Diary of a first time yuppie voter (Part 2)

April 9 2011

Without really thinking about it, I knew I was not going to the polling unit early. I would pace myself, deal with the household chores, eat breakfast with the family and maybe even do some work. At 11am I toyed with sending a scout ahead to find out what was happening but I decided to take a walk and see for myself. When I got there, everything was set up: the tent, the four tables and seven NYSCINEC officers. There was no queue and it took me all of 2 minutes to finish the process; I took the long route home and was back before 11.30am. I noticed from BB messages and Twitter that voter turn out was low. I called a few election buddies – friends I made from hanging out at the polling booth last Saturday – to let them know that verification was underway, and quick and easy. Most of them had already verified. So I started sending out BB messages asking people to share their impressions about the number of female voters (compared to the number of men) and to let me know the colour of their ballot papers because ballot papers are going to be colour coded to prevent ballot stuffing– or so I was informed.

At 12.30pm, I went back to the polling unit just as voting began. The sun was blazing like the bottom of a pot sitting on hot coal all day and the only hiding place apart from the polling unit tent was a huge generous tree across the road from the tent. I left my chair there and crossed the road to join one of the eight lines. It was fairly orderly because people remembered how we lined up for the verification exercise the week before. There were easily 4 men for every female voter and so our lines were shorter. As piqued as I was about the low number of women, I was partly grateful because it meant the civically responsible women would be done faster and could return home if they wished. At first the lines were hardly moving at all and the air was filled with the sound of complaints and necks stretching to see what was happening in front. We heard that there was only one stamp – to stamp each ballot paper before it was used and only one person signing each ballot paper – making the process incredibly inefficient. Twice, I had to leave the line and take a breather from the sun under the tree; thankfully it was close enough that I could see my line and could gauge when it would be my turn. The second time I left the tree to return to the line was when there was a bit of a commotion and so we rushed back to hear what it was about. Apparently a ‘big man’ had arrived and wanted to go straight to the front of the line and he was shouted down and chased away. The voters were absolutely not having it. Yay! Hurray for democracy – if only we could show this type of discipline and none preferential treatment everyday not just on voting days.

After that, I thought it wise to just stay on the line because as more people joined the queue it was getting harder to keep explaining that I was there before- especially as the person in front of me did not seem to like me leaving her as guard of my space. So I stayed in line and when it was my turn I put on the stopwatch on my phone to see how long it was taking each person to move along the processing line. I stepped forward and gave them the piece of paper they had given me in the morning when I was verified. They checked that my right thumb had been marked blue, put a red mark on my left thumb and asked me to move down to the right of the tent. As I approached the last desk, a policeman waved me to another line – this time unisex. I have a good view of two NYSCINEC officers stamping and signing the ballot papers – they have improved their efficiency. One at a time, we walk up to the desk for one last check of our thumbs and then the two precious ballot papers were handed over.

As I wait for my turn, I have cause to ask the man behind me to please leave more than just room for a strand of hair between us…he seems not to understand me until a man from the adjacent line explains to him. “She wan make you observe sharia”, he says, ‘dress back’. Incredibly, both men and women are guilty of this lack of respect for personal space…wherever there is a queue it seems like an invitation to become the slices of bread for a thinly filled sandwich.

It took me exactly 4.55minutes from the time I left my original line until I got to the ballot papers and entered one of the 4 shiny booths where I could make my selection in private. Way to go INEC. I finally look at my ballot paper and I am in complete shock. It takes me a while to digest what I am looking at. There are no names on the ballot paper? I had expected to ponder over which of the women to vote for but not in my wildest dreams did I expect that I would have only party logo symbols and acronyms to pick from. In befuddled disgust I vote for one of the major parties and wipe my thumb clean to make sure I do not smudge any part of my ballot paper. I am about to fold the paper to hide my vote, when I think to myself, what if the still fresh ink mark creates another smudge on another party? Then my ballot paper would be disqualified. I fold ‘outward’ and drop my ballot papers into the transparent ballot boxes.

My election buddies and I agree to go home and return at 4pm when we were advised that the voting would be over. When I get there, I learn that voting ended at 4.10pm – not bad at all for 594 accredited voters. However, it is almost dark before we can get our results. The counting is a tortuous process and the embrace of the polling unit by the semi circle of human beings sitting on footwear on the road keeps getting tighter. Almost every half hour, the security agents have to keep encouraging them – in a very friendly manner to move back and give the NYSCINEC some air. What took them so long? First they sorted the ballots into House and Senate. Then they counted, and counted and recounted until they found the ‘missing’ ballot paper. Phew. Then they started removing the invalid ballots, then they sorted the ballots into parties (with party agents looking on) and then they started counting.

CPC had the highest number of voter cast ballots in my unit and by 7pm all that remained was the technical aspects such as filling the result sheets, getting the signatures of the party agents and providing copies. I wanted to stay behind until the NYSCINEC posted our results and left the area but after the presiding NYSCINEC made a mistake on the result sheet at 7.30pm…I decided to call it a day.

I learnt a few things today. One, that the electorate is grossly underestimated. A person being illiterate does not mean he cannot be educated about a process. Not having names on the ballot papers aids fraud. If a PDP candidate who has done well for her constituents is cheated out of the primaries and forced to move to another party…how will her constituents know this especially with all the tight timelines? Primaries in January, petitions and lawsuits up until the last minute and elections with only party logos in April? Not fair – this is set up to help powerful parties rig.

Two, there are so many loopholes in our electoral process that we are not going to get 100% free and fair elections in the first try. It will take time but there must be a genuine will, not a will to satisfy what the eyes can see. As the results started trickling out that evening and we heard stories the next day of certain people being declared winners. I had one question. Why did Prof Jega make such a big deal out of asking voters to wait for their vote to be counted if there is no intention to publish the results in detail? Unverifiable results published in ‘bulk’ in a country known for serious electoral fraud is not free and fair. I have been informed that the party agents who signed the result sheets are the verifiers of this result. I have two observations. One, not all parties could afford to have 120,000+ agents covering all the polling units and two, unless each party has copies of all the result sheets from all the polling units – including the allegedly ‘undeclared’ ones – then the results arguably do not add up. I want to see my polling unit results in black and white.

Three, the feeling that voting gives can be addictive. The power to change the course of a nation peacefully is an intoxicating, heart pounding, gut wrenching, tears inducing and awe inspiring thing. When people cheered when the results were announced, I had goose bumps and felt proud to be part of what made so many so happy. The vote is the only peaceful weapon of change, it is the only peaceful weapon for disarming tyrants and dictators, and it is the only peaceful weapon of mass participation. The beauty of the 2011 elections, win or lose is that this knowledge is catching on and will hopefully stay with us for a long time.

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Diary of a first time yuppie voter - April 2 2011

From the depths of my flu and cough medicine induced sleep, I reach for the phone as instinctively as you reach for an alarm you know is about to go. It is an international call I forgot I had scheduled. 40 minutes later we are still at it and I see that in a few minutes it will be 8am. I struggle with myself for a split second; should I let this conversation take its course or end it and get ready for the verification exercise? I cut what has become a monologue, bark out a few household instructions and practically dash out of the house without a shower, wearing a dress I wont be concerned with and two under skirts… just incase.

I step out and marvel at the pleasantly cloudy and cool sky over my part of Abuja. If anyone had asked what type of weather I wanted if I was going to spend the entire day at a polling unit, I could not have picked better weather. With a travel mug of coffee in one hand and reading material in the other I stop by the mirror to make a last minute inspection. Sunshades at the ready perched on my red scarf worn Benazir Bhutto style: check. Practical flats to make sure my feet do not come back covered in dust and grime: check. One last thing: I ask the guard to follow me with a straight-backed chair with arm rests – I am determined to obey INEC’s instructions to wait behind (comfortably) until the ballots are counted.

Straight as an arrow, I make my way to the tent where a young man in the Khaki NYSC uniform and a young lady sit behind a table. The table is completely bare i.e. no papers, register, ballots…so I say ‘Hello. I see verification has not started’. I pepper them with questions such as - ‘have they heard from the INEC officials? Have they called anyone?’ ‘Yes – they are on their way’. ‘Any idea when?’ Not a clue. It is not yet 9.30am but there are at least 100 people milling around with some faces I recognize from the registration exercise.

So I sit and shoot the breeze with the people around and we soon become the center for people who want to know what is going on. Some leave their numbers and plead that we call them when verification starts. A few minutes before 10am, I get a blackberry message saying ‘Gombe senatorial elections postponed goje caught wiv ballot papers’. I tell the person off for sharing an old April fool joke and caution against sharing so that people do not believe it and stay away from the polling units. My equilibrium is totally unruffled.

At 11am, I get up to let someone older sit on my chair…while I stretch my legs. Still no sign of the officials but lots of blackberry messages reporting different things, but I am convinced it is all a ploy to deflate the enthusiasm of the voters. Then one of the election observers who drove off earlier comes back and says verification has started in other parts of the FCT and only a few areas have not started yet. The resolve returns to full tank for those around me and we all discuss the strong likelihood that the minute we leave the polling unit, the verifiers will arrive. At about 10.30am I decide to put this theory to test. I dash home to get some food and water and although I am not gone more than 10 minutes, when I arrive the scene has completely changed. There was at least 3 times the number of people I left and of course the NYSCINEC staff had arrived. (INEC representatives dressed in NYSC uniform).

It is utter chaos. At first they try to organize us according to the last 3 digits of the VIN numbers on our cards e.g., 001-549, 550-999 etc. but people refuse to budge from the 8 or more lines which had been formed. Instead there is a lot of yelling and inability to comprehend with people peering at their registration cards to decipher where they should be. Then we get told by the loudest NYSCINEC person that we should line up based on our last names. I explain to someone that this means surname. They are not sure what I mean. I promptly give up and move away from the women’s line for 001-549 to find another line for people whose last names start with O.

Everywhere people are shoving, stepping on my feet and throwing their arms across me to tap on or catch the attention of others, shouting into my ear, my face and I begin to understand why people might not want to come out to vote. Anyone who does not like crowds, who is deeply offended when strange people brush and push against them, or who gets claustrophobic when the only way to ‘get out’ is to press through a throng of people…will be reluctant to come out to vote.

Very quickly, the lines start moving and the verification exercise is taking place efficiently. But at exactly 12.49pm, as we sit and wait for others to finish their verification so we can start voting, I get a message saying ‘April 4 new date. Jega live on NTA, Channels and AIT’. I call to verify, share the news and soon everyone is huddled around those who have radios to listen for themselves.

A few of us agree to stay until the NYSCINEC people start packing up and leaving. There are heated discussions all around about Jega’s explanation about the printing of material. Announcements are made loudly in Hausa and Igbo to explain what has happened and to share the information that voting is set for Monday.

Finally, I call for the guard to come get my chair and walk back home quietly. This was supposed to be the day I cast my first vote ever in my country’s general election. The BB messages that continued to flow all day helped me decide how I would take the news. I had two options. I could take the definition of Jega:/n/je-ga as ‘the act of astutely adhering to the objectives of a laid out process by placing a demand on excellence with a view to achieving an acceptable outcome e.g., Nigeria jegaed Siasia for a football glory’ or I could choose ‘the act of stupidly wasting the time of a lot of people whilst keeping them under hot sun e.g., the groom jegaed his bride for a small Babcock girl.’ I chose the former; Aluta Continua; Victoria Acerta

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Go!

And may the best men and women win.

For months the news and our every discussion has centred around the elections. Like the hands of a clock moving in ceaseless circular motion, no matter where the conversation starts, it ends with the elections. Maybe it is because I am older, that I care more, or maybe it is because I have seen more, that I perceive more; may be this type of excitement, this fervour, this heart racing, adrenaline rush I feel when I think of the elections has always been there but I was just never part of it. I had never tapped into the swell of hope, of decision, of influence, of people power and mind blowing possibilities that elections give millions of people all over the world because I had never, until now, wanted so badly to cast my vote. Only now have I developed to the stage of social consciousness where I want to use my ballot to say out loud all the things I have said in private – on the dinning table, with friends, at the office, on queues at the bank with complete strangers – that one of the reasons the Nigerian experiment with democracy is developing so painfully slowly is because we are not participating the way we should.

In Nigeria it seems that the elite and the middle class have abdicated from the public sphere without more than a cursory backward glance every now and then. In other countries while the best and the brightest strive for political office as the educational and social activism profiles of the Obama’s, the Blair’s, the Cameron’s and even the Bush’s attest to, here we are okay with our Governors and other government officers: chief budgeting executors, vision champions and project managers being equipped with the equivalent of only a secondary school education. And so while the most educated and enlightened of us flock to the private sector – to the banks, the oil companies, the telecommunications companies and all the multinational companies who will have us, we leave the shaping of our destinies in the hands of those who many of us would not hire into the private sector. There are many excuses and reasons; all quite logical. ‘Politics is dirty’; ‘you have to play like them’ ‘it is not for people like us’, ‘you have to be ready to do bad things’. And so we stay away from political office and somehow convince ourselves that our decision is rational. Then we compound our sins by refusing to vote. We won’t be the candidates and we won’t vote either. We want to ensure that the very few in politics who are there to try to make a positive difference, get rigged out by those who are willing to go to any lengths to exploit us and dehumanize us…and then we sit back and complain.

So the time of decision is here and it is time to participate – to think carefully about the choices we make and to take responsibility. For many of us, it will be the first time we are taking an active part in influencing the direction in which our country is headed. We will finally be setting good examples of civic responsibility for future generations, explaining to our children the value of a vote and not just talking at them but providing the opportunity for them to witness the sacrifice it takes to be a participating citizen of a country.

So who will you vote for?

If there was a hundred naira for every time I heard someone ask that question, I would be able to pay for my local government chairperson nomination form in 2015. It is an absolutely great question to ask and to answer because it does two things. One it forces you to voice out your reasons for wanting to vote for a person…and if you have an iota of reasonableness in even one of your fingernails, most times hearing out loud the reasons why you want to vote for a person is enough to stop you right smack in the middle of your words and get you to sink your head into your chest and think deeply for at least the length of time it takes to fly from Lagos to Abuja. Two, it allows you to share and receive information which might influence you or the other person to change their minds – and make a more informed decision.

There are many who said the debates helped them make up their minds. Hearing their candidates speak – seeing how they dodged or dealt with sticky issues – acted as a microscope through which they could see things more clearly…and the change, the moment of clarity and sense of direction is amazing to behold. Personally, I have come full circle, tracing my support through almost all of the presidential candidates and taking back the baton of leadership again and again but now, finally, with the support of all the conversations taking place, I have made a decision I am comfortable with.

Many of us, even those of us who like to think of ourselves as sophisticated, enlightened and unaffected by petty loyalties to ethnicity and religion are still swayed by where the candidates come from and how they worship. But the more we discuss issues, track records, contributions, the harder it will become for us to be convinced solely on the grounds of geography or the chance of birth. And the harder it becomes for us to vote solely on base and emotional reasons, the harder it will become for those who run for office to do nothing towards the development of the country and still expect to be allowed to stay in office…and this is how our democracy will thrive, take strong roots and grow. They say the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. The road to the Promised Land we all want Nigeria to be seems broken, tortuous and rough and it might seem pointless in the face of rigging, violence, and the undue advantage that the incumbents always seem to have – but, we must have faith and belief in the power of what is ‘right’. Put one foot in front of the other until you are at the polling booth. Cast your vote and stay there until the votes are counted and announced. Repeat every Saturday until April 16. Take that first step. Go!

[published in Thisday's The Lawyer on April 5 2011]

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Get. Set.

The ground is set, the die is cast, and we are on our marks. In spite
of PDP’s desperate thrashing to hold on to power by ensuring that the
electoral playing field is as bumpy and uneven as possible for the
opposition parties, there are signs that the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) is trying to force the political parties
to play fair.

As Buhari, Ribadu and Shekarau – the leading presidential contestants
in the April elections deal with Emirs closing palaces to avoid their
visits, as their billboards get torn down and as their access to
public campaign venues across the country continues to be blocked, we
hear that for the first time in recent election history, our ballot
papers are ready…even though we still have no full disclosure of
candidates for the national and state assemblies. If these ballot
papers are secure and as tightly protected as something caught in the
jaws of a pit bull, then hopefully it means, ballot papers will be
distributed on schedule and verification and voting can start on time
at 8a,m. This feat by INEC – because it is an accomplishment that
despite all the hocus-pocus around the candidates who made it through
the primaries, INEC has managed to have the ballot papers printed- is
in keeping with the energy and excitement with which we, Nigerians,
are preparing for the April elections.

INEC knows, as well as we do, that a lot is at stake for these
elections. For better or for worse including the desire to manipulate
the ballots, we have had a record turn out of adults eligible to vote.
Nigerians are embracing the pillars of democracy and holding on for
dear life, we want a say in how we are governed and we want people in
office who will be accountable to us, not to political and traditional
godfathers. All we need as a safe and fair playing field where people
and parties are accountable to the same rules and procedure and where
our enforcement agencies are protect the people not the criminals.

So what are some of the things INEC is doing to level the playing field?

Last week in this column we highlighted one of the problems we could
expect during the elections: the voter verification exercise which is
supposed to be completed before voting starts. As pointed out by a
highly qualified reader: for a polling unit with 2000 registered
voters, it would take a little over 33 hours to verify all the voters
at a rate of one minute per voter. Impossible. INEC has noted this and
says voters can look forward to multiple verification points per
polling unit and they are considering the recommendation that
verification and voting happen simultaneously so that the process is
as efficient as possible. However, until we get alternative
communication from INEC, verification of voters takes place between
8am and 12 noon and voters who want to be accredited must be on the
queue for accreditation by 12 otherwise they will not be accredited.
This is very important and not enough communication is going on about
it. You cannot stroll to the polling unit at 4pm and expect to vote,
you will be told that you have missed the accreditation process and
cannot vote. There is something for concern in the guidelines on
INEC’s website which say that after the accreditation process all
accredited voters must queue up and be counted and the number of
accredited people on the line will be counted, announced loudly and
the number recorded. Does this mean if you were accredited at say 10am
and went home and maybe fell asleep and missed the ‘counting process’
that you will not be allowed to vote? I fail to see the significance
of the counting because surely the verification exercise will also be
a record of how many people were accredited to vote…if a polling unit
accredits 500 people and counts only 350 people at 12.30pm just before
voting is supposed to start does these mean only 350 ballot papers are
expected from this polling unit? This is a call on all 291 election
observers listed on INEC’s website to clarify this immediately and
share the import with us.

INEC has also announced that voters have a legal right to wait at the
polling unit after voting to see the votes counted and announced. This
is a move from the past when voters were encouraged to cast their
votes and go away. Now INEC and the election observers say it is
better for transparency if the votes in each unit are counted and
announced on the spot. That way we can all do the math together when
the ‘official’ results are announced. Since the National Orientation
Agency seems to be asleep, we have a responsibility to spread the word
everywhere – in churches, mosques, market places, salons, barbershops
because not everyone has access to or can read the papers and not
everyone will listen to the radio or watch the TV at the precise
moment when the news is being shared. Let us sacrifice a little of our
air time to share this message with those we think are most likely not
to hear it – especially those at home in the villages.

When the votes are counted, INEC’s guidelines say that the number must
of course tally with the number of voters accredited at that unit (not
the number of people counted in the line prior to the start of the
voting exercise) – if it does not i.e., if there are more ballot
papers than accredited voters, then the vote in this unit will be
nullified. All the party agents will be asked to sign the
nullification and given copies of the document. Where the vote count
corresponds to the total number accredited, the results will be
announced, recorded and party and security agents will be given copies
of the results and a copy will be posted in the polling unit.

All this is great on paper but we all know as Nigerians that our
reality is very different from what we ‘look like on paper’. On paper,
because of our vast mineral and natural resources we should be an
extremely well developed country with the infrastructure and services
to support a high standard of living…but in reality we are not. So how
do we ‘assist’ INEC during the elections to make what is on paper a
reality? Here are some things to look out for during elections.

One, watch out for the substitution of Electoral Officers and
Officials with people in the community with known political
affiliation because this is illegal according to Section 29(1) of the
2010 Electoral Act. Any person known to be politically involved in any
political party cannot act as an election official and if members of a
community see such a person acting as an official during the elections
please report it immediately. Send SMS to INEC (if they ever release
the numbers), tell a senior police officer if you are comfortable
doing so or share this information with one of the official observers
who should be at each polling unit. Political parties can send members
to observe which means to watch only but not actively verify or help
with the voting process. Do not put yourself in danger – do your
reporting discretely.

Two, it is also illegal if any local government chairperson/councilor
or commissioner interferes in the elections. These elected officials
or representatives of elected executives are not allowed to act as
party agents or do anything more than an ordinary voter on election
day. If they come there and start trying to take charge and throw
their weight around, kindly point out to an observer the illegality of
their actions under Section 45(2) of the Electoral Act and if there
are no observers, or the observers do not want to get involved –
report the matter immediately by SMS – it serves as a better record of
events than a phone call.

Three, please be generous towards the future of Nigeria and future
generations of children and grand children – bring whatever you think
the polling unit will need in the conduct of safe and fair elections.
The INEC guidelines say the polling unit officers must give copies of
Form EC 8A to party and security agents but it is safe to assume there
will be no copying machines in all 120, 000 polling booths so most
likely carbon paper will be required. Bring carbon paper. Since the
guidelines say the polling unit must stay open until the last person
on the queue has voted, then it is likely that in many centers it will
be dark before voting, counting and announcing is completed and we can
bet that PHCN and all the President’s men in the PTFP will not be able
to provide power. Please bring portable generators and diesel if the
facilities will allow for the unit to be powered in this way and if
not, please bring lots of torch lights and batteries, candles and
matches so that there are no mistakes in identifying the symbols of
the parties during the counting exercise.

INEC is doing its bit with coded ballot papers, transparent ballot
boxes and so on. But INEC can only succeed if we prove that we want it
to succeed. So ignore the naysayers who say the votes won’t count.
Believe that it can happen and it will happen. Work towards making
this belief a reality by being prepared. It is time to vote; Go.

[Published in Thisday's The Lawyer on March 29 2011

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