First Time In 44 Years, INEC Printed All Election Materials In Nigeria – Prof Yakubu

Professor Mahmood Yakubu says the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) achieved a historic milestone ahead of the 2023 general election by ensuring that all sensitive and non-sensitive materials used in elections were printed within the country’s borders.

Mahmood shared the milestone during the commission’s quarterly consultative meeting with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) convened to review the 2023 general election.

According to the INEC boss, it was the first time Nigeria would achieve the feat since its transition to democratic rule in 1979.

“I am glad to report that the printing of all sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the 2023 General Election was entirely done in Nigeria,” he said. “This is the first time in 44 years since the transition to democratic rule in 1979 that this great step was taken and achieved.”

Yakubu said that the decision to print the materials in Nigeria was made in order to ensure that the election was conducted smoothly and without any delays.

“This was in spite of the record number of 93.4 million registered voters and over 500 million ballot papers, result sheets and other documents for the five categories of the main elections and supplementary polls,” he said.

The INEC chairman added that the 2023 general election was the first in the last four electoral cycles to be held as scheduled without a postponement arising from the non-arrival of materials.

He attributed this success to the new Electoral Act 2022, which provides a period of 180 days for political parties to conclude their primaries and submit the names of candidates.

Yakubu said that the new act also helped INEC to commence the process of producing the election materials in good time.

In addition to printing the materials in Nigeria, he said INEC also introduced a number of other innovations for the 2023 general election.

These included the expansion of voter access to polling units, the use of technology-based innovations, and the collection and publication of data on the distribution of voters by age, occupation, and disability.

Yakubu said that INEC faced a number of challenges during the 2023 general election, including severe cash and fuel shortages, as well as perennial insecurity nationwide.

“Their impact on our deployment plans, compounded by the behavior of some of our own officials in the field, made logistics management particularly challenging,” he said.

“The deployment of thugs by some political actors made election day administration difficult in a number of places.”

Despite these challenges, Yakubu said that INEC was satisfied with the overall conduct of the 2023 general election.

“We believe that the election was conducted in a free, fair, and credible manner,” he said.

“We are committed to continuing to improve our electoral processes and ensuring that future elections in Nigeria are even more inclusive, transparent, and accountable.”