THE PERFORMANCE OF THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION INEC IN THE MANAGEMENT OF 2015 AND 2019 GENERAL ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
Election can simply be defined as the process people follow to elect or choose their representative in both federal, state and local government. However, the first election was organized and conducted in Nigeria in 1922 by the British colonial government in response to the pressures by the nationalists who were agitating for better involvement in the colonial administration and leadership positions (Odo,2015). Therefore, to checkmate man’s inordinate disposition to acquire and exercise absolute political power, which is a major bane of national/territorial sovereignty, democratic framework and sustainable development. It is imperative that electoral contests be made open and transparent especially now that periodic elections have gained global acceptance in the contemporary liberal democratic dispensation (Omelle, 2005).
The management of elections also occupies a significant and strategic position in the sustainability of democracy, especially as the centrality of elections to liberal democratic politics presupposes the existence of impartial election administration. “The indeterminacy of elections, that is, the possibility of erstwhile winners becoming losers and erstwhile losers becoming winners which is an inherent and necessary prerequisite of liberal democratic politics is to a large extent a function of an impartial administration of elections (Jinadu, 1997:11). The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was established by section 153 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution. It is responsible for organizing referendums and elections for president, vice president, state governors and deputy governors, and the Nigerian Senate and House of Representatives. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) also has power to register political parties and monitor their organization and operations, including auditing their finances and publishing reports for public consumption. It also has power to conduct voter registration, monitor political campaigns and undertake other functions that may be assigned by the National Assembly. The commission is composed of a chairman, who serves as the chief executive officer, and 12 members known as national electoral commissioners; the secretary to the commission is selected from the rank of bureaucrats within the institution. The constitution also provides for a resident electoral commissioner for each state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); it maintains administrative offices in all 36 states, the FCT and in all the local governments in the country (Hassan, 2019).
The 2015 general elections were the fifth and most competitive elections since the transition from military rule in 1999. For the first time the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was challenged by a new unified opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which was formed in February 2013 by the four biggest opposition parties namely; Action Congress of Nigeria (APC), The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), The Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), A faction of The All Progressive Grand Alliance(APGA). The All progressive Congress became unified in anticipation of the 2015 election with their presidential candidate as Muhammadu Buhari who was a presidential nominee of APGA. The APC is generally considered to be a center left political party that favors controlled market economic policies and a strong active role for government regulation. The All Progressive Congress made up of four regional parties was the most significant efforts to date to form a national opposition group in a country riven by geographic rivalries and an Islamist insurgency. Thus, the emergence of the APC prompted political realignment across the country resulting in a head-to-head electoral competition between the two main parties. Apart from PDP and APC, 25 small parties participated in the elections. Nigeria is composed of 36 states in six geo-political zones (North central, North east, North west, South east, South south, South western states) each with a governor and a State House of Assembly, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Abuja. The size of the country, the large population, infrastructure limitations, and the fierce political competition made for an extremely challenging election environment. The conditions for the elections were further complicated by a problematic security environment, especially in the states affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East. In total, there were 8,187 candidates competing for 1,489 seats at the federal level (President, Senate and House of Representatives) and state level (Governors and House of Representatives). The new president and the elected National Assembly representatives took office not later than 29 May 2015 (European Union Election Observer Mission Report, 2015).
The 2019 general elections one of the key points in the preparation for the elections is the distribution of permanent voters’ card (PVC) and continuous voters Registration (CVR). Another important area of preparation was the use of card Reader which was used to authenticate the validity of PVC and to make sure that a prospective voter is originally registered and has his or her name in the INEC voters’ database. In preparation for the general elections the electoral body had to contend with security challenges. The elections will take place in a period when the country is waging war against general insecurity majorly occasioned by the Boko Haram insurgency. All the aforementioned issues may pose serious challenges to the conduct of the 2019 general elections. In surmounting these challenges the Independent National Electoral Commission declared that as at 12th of February, 2019 it has distributed 54,377,747(Fifty-four Million, Three Hundred and Seventy-Seven Thousand, Seven Hundred and Forty Seven) PVCs to persons registered for the general elections. This represented 78.93percent of the total number of voters registered by INEC (Hassan, 2019).  In giving the general impression of its Election Observer Mission the head international community commented that the 23 February 2019 elections will mark an important step forward for democracy in Africa’s most populous country and a key member of the commonwealth. The international community further emphasized that though there may be technical hitches but optimistic that there is room for improvement (Muluzi, 2019).
The 2019 general election was characterized by suspicions, monetary inducement based campaigns, violent campaigns, vote buying and result manipulations. These malpractices and challenges notwithstanding, it is to the credit of all Nigerians that the 2019 elections indeed took place, though in the midst of a difficult political and security environment. The Independent National Electoral Commission was able to successfully conclude the 2019 general elections with announcement of winners and losers. The election was initially scheduled for 16th February, 2019, but the election commission postponed the vote by a week at 3.00 am on the original polling date, citing logistical challenges in getting electoral material to polling stations on time. This affected the political atmosphere of the Nigerian system. After the elections was finally conducted, most results were said to be inconclusive due to violence and lack of voting materials in some locations.
The scope of the Election Management System is to provide a management framework to support the planning execution, monitoring and output assessment of all activities outlined within an Electoral Cycle. It draws on data from many sources within and outside the commission such as strategic/action plans, implementation data, activity status data, spatial, geographic electoral and demographic data covering all of Nigerian business intelligence/research data, and data from the typical supporting systems logistics, human resources management, training and evaluation of staff; political party management, voters registration, results management, financial management, fleet management estate management, warehouse management and document management. This framework is built around a number of components or management system such as a financial (accounting/ERP), asset (warehouse/logistics), election (parties/candidates/voters/results/locations) and human resource system (staff/training/PU staff/observers). A range of backend systems such as an Electronic Voters Register (EVR), a contacts Database (DB), security/monitoring, and other support infrastructure such as SMS, Internet, VoIP and so on are also key elements.  This project tends to study the activities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and election management system in Nigeria during the 2015 election and 2019 elections respectively.

1.2   Statement of the Problem
Nigeria has gone through a turbulent process in its journey for democratic sustainability central to the incessant breakages of its democracy is a faulty electoral system bedeviled with abnormalities due partly to the activities of selfish and corrupt politicians, uninformed electorates and unenlightened electoral officials.
The research is conducted Against the backdrop of the fact is that all general elections conducted in Nigeria have generated controversies supposedly arising from structural dependences and institutional inadequacies and deficiencies in the electoral administration system. Indeed, as Ibrahim (2010:15) notes, the view that “The problem of Nigeria’s electoral system lies with the people and institutions charged with the conduct and management in elections”