby declare this workshop open.
Tunisia has sent Nigeria’s Super Eagles out of the 2021 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) by a goal to nothing.
President Muhammadu Buhari has praised the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai for several people-oriented projects he has executed in various parts of the State.
The three tiers of government: Federal, States and Local Governments have shared a total of N699.824 Billion for the month of December 2021.
President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a word of sympathy to the parents of the 5-year old schoolgirl, Hanifa Abubakar, who was allegedly kidnapped and subsequently killed by her teacher, Abdulkadir Tanko.
A UK-Africa Trade Deal Will Boost Commonwealth – Post Brexit, Create Jobs, By Muhammadu Buhari
Two years after the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, my country Nigeria and her African partners seek a new settlement with Britain: one based on cooperation in fairer – and freer – trade.
The UK and Nigeria share a deep and special partnership. We are champions for peace and security in Africa. We are custodians of the Commonwealth. Yet in recent years our relationship, particularly on trade, has been defined by Britain’s membership of the European Union.
It meant being part of attempts to cajole individual African nations into lopsided European bilateral economic partnership agreements. Nigeria rejected such a deal in 2018, as it sought only to prioritise beneficial terms for raw commodities export to Europe while erecting high tariff barriers to goods manufactured and processed in Africa – stunting job creation. Lack of employment is a key cause of mass migration from Africa to Europe, perversely caused by the very trade policies intended for Europe’s protection.
Now, all this can be changed. Last September, history was made with the UK becoming the first country in the world to sign a memorandum with the African Union’s 54-country Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This should lead to a UK-African union free trade deal. It would be one made with parity, considering Africa’s $3tn combined GDP is equivalent to that of the United Kingdom, the world’s fifth-largest economy.
Given that the Commonwealth’s 19 African members collectively produce over half the African continent’s GDP, a UK-Africa deal would, concurrently, cause a revitalisation of intra-Commonwealth trade and with it the club itself – a stated British foreign policy aim. This could be further enhanced should we take advantage of the fact those 19 nations’ national laws are built on the principles of English jurisprudence: a common platform from which to better align regulations on investment and certification.
A deal would enable Britain to practice the free trade it has long preached. It would represent recognition by a G7 economy of the benefits of African unity; that job creation and manufacturing in Africa can be an advantage and not a threat to the western world. And it would inject momentum into a renewed Commonwealth, after decades during which the organisation’s potential for economic cooperation was in abeyance while its most influential founding member was bound to European trade policies and unable to act alone. A Commonwealth rebuilt around trade would help replenish this underused club of friends.
But before we reach ahead of ourselves, we must remember that though the purpose of trade deals should be mutual prosperity, favorable terms can be rejected because little attention has been made to persuade public opinion. On both sides, there will be those concerned over competition and terms of trade.
To carry our citizens with us we must start by agreeing on the most favorable trading terms for those products each other does not produce. Fresh and processed foodstuffs, for instance, which cannot be grown in the UK should be prioritised with favorable or no tariffs.
For British companies seeking opportunities in Africa, there should be incentives for sectors heavy in job creation. Here there are millions of highly-skilled, English-speaking but underemployed young people. They are eager to work but without the opportunities that foreign investment can bring to create jobs and build businesses.
This great market is Britain’s opportunity. But, of course, some see it as a threat to where jobs can only be lost and from where immigrants come. They view engagement as a partially open door that will only become wider – unless borders become walls, and Britain a fortress.
That is a mistake. Those who rail against “economic migrants” must realise few people anywhere wish to leave their communities to live in foreign lands. Most would rather stay at home. But the way to help them stay there is not by force, or walls, or racism: it is investment and jobs where they live.
And those jobs will be needed to produce the goods and services demanded by Africa’s growing middle class, whose number is predicted to be close to one billion by 2050. They will not be cheaper replacements for employment lost in Britain or elsewhere: rather extra jobs, created by expanding opportunities in a growing African economy.
Those who come from Britain seeking opportunities will be welcomed by an expanding and worldly-wise middle class wishing to experience the best of British culture, products, and expertise – from television and creative industries to iconic cars and education services.
Being the first mover amongst the G7 to seek a trade deal with Africa, the UK is positioning itself to secure the very best of terms and stands able to revive intra-Commonwealth trade, replenish its relations with the fastest growing market in the world, tackle the causes of economic migration – and create jobs and wealth that boost rather than threaten those at home.
Muhammadu Buhari is President of the Federal. Republic of Nigeria
First published by the
Independent of London.