President Goodluck Jonathan and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Thursday expressed slightly different opinion on the performance of members of the National Youth Service Corps in the ongoing voter registration.
While Jonathan believes that the exercise had been ‘slow’ because the registrants were not well-trained, Jega blamed the hiccups that have characterised the exercise on scanners.
“I think the NYSC members were not properly trained,” the President said while addressing a delegation of the G-20 group of Northern politicians which paid him a solidarity visit in Abuja.
Jonathan, who also hinted that the registration of voters might be extended beyond two weeks, added that the Direct Data Capturing machines might have also contributed to the slow conduct of the exercise which started six days ago.
“The machines are slow in some cases; I believe that the training too may not be enough,” he said, assuring however that “we will get through these challenges.”
“We will not stop until all eligible voters have registered”, he said.
The President also said that the “complaints by Nigerians show that so many (people) are interested in registering.”
Jonathan thanked the G-20 delegation, led by a former a National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Solomon Lar, for its support during the party’s presidential primaries in Abuja a week ago.
Lar, who spoke for the group congratulated the President and gave him a new name, Mai-Nasara, (meaning Goodluck in Hausa).
But at the National Assembly, Prof. Jega told members of the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters that the NYSC members, who constitute a greater percentage of the INEC ad hoc staff, were trained for the voter registration.
He defended INEC’s decision to use youth corps members for the exercise, saying that it had reduced the level of malpractices.
“Mr. chairman, we conducted training for them within available resources. They were trained; but it could be better with more funds,” the electoral commission’s chairman told the committee.
Jega, who argued that the commission would have done more with additional funding for training, added that he had ordered a fresh registration for eligible voters whose fingerprints were not captured while registering.
He lamented that some INEC personnel, who were at a time overwhelmed by the large number of people seeking to register, resorted to doing so without capturing their fingerprints.
The former Bayero University, Kano vice-chancellor, told the committee members, who grilled him on the conduct of the exercise that such officials breached the guidelines issued to them by INEC.
The committee, which is headed by Mr. Musa Adar, had said that it had received numerous complaints from Nigerians on their inability to register owing to technical and personnel hitches.
It also noted that its members monitored the exercise in some constituencies and confirmed the complaints and fears raised by Nigerians.
But Jega, who also disclosed that 2,273 registration centres were yet to receive the DDC machines, six days into the exercise, described the setback as “unfortunate.”
He flayed “cynics” for writing off the commission without being patient to allow it address the hitches so far recorded.
Jega explained that the fresh registration of those whose fingerprints were not captured was necessary because “all 10 fingers” must be captured in order to guard against double registration.
He also said that not capturing their fingerprints implied that the affected registrants had not been registered and could be deleted from the register at the point of collating data in INEC’s data base.
The INEC Chairman added, “All 10 fingers must be registered; anybody who has registered without fingerprints has to go back to the same centre and repeat it.
“This is unfortunate and we regret the inconvenience of the first few days. Some of our staff, maybe due to the long queues and the pressure on them, decided to register some voters without capturing their fingerprints.
“This is wrong; we have issued fresh guidelines on how to correct this immediately.”
However, he said that INEC had done a “wonderful” job in the last six days, saying Nigerians “should commend INEC for being able to start the exercise at all.”
Jega said that the exercise was faster now, with registration time dropping from “seven to four minutes” per registrant.
He disagreed that the DDC machines in use for the exercise were substandard.
Jega blamed much of the reported delay and hitches on the fingerprint scanners, which he said, were configured to the specification requested by INEC.
According to him, the scanners were set at the “highest quality level” of 50 point miniature recognition.
“This means that the scanners are very sensitive; any little stain, dust or crack on the finger will be rejected”, Jega told the committee.
He said the development accounted for the many cases of fingerprint rejection in the first days.
However, following complaints that the high sensitivity of the scanners was delaying the exercise, Jega informed the committee that engineers had been sent to the field to reduce the settings of the scanners.
He said INEC would only consider the calls for extension after the exercise had ran for one full week (tomorrow).
Jega said, “After one week, INEC will be in a position to assess the progress made so far. It is after then that we can give a definite position on the necessity for extension of time.
“Our definite position and progress report will be made known on Monday next week.”
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