The video on underage voting in Kano State trending on the social media has brought into bold relief one of the troubling malpractices undermining the integrity of our electoral system. Although the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) has denied that the incident took place during the last local government election in the state, it is good that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has set up an 8-man investigative panel to probe the recording and come up with recommendations to eliminate underage voting in our elections.
The Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010 as amended are both emphatic on the qualifications of persons eligible to vote in any election in the country. One of the irreducible qualifications is that the intending voter must have attained the age of legal adulthood, which in law is 18. The persons in the video trending online are clearly below the age of 18, with some not even yet in their teenage years.
The problem of underage voting is not exactly new in the country. It has been widely reported at elections in certain parts of the country. The current trending post has, however, now put accent on it, and the time has come to tackle the problem headlong. Underage registration for, and participation in actual voting at elections, are a clear infringement on the laws of the land and should not be tolerated for any reason. The malpractice strikes at the very base of democracy and should be extirpated from our body politic.
Although the KANSIEC and the Kano State governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, have repeatedly denied the allegation of underage voting in the said election, we enjoin INEC to ensure a thorough investigation of the incident. A swift and decisive probe with sanctions visited on the persons behind the unfortunate incident will go a long way in checking this problem.
There are, however, certain things that must be done to stop underage and other unqualified persons from voting. The first major step is to clean up the Voters Register. Anything that questions the integrity of this important register will affect the entire electoral process and the outcome of our polls. Cleaning up the electoral register nationwide is the responsibility of INEC. The state electoral commissions are expected to rely on this register for their own state and local elections. So, INEC has a duty to ensure that the register is clean and above reproach. There should be no names of underage persons in it. The agency should purge this register of the names of unqualified persons. Beyond that, it should ensure that persons who facilitate such infractions are apprehended and prosecuted in accordance with our laws.
One other thing that the country needs to do is to heighten the security arrangements for our electoral processes, from registration for elections and the actual voting and collating processes. There are many accounts of how electoral officials are threatened by mobs to allow infractions of our electoral laws during registration and voting in some parts of the country.
In a recent newspaper interview, Professor Lai Olorude, until recently an INEC National Commissioner, corroborated this view when he recounted his experience on monitoring duties during voter registration across the country. Adult patrons and henchmen, he said, follow kids to registration centres or come with lists of intending voters, and insist on their registration. When officials refuse, they are threatened with physical attacks and, sometimes, death. This sometimes makes the defenceless electoral officials to adhere to the demands of the local henchmen, to save their own lives. This account is not peculiar to Olorode, as it has been echoed by other electoral officials, including even youth corps members and other ad hoc staff on electoral duties, especially in the northern part of the country.
It, therefore, behooves the nation to make proper security arrangements for officials on electoral duties. INEC must collaborate with the security agencies to protect its officials and safeguard the integrity of the registration and voting processes. Adequate security must be provided at all registration points to curtail the desperate politicians and their henchmen who may seek to infiltrate the Voters Register and fill it with names of unqualified persons. This is very important if we want to entrench a truly strong democratic culture and secure the integrity of our electoral system.
It is also important to strive to integrate our national databases, including the National Identity card system; Drivers Licences and, if possible, develop a Birth/School/Children’s Identity Card System that is integrated into the National Identity Card Scheme. There should be a reliable and verifiable national database on all Nigerians. As is the practice in many advanced democracies, names and dates of birth are automatically entered into the national register as babies are born, and the registers can be relied on for the true ages of intending registrants and voters at elections. Under this system, miscreants who intend to compromise the electoral process will be unable to approach the voter registration or polling booths because they know that they will be detected and arrested to face the full wrath of the law.
It will also be good for the Voters Register to be kept open so that citizens who attain the age of 18 can immediately register and be eligible to vote without the present constraint of seasonal registration exercises when elections are around the corner.
The trending underage voting video provides a good opportunity for INEC to correct one of the major wrongs with our electoral process and give it all the attention it needs. We expect KANSIEC to cooperate fully with the national electoral umpire on this investigation to put an end to this unfortunate and unacceptable electoral malpractice.