ALL THIS FOOLS SHOULD BE WIPE OFF BECAUSE THEY WILL NEVER, NEVER LISTEN OR CHANGE!!!
IMAGINE THIS........
LONG BUT WORTH READING
The National Assembly faces a litmus test Tuesday as it considers the N74 billion budget demanded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for a new voter registration exercise. The public outcry that greeted the announcement of the budget last week forced Ike Ekwerenmadu, Deputy Senate President, and some other legislators, to call for a review of the budget, describing it as ‘too high’.
A lot of questions beg for answers as the budget comes before the parliamentarians: Who did the costing? Which IT consultants advised INEC in computing the costs? Who are INEC’s equipment suppliers for the project? Where has the recommended types of equipment been used before, and at what cost? Was thorough price sampling done in determining the costs? Could the same equipment be procured at much cheaper costs? All of INEC’s statements concerning the cost of the voter registration exercise have been devoid of itemized details of the expenditure pattern.
BusinessDay’s investigations on the cost of similar exercises in Bangladesh, India, South Africa and Ghana - four countries that INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, specifically said his administration would learn from - indicate that none of them spent, on per capita basis, half the cost that INEC has given for the exercise. INEC’s N74 billion amounts to N1,138 per registered voter given the country’s estimated 65 million voter population.
INEC particularly identifies Bangladesh as a successful example it hopes to model after, following counsel by multi-lateral agencies and institutional advisers. The voter list compiled in 2008 by the Bangladesh Elections Commission registered over 80 million eligible voters using biometric face and fingerprint technology at a total cost of $65 million (N9.75 billion), amounting to a per capita cost of N121.88. With a population of 165 million, Bangladesh is the seventh most populous country in the world.
The country’s electricity supply is as epileptic as that of Nigeria. With a total installed capacity of 5,493 megawatts, its national power authority, Power Development Board (PDB), manages to generate between 3,000 and 3,500mw, a situation which makes it one of the most deficient in electricity infrastructure. The registration exercise in Bangladesh witnessed significant deployment of generating sets in rural and urban areas to cater for power supply shortfall.
India, with a voter population of 714 million, executed a similar exercise at a per capita cost of $0.62. With a voter population of 12.8 million, Ghana conducted its 2008 elections at the cost of $40 million, which amounts to an overall per capita of $3. This cost includes voter registration, public enlightenment and other logistics as well as the actual conduct of the elections. The elections, which ushered in the administration of incumbent President John Atta Mills, witnessed two presidential run-offs.
Some information technology experts who spoke with BusinessDay while acknowledging the technological edge the Asian region has over Africa, are of the opinion that the wide cost estimate differential seems inordinate and therefore difficult to defend.
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