AKISIEC Chairman, says “INEC does not conduct elections in the wards so they cannot use (the 39 newly created wards.
The Akwa Ibom State Electoral Commission, AKISIEC, recently took the state by surprise when it released a list of 39 new wards added to the existing 329 wards in the state. The exercise, like most government policies, has generated controversy but the chairman of the commission, Mr. Aniedi Ikoiwak, in this interview with journalists in the state, insists that the Commission is exercises its mandate. Excerpts:
The Akwa Ibom State Independent Electoral Commission (AKISIEC) recently created new political wards in the state. This action has sparked fresh political controversy. What informed the decision for the creation of additional wards?
We are all aware that before now issues of election had always been exclusive of the Federal Electoral Commission whether you call it INEC or whatever, until 1999 Constitution that now makes provision for the election at the local government level to be conducted by what is now known as States Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) and from that period the State Electoral Commission is saddled with the responsibility of taking care of electoral process at the local government level in areas of unit, jointly with INEC, because those are exclusive of INEC creation but used by SIEC to conduct the election. That automatically confers on the commission the power to create wards in the state, because these are the level of election that is conducted by SIEC.
The last ward creation in this state took place 24 years ago. The law that created AKISIEC is functional in Part Two of Section 10 and gives AKISIEC the power to conduct election and also gives the power to arrange the ward after every 10 years, where it is necessary. That exercise is what we have done now. In the last 24 years, the population has grown, the wards have expanded and a lot of new towns have emerged, what used to be an area has become a very wide area. So the commission decided on this line to see what can be done to increase the number of wards in Akwa Ibom to accommodate the fallout of this expansion. It is also clear that when INEC now discovered that they have no control in the areas of wards, they decided to create what is called registration areas but there were confusion in the process, because people were used to wards.
When they created it they tried to make it in such a way that it would be convenient and conducive for them to conduct their activities, so that means they segment them, so when they segment the ward into two registration areas, they now tell people to go to the centre there. But they have been used to centre here, so it becomes strange. INEC itself now dropped the idea and adopted the wards of the state. What does that tell you? Any state that has created wards now has more registration areas. Any state that leaves its wards the way it was still has the same number of registration areas. So in some states where the SIEC has created wards, INEC has adopted that as its registration areas.
So if this room was to be a ward and INEC wants to do registration, they will come here and if there are two wards they will put somebody in both. That is why I said the commission adopts what is done by SIEC because they cannot create it since they don’t conduct election at that level. By this exercise we have expanded, it may not be very large because you ought to take into consideration the lean resources of government. But like I said, I want to really thank the governor for allowing this exercise to take place. Something has happened and we believe that in subsequent years people will also be waiting for the next 10 years to see what can be added and we keep expanding and expansion also entails development.
In essence are you saying that INEC will use this formation to conduct subsequent elections in the state?
INEC does not conduct elections in the wards so they cannot use it.
But every election starts from the wards at the unit to ward levels?
What we are saying is that INEC has what is called registration areas and they used to adopt the wards because they cannot call it wards. What we have done we will now be forwarded to INEC; that this is the number of wards we now have so that when you want to do your registration areas it fits into what we have.
How advantageous is that to AKISIEC?
The wards are not created for AKISIEC but for the people. For example there is a ward in Ikono with 29 villages. I’m told that it used to be difficult for them to get to the ward headquarters if one is trekking but now with the 29 villages divided into two wards, it makes access easier to the people. So you will have less number of people at the ward collation centre, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic.
What were the modalities used at arriving at the creation in a particular ward?
Population and homogeneity; some villages used to cross to another wards to get to the headquarters of their wards. In such places, we tried to realign them to make sure that people from there are given where they are supposed to be or where they will be, they will not need to cross, because by the standard law of delineation, whether it is unit, ward, state, federal constituency or senatorial district, you should make it as homogenous as possible and practicable. That it is practicable means that if there is a small river across, there is no way you can manage it, you can allow it.
But if you have a way of making it in such a way that these people stay together, you should do that. There is also an unpronounced agreement that certain ethnic groups that are quite small should not be submerged; that is why you have some places where local government is created for 10 villages and another local government has 100 villages, because if they continue to stay with this larger people, they may not be able to produce even a councillor. So sometimes for political expediency, you also allow some of it. Those things are all taken into consideration during the creation and we also have to accept the fact that the finances of government may not be able to carry all the agitations that our people want.
Before I came in, my predecessor had created 237 new wards. That exercise was jettisoned because the state could not fund it. So it is not because you have to exhaust agitation, it is because you have looked at it and be able to come with what can be manageable as at now, believing that it is a continuous exercise.
If somebody cannot get it now, you can get it in the future. So population, number of registered voters in the area, the number of villages in the area and the conspicuousness of the environment were taken into consideration during the creation and we had also decided that these wards should be equal in the senatorial districts. Thirty-nine wards were created and there are 13 in each of the senatorial districts.
There is this accusation that AKISIEC used the top down approach instead of the other way round to determine the actual beneficiaries of the exercise, hence the agitations. What would you say?
I want to say that every ward was created out of a ward, how come that people who were staying in the same ward, because a ward was created out of there have become a people who can never stay together. You know it looks strange, did we create something out of somewhere, or did we cut any part of Imo or Rivers or Cross River to add? None of those wards were created out of the sun or moon; they were created out of the existing wards.
What is the machinery put in place by INEC to ensure that the new wards created will be included in the forthcoming local council election?
We have completed our job of creation of wards and in consideration of the new wards, we had extended the period for the parties to bring up candidates because we also want candidates to come from the new wards. It is not our place to now constitute what should be party structure. These wards are created from the villages; we have not removed village heads of those villages from those wards. The polling units have not been touched because it is not our responsibility. In the former creation they may have been some situations where a village is added to a ward completely outside that area; those are the ones we tried to align but it may not be complete because even with our map, it is still difficult to even align all.
We didn’t just come in and start creating wards, we had what was done by our predecessors. They had done complete public hearing, met with stakeholders and all submissions were done. And all those submissions came from existing wards. So what we have done is to at least reduce the numbers that were put out at that time to a manageable level now. We are not saying that what those people did were not okay but if we want to say let us jettison what they did and go to public hearing, we would have also gotten the same number that they had or more , and maybe we would not have seen the light of the day.
You released timetable, and parties, especially PDP, started selling forms but at a point suspended the sale, do you think that will not affect your arrangement in terms of the elections?
Whatever the parties do have no consequence with what we are doing. We have given out guidelines, timetable, and deadline for every activity. You see one thing I want people to understand is this; there are certain things that we take as the normal, which in the actual fact is abnormal. Since the return of democracy 20 years ago, there has not been a transition from one elected government to the other at the local government level, so the mentality of an average Akwa Ibom man is that the tenure of this administration will end and there will be caretaker committee, there will transition from there, there will be head of personnel taking over.
So the mentality during these six months has been outright caretaker committee because that had always been and they see it as normal. So when we came up, they asked how election will take place, that there is always a caretaker. We all know that is an aberration and that is why when this thing came, we were now lobbying, because mental wise they were not prepared for that, they were preparing for the normal, what they are used to.
How prepared is AKISIEC?
To the extent of the consciousness of the fact that we conducted election in 2017 and that the local government has three years and that there will be another election. To that extent that is the state of our preparedness. We are also conscious that at the time the last election was conducted, there was no government in place that needed to be succeeded, because there are laws in succession. Election must be conducted 150 days to 30 days before end of tenure. In 2017 there was nothing like when will tenure end, because there was no elected government in place, now the commission is conscious of the fact that there are laws which say that today the party must bring out their candidates and if they bring tomorrow it becomes a nullity.
The laws are there that primaries must be done by so day, campaign must be 90 days from today to this day. The issue of personal particulars must be done between so so time and certain things must be done that take certain days to the election. What are you supposed to do?
The electoral act and the electoral laws of the state are clear but this can only fit in now because you have the government in place, we are fixing election on the 31st of October because on the 6th of December the present local government would have ceased to function. So the only Saturday available before that end of tenure is 31st of October. We don’t just say 31st of October is a beautiful day, no that is when we will conduct election and be aligned with the law for succession.
Sir there is general complaint of the cost of governance now in the country, surprisingly AKISIEC and political parties instead of reducing the cost of participating in election are increasing it, what do you think is responsible for this?
I may not really know what political parties are doing, but what I know is that AKISIEC fixed a fee for what we call nomination fee by a party candidate, not aspirant but somebody that is presented by the party. And before this is done, this is the only AKISIEC contribution to the internal revenue generation for the government. The money we charge on forms is money that we have defended in the House of Assembly and is there in Akwa Ibom State budget. That AKISIEC is expected to generate this and the source of that generation is selling of forms.
AKISIEC is not charging a kobo for administrative fees. All what we charge is the money that is the revenue to government, N250,000 for chairmen and N100,000 for councilors.
Wouldn’t you consider that the amount is too high for a councillor in a ward?
Well, there is no money that is too low and I don’t think there is any money that is too high in the circumstance that we are.
Do you agree with the opinion that the cost of engaging in election is so high and that is why when they get to the office they become so corrupt?
I don’t see how a N100,000 will make somebody to be corrupt. Don’t we have women who are also corrupt, because women don’t pay?
There has always been a long time arrangement towards election but the election materials always arrive polling units late, how will you make the difference in this election?
Let me say that election is not exclusively in the control of the commission. Election has a lot of stakeholders who make contributions and, sometimes negatively to actually make election not to work the way it should. The planning of the commission is positive, to make sure that the materials arrive. Take for example the materials for Abak should leave on Friday and get to Abak to be distributed on time. The thugs waylay it at somewhere and delay it, and the commission is blamed. So if you don’t have the cooperation of these stakeholders who are part of the election, you may not even achieve what you aim at. What we will do differently this time is that we will try and do the best to beat those things that we look at as obstacles.
You mention thuggery which is the product of electoral violence. Sir, something novel happened in this state last year, that is in 2019 election, that was the first time I saw that election could be kept on ground and concluded. What do we expect from AKISIEC in this coming election?
We have 2,998 polling units, materials will go to those units, we have 368 wards, they are going to be the collation centres, we have 31 local governments, they are also going to be collation and declaration centres. So ours is to ensure the materials get to those polling units and it is also the responsibilities of the stakeholders including the voters to come out and vote.
What happens in a situation of ballot snatching?
There are laws against it when reported.
But we need somebody to implement the laws and enforce it?
That is what I am saying. If there is ballot snatching, such unit should be cancelled.
What is your advice to the people?
My advice to the people is that we should conduct ourselves in a good manner and prepare for our election. Because of COVID-19, the standard thinking of voting and remaining should be totally discouraged. We will not allow, because the COVID-19 principle or protocols will need to come in during the election. We are going to make provisions for certain materials there but we will also encourage every voter by the time you come and you are accredited, you vote, go home. We will not allow people to gather in the polling units the way they used to, not because of any other thing but because the protocol of COVID-19 does not allow people to cluster.
