Breaking: INEC Plans For New Polling Units Ahead Of 2023
Ahead of preparations for the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is pushing for the creation of additional 57,023 polling units.
The initiation is to enable more Nigerians to vote.
The agency has called a meeting for on Friday with the political parties in Abuja to table its proposals.
The INEC will also hold talks with Afenifere, Ohanaeze, Arewa Consultative Forum, PANDEF, the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs( NSCIA) and civil society groups, to secure their support for the plan.
If all the stakeholders endorse INEC’s plans, it will be the first time since 1996 that additional polling units, will be created.
Despite its surging population, the nation’s Polling Units in the last 25 years have remained at 119,973.
INEC will also no longer allow the setting up of Polling Units in private compounds, royal palaces, government houses, political party buildings, or facilities that are in dispute.
The proposals are contained in an INEC document titled “The State of Voter Access to Polling Units in Nigeria”.
Section 42 of the Electoral Act empowers INEC to create Polling Units.
Although INEC has not succeeded in the last 25 years to create more Polling Units because of suspicion, it explained that the time is ripe now.
In the document, the INEC said it is weighing three options.
These are:
Conversion of the existing 57,023 Voting Points and Voting Point Settlements to Polling Units
Application by residents of new area/settlement for Polling Units
Creation of Polling Areas in line with Section 13(3) of the Electoral Act 2010(as amended).
Although INEC said it has received 5,747 requests from communities and groups across the country, the electoral agency said it prefers to convert the existing 57,023 to Polling Units (PUs).
It claimed that such conversion will be less controversial.
It added: “The current configuration of 119,973 Polling Units was established by the defunct National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) in 1996.
“In the nearly 25-year period since then, every attempt to review or reconfigure the Polling Unit structure has been unsuccessful for sundry reasons. Consequently, the 1996 Polling Unit configuration was used for the 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 General Elections.
“When the Polling Unit structure was established in 1996, it was projected to serve about 50 million registered voters. However, the number of registered voters for the 1999 General Election was 57.93 million.
“This rose to 60.82 million in 2003, 61.56 million in 2007 and 73.52 million in 2011. Although the number declined to 68.83 million for the 2015 General Election following the cleaning up of the register through the use of Automated Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS) to eliminate double registrants, it rose to 84.04 million in 2019 as a result of the Commission embarking on a robust continuous voter registration exercise, as prescribed by law.
“The import of this development is that while the number of registered voters increased from 57.93 million in 1999 to 84.04 million in 2019, which is an increase of 45 percent, the number of Polling Units remained the same. This lack of correlation between the number of registered voters and the number of Polling Units since 1999 has resulted in congested Polling Units on Election Day and lack of Polling Units in many developing suburban and newly established settlements.
“The effects have been low voter turnout and voter apathy, insecurity at the Polling Units, disruption of elections and, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, unsafe voting environments.
“Indeed, presently, the average number of voters per Polling Unit in Nigeria, which stands at 700, is 37% more than the situation in Ghana.
Breaking: Why CBN Moves Against Cryptocurrencies
Trading in Cryptocurrencies is not backed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act which recognizes the naira as the only legal tender in the Nigerian financial system, an analyst has said.
The CBN had on Friday, directed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Other Financial Institutions (OFIs) and Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs) local financial institutions to close accounts belonging to crypto currency operators.
But a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said on Saturday that the apex bank never prevented any individual from dealing in cryptocurrency, adding that what the apex bank said was deposit money banks under its purview cannot partake in cryptocurrency because it will be illegal.
The MPC member, who spoke anonymously, explained that crypto trading would undermine monetary policy which is anchored on Naira money supply and demand.
“CBN is also concerned that bitcoin valuation is excessively speculative, akin to betting, and it will not make sense to run a currency system based gambling,” he said.
Continuing, he said: “Why people will come charging on CBN Governor Godwin Emiefele over banning banks from digital currencies is inexplicable. Bitcoin and other variants of digital currencies are not only unregulated the world over, but they are now used as weapons by cyber criminals.”
The MPC member said the last time cyber criminals hijacked the customer data base of one of Nigerian banks, they demanded ransoms in bitcoin before they released the database.
“And since bitcoin addresses are psedonymous, it is not possible to trace them. The CBN cannot fold its arms and see cryptocurrency destroy the entire banking system with all the unsavoury consequences of banking crisis and bailouts. Turkey had also banned bitcoin because it was becoming a channel for money laundering on an unimaginable scale,” he said.
“So, if any Nigerian wants to deal in digital currencies, bitcoin, or whatever, such person is free to do so, only that there is no platform for a cryptocurrency payment system. Accordingly, such a person could as well go to wherever such platform is legalised since the bitcoin market is virtual 24/7,” he said
Video:Fearless Gov Ortom Confronts Buhari Over Herdsmen
https://youtu.be/NRDZsJkOMfo A Governor speaks with maximum authority when the political power he exercises is derived from the People. Watch this video to see how The Peoples Governor speaks. Share it to go viral
Breaking: Ooni Of Ife Replies Sunday Igboho
Sunday Igboho had accused the Ooni of receiving dollars from President Muhammadu Buhari when he visited the Presidential Villa.
The Ooni of Ife, Enitan Ogunwusi, has described the comments made against him by the acclaimed Yoruba warlord, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, as irresponsible.
In an exclusive telephone interview with our Reporter, Mr Ogunwusi, who spoke through his spokesman, Moses Olafare, said the palace was not ready to engage Mr Adeyemo formally on the matter but the issue of the threat of violence against the monarch would be handled appropriately.
Mr Adeyemo, while taking part in a virtual town hall meeting on Wednesday morning with Nigerians in the diaspora, attacked some South-west leaders including the former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu; Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, and traditional rulers including the Oluwo of Iwo, Abdulrasheed Akanbi, and the Ooni.
He accused the Ooni of ”receiving dollars from President Muhammadu Buhari when he visited the Presidential Villa recently” and condemned the monarch’s comments while addressing the media at the villa.
Sunday Igboho described the Yoruba leaders as lily-livered and called them Fulani slaves.
He also threatened to waylay, open fire on them or visit and vandalise their properties.
The monarch said no true Yoruba son or daughter would speak in such a manner as Mr Adeyemo has spoken, saying his conduct and attitude cast doubt on his true intention in his “self-saddled responsibility of defending the Yorubas.”
The Ooni’s spokesman, Mr Olafare, said Mr Adeyemo was going overboard in his conduct and that he should not believe that he is bigger than the authorities.
He said; “We have not made any official statements on the matter and the matter does not really make any sense to us. If somebody who identifies himself with the cause of Yoruba could be talking in that manner about the Ooni who is indisputably a spiritual head of the race, then one must wonder whether or not the person has been representing us truly. It gives room to people to suspect your motive.”
Mr Olafare said ”for a man claiming to be defending a race to be attacking the same people you claim you are defending leaves much to be desired”.
Speaking on the allegation that the monarch collected money from the president, the spokesman said the allegation is not only irresponsible but also lacks substance.
“He made some very irresponsible allegations. You know when you make allegations that you cannot back up with evidence, that can only portray you as an irresponsible man. If you make unfounded allegations and then you want to use allegations to further justify your claims as the generalissimo of the race, it is up to the public. It’s so unfortunate, if you say the Ooni has collected money, I expected him to show evidence. You say he has collected dollars. Irresponsible allegation is irresponsible allegation if you cannot back up whatever you allege with acceptable evidence,” Mr Olafare said.
He added that the support of the people Mr Adeyemo is currently enjoying in his onslaught against some criminals that have infiltrated the South-west is not out of the blues. He, however, cautioned him against reckless comments and allegations, saying they do not portray him as a cultured Yoruba man with moral values and virtues.
“If you’re doing something and people are hailing you, I don’t think you need to allow that credit to get into your head and start to misbehave. If you could open your mouth and call Ooni such unprintable names that you called him, that shows the kind of Yoruba man that you are. I do not see any reason that will make me describe a Baale, who is of lower rank on the traditional rulers ranking, with such unprintable names. If I cannot do that to a Baale, why should I say such a thing to an Ooni? It’s not good. It does not portray anybody as an Omoluabi, as a man of Yoruba virtues and values.
“In any case, if you’re fighting for the liberation of the people, this is a responsibility that is self-saddled, you choose to and for you to succeed, you need the same people that you’re representing, otherwise you would not succeed. Is this the way you’re going to get the support of the people you’re representing when you start attacking the same people? People will back out, that is just it. Whether you like it or not, some people are following you because of that same Ooni. They will back out.”
On the threat of violence, Mr Olafare said; “Well, he said that in a video that is well circulated and the video must have gotten to security agents who would see beyond what we are seeing. It is a threat to life if you say that if somebody is going, you’re going to waylay that person and fire him. If you’re bold enough to say that, to anybody not to talk of even an Ooni of Ife, I believe that security agents will see that as a threat to life. While we’re not ready to report any matter to security agents, I believe that they will know what to do.”
Mr Adeyemo’s popularity recently rose in the South-west after he led an attack against a Fulani community leader in Oyo whom he accused of harbouring Fulani herders involved in criminal activities.
The herders-farmers’ clashes are rampant in parts of Oyo and other states in the country mainly caused by nomadic herders grazing their cattle on the farms of residents. The situation has gotten worse with some of the nomadic herders engaging in kidnapping, murder and rape, thus infuriating many Nigerians.
Following the repeated attacks in Ibarapa area of Oyo State, Mr Adeyemo issued an ultimatum to herdsmen in the area. When the ultimatum expired, he led some youth to the house of the head of the Fulani community in Igangan town, Abdulkadri Saliu. Mr Saliu was chased out of the community and his house and cars burnt.
The Seriki Fulani has since relocated to Kwara State with his family.
The ‘warlord’ on Monday also visited Ogun State to continue his self-appointed mandate of chasing Fulani herders out of the state with the state government saying it never asked for his help.
Although there have been several reports of criminal activities carried out by herdsmen in the South-west and other parts of Nigeria, the country’s law does not give any citizen the right to expel other citizens or residents from wherever they choose to live or do business in the country.
Source : Premium times
Anambra 2021: Group launches Online and Offline Campaign To Mobilise Over One Million Voters
The People Restoration Mission (PRM), a political movement group, said it has launched a radio participatory programme to sensitise and mobilise over a million voters ahead of Anambra state November 6 governorship election.
Mr Ndubuisi Anaenugwu, the Group’s Director of Public and Strategic Communication, who disclosed this in a statement, said the programme would run every Monday on a private radio station in the state as well as on an online based television station.
According to Anaenugwu, PRM, being a mass political movement comprising professionals, would through the media sensitisation programme ,grassroots mobilization and other strategies entrench a Governor that would represent the interest of the Masses not the interest of few political cabals.
”People Restoration Mission(PRM) has started mobilizing voters across the State ahead of the election. This is the first time real Professionals are getting directly involved using their resources to give our people sense of direction in taking political decisions as politics determines everything in life. To mobilize the ordinary people on the street ,the movement has in partnership with BVI Channel 1, an online media, has started a weekly program with Odenigbo FM 99.1 every Monday from 11- 12pm to educate the masses on why they should participate in electoral process and recruit a courageous Leader who can set a new political agenda for a new Anambra for the future generation.
“The movement believes that Anambra state is the light of the nation and must lead in all ramification. The Radio program is also set as the peoples Parliament where Aspirations will be invited to come and introduce themselves to the people- know your aspirants. The Aspirants will be rated on the basis of a well defined parameters and a social contract will be signed with the candidate that will secure the Movement support. This process is to ensure that the public is part of the recruitment process of their Governor from the party level to General election .Any political party that produces unpopular candidate as a party flag bearer has already lost out! The movement will no longer tolerate a situation where an unknown person serving the interest of moneybags will be smuggled in and packaged by praise singers to be a Governor for more 8 million people. It should be noted that democratic power belongs to the people and we thank God that EndSars Movement has shown the power of the people ; that power will be exercised in the polling stations” he added.
He said that the movement would not favour any Aspirant except the One that will have popular support of the Masses because of his or her restructuring ,economic ,security,agricultural and industrialization agenda, and urged support to the Movement State Coordinator, Comrade Chukwuemeka Chibuzor(08060982212) or email peoplerestorationmovements@gmail.com to join the process of recruiting the Governor after Gov Obiano.