With barely five days more to the expiration of the voters registration, over half the eligible population of voters are yet to be registered. A brief analysis of the problems leading up to this predicament can be found rooted deep in the way the allocations for conducting this very exercise has been handled by INEC.
On monday the 10th of January 2011, hundreds of youth corps members in Abeokuta Ogun state took to the streets in protest of what they described as a politically maneuvered list of ad-hoc staff being released by INEC for the exercise. The corpers stormed the iwe iroyin press center of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) building to express their grievances. The online registration that was required of the corps members and the three day training of all youth corps members which also took place now seems but another means for INEC officials to receive allowances for conducting such a phony exercise of no material significance.
On the 16th of January Youth service corps members posted to various registration centers in Ibadan also had several complains as to the treatment mete-out to them as concerning their allowances which affected their mobility and also inadequate accommodation and transportation issues. Whilw some stated that they may not be able to continue with the registration exercise if nothing was done, others went further to disclose that such treatment may lead them to accepting food from politicians who will be hospitable to them for obvious reasons.
As early as 8.am on the 20th of January about 76 youth corps members in Akure Ondo state, staged a peaceful protest in which they refused to receive the direct data capture machine from INEC officials at the Sacred Heart primary School Center Ondo Road, Akure. Giving reasons for their actions, the corps members decision to shun their duty posts was as a result of non payment of their training, transport and feeding allowances. Despite the intervention of the commander of Zone F of the Nigerian Security Civil Defence Corps, Mr Modu Bunu who pleaded with the corpers, the representative of the corpers Udochukwu Akpuh, said they had resolved not to resume at their duty posts until the allowances due to them were paid.
On the 15th of January, the voters registration exercise was violently disrupted in Imo state by youth corps members who overwhelmed the INEC office in the early hours of the day. About 45 of the youth corps members were later arrested by a combined detachment of the Police, Soldiers and men of the Nigerian Security Civil Defense Corps. The youth corps members were protesting their non inclusion in the list of ad-hoc staff as released by INEC, non release of mobilization fees to those recruited for the exercise and non payment of training fees for the registration programme conducted by INEC
As of the 22nd of January some local government areas in Ilorin, Bayelsa, Delta, Ebonyi and other places are yet to even receive registration materials. The list goes and on, leaving a trail of doubts and incompetence as to INEC's handling of the whole exercise. Nigerians deserve a smooth registration process and an equally a transparently credible, free and fair elections from INEC, having requested the lump sum of 87billion naira, and an additional 46.4billion naira for the conduct of the 2011 polls. Its a known fact the tricks of the logistics and breakdown of money to be spent as claimed by INEC, because its already evident how the money is being spent.
However its no longer a duck walk to pocket public funds anymore, one must be ready to spend some of such money on bail, in jail, on the police, the judiciary, lawyers and other logistics that come with the crime, that shouldn't be so difficult for the professor anyway. The choice is his
