The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission Mahood Yakubu a few hours ago, appeared before the Senate Committee on INEC for the Commission’s budget defense.
This is coming after Senators agreed to cut short their recess to meet with the INEC chairman to consider the budget for the 2019 general elections, after the political drama at the National Assembly a few days back.
The Senate Committee on INEC which is chaired by Senator Suleiman Nazif, with Senators Atai Aidoko, James Manager, Mohammed Hassan, Sabi Abdullahi, Ovie Omo Agege, Abdullahi Gumel and Isa Hamma Misau as members, received the INEC Chairman and Commissioners on the 2019 Election INEC Budget Defense.
While speaking on the importance of the Budget and how the Senate will do all it can for the Nigerian people, the Chairman of the Committee Senator Suleiman Nazif said:
“This budget defense will assure Nigerians that this Senate is committed to the Nigerian people.”
“This budget defense will put to an end all the political brouhaha. We will ensure that INEC receives all the necessary funding that it needs for the 2019 elections.” He said.
Speaking further, the chairman Senator Suleiman Nazif told the gathering that:
”Distinguished Senators only received the budget details from INEC last night/this morning from INEC.”
On his part, while appreciating the Committee for agreeing to suspend their recess said he appreciates that fact that for the first time the INEC budget is going through scrutiny, saying:
“I thank members of this Committee for suspending your recess to attend to this very important national issue. Mr. Chairman, this is the first time that the budget of the National Assembly is presented in this manner.”
“For the first time, this budget is subjected to scrutiny by the National Assembly and the Nigerian people. I am happy to be a part of this process.” He said.
On the voters registration which the Commission only yesterday decided extended the deadline date for registration by two more weeks, said:
“As at Saturday, we have registered 12.1 new voters. Adding this to the 70million voter register, we have over 80million registered voters. The general elections are just around the corner.”
“Mr. Chairman, I wish to draw the attention of this Committee to the fact that there is a difference of N69billion in the budgets of 2015 and 2019.”
“In 2015, we had 70million registered voters. As of last week Saturday, we now have over 80million registered voters.”
All major activities are pegged against the total number of voters. In 2015, we had only 42 political parties. We now have 91 registered political parties eligible to take part in the 2019 general elections.”
“We are hoping that all the political parties will have seamless congresses and primaries. Another issue that we have accounted for, is the processing costs of nominations.”
“The cost of logistics is also different in 2019 as opposed to 2015, because the pump price of petrol in 2015, is different from that of 2019. This will also have an impact.”
With the increase of voters, we will have to increase the number of voting points. And with the increase of voting points, we will also have an increase in Ad-Hoc Staff.”
”We have provided a line-by-line explanation and account of this budget to the Distinguished Senators.”
Thank you very much Distinguished Senators, and we will be very happy to interact with the Committee.” He concluded.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee thanked the INEC Chairman for his briefing and clear explanation about
the details of the 2019 General Election budget, as he opened the floor for all members of the Senate Committee to ask questions, but not until he added this:
“Continuous voter registration is of great importance to Nigerians. Without which you cannot exercise your right to vote. Mr. Chairman, in the 2018 budget, we made provision for this process and I believe that this funds are supposed to run till the end of the year.”
“Mr. Chairman, in item 39, you have budget N5bn+ for this continuous voter registration. Mr. Chairman, if you were provided with funds in the 2018 budget, why is this provision repeated?” He asked.
INEC Chairman answered by saying, that the electoral act demands that we continue voter registration. Based on the budgetary provision in 2017, we could only do PVC registration at the LGA level. He continued by saying:
“By the end of the Second Quarter of 2017, we had over 1400 registration centers across the country. The funds we had were not adequate. This is why in 2018, we approached the National Assembly for additional funding.”
Asking his question, Senator James Manager who is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Delta State, asked:
“The Electoral Act Amendment has been going back and forth between the National Assembly and the President. What would happen to the provisions of the Act that have been budgeted for if it is not signed by the President?”
“Your contingency budget provisions have been cut down. I am surprised that you have decided to cut this down to only 2.5% of the budget. What informed this thinking?” He asked.
The INEC Chairman answered the questions by saying:
“If the Electoral Act is not signed into law, we will continue to operate within the ambits of the law as it exists.”
“Even if the Electoral Act is not signed into law, we need to continue to improve our electoral process to promote transparency.”
“Why is our contingency low? If it had been 10%, it would have been considered too high. Now it is 2.5%, it is too low.
However, there are some contingencies that we need to expect.”
Senator Mohammed Hassan questioned the difference between what is being asked by President Muhammadu Buhari and the INEC, saying:
“There is a conflict of request here: from the letter presented by Mr. President and the budget presented by INEC. You are asking for N189billion, meanwhile Mr. President is asking for N140billion.”
The INEC Chairman refuted any discrepancies between what the President asked for and what was presented by them, saying:
“There is no conflict in the letters. If you add up the requests by the President and INEC, they add up. The sequence of disbursement is up for the legislature and the executive to decide.” He answered.
But not satisfied what the response given by the INEC chairman, Senator Mohammed Hassan asked again:
“The President is saying that the additional N45billion will be requested for in the 2019 budget. You are asking for N189billion. Which of these requests should we focus on?”
Senator Olusola Adeyeye also asked the same question asked by Senator Hassan, but urged the Committee for a speedy passage and not subject the entire thing to the usual scrutiny of a normal budget process, saying:
“INEC says it submitted a budget for N189billion. The President broke it down into 2 parts. It is necessary that we raise this issue.”
“With the experience that the budget sometimes takes time, we cannot afford to subject the needs to INEC to the overall budgetary process.”
…MORE UPDATE TO COME..