2023 presidential election glitch: Ex-INEC spokesman opens up

•How glitch affects INEC’s integrity

•2027: Why INEC may not organise free, fair, transparent elections

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

Former National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Festus Okoye, has opened up on the sensitive, controversial circumstances surrounding the technical glitch that occurred during the 2023 presidential election.

Speaking to Sunday Sun in this exclusive interview in Abuja, Okoye admitted that apart from the glitch denting the integrity of the commission, the opposition political parties deserve some blame for abandoning their duties of protecting the mandate.

He also expressed deep fears and concerns about the credibility of next year’s 2027 general elections, warning that several endemic factors could pose serious operational and technical threats to the polls, particularly the desperation of the political elite, who he accused of sponsoring thugs to humiliate voters, election duty staff, snatch ballot papers and boxes, igniting violence with insensitive and incendiary, base language.

How would you describe your journey into the electoral commission?

My appointment as a National Commissioner of INEC was not accidental. I see it as recognition and the culmination of the work I have done and continue to do in elections and the electoral process.

Before my appointment, I had technical expertise in legal and policy development, advocacy, and capacity building. I developed, reviewed, and advocated for the passage of critical laws related to justice, elections, human rights, and policing, as well as for development initiatives and capacity-building to support their implementation and compliance.

I served as Chair of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Nigeria’s foremost domestic election observer group. I served on the Commonwealth Election Observer Mission to the 2004 Cameroon Presidential Election. I also served on the Electoral Reform Committee established by the Federal Government in 2007.

In 2010, I served as a member of the INEC Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Election Monitoring and Observation Board and the INEC Anambra 2010 Election Monitoring and Observation Board.

In 2013, I served as a member of the INEC Committee on the Review of Judgments on Election Cases (COREC). In 2014, I served as a Civil Society Delegate to the National Conference and as a member of INEC’s Committee on the Management of Election Petitions (COMEPET). I also served as Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Election Working Group (NBA-EWG) twice.

With my extensive experience in the private sector and civil society, serving as a National Commissioner in the public sector was a critical undertaking that gave me an insider’s perspective on the challenges of our electoral process and on the fact that an individual can make a difference, no matter how small.

What will you consider the most memorable and saddest experience in your time with the commission?

I went to the commission to make a difference. I went to the commission knowing that I was not there to start a revolution, but to help make incremental changes to the electoral process. As a commission, we introduced innovations to the electoral process. We introduced the INEC Voter Enrolment Device, which allowed Nigerian citizens to register to vote from the comfort of their homes.

We introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) Device, which drastically prevented multiple registrations and altered election outcomes. We introduced the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal, which brought transparency and accountability to the electoral process.

We re-engineered the Memorandum of Understanding between the Commission and the National Union of Road Transport Workers and the National Association of Road Transport Owners, enabling most polling units to open on time, thereby making voting a pleasant experience.

We designed a robust, forward-looking, and innovative strategy that enabled the Commission to continue the electoral process throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

We also prepared thoroughly for the 2023 general election and maintained balance among all contending parties and tendencies, supporting diverse representation across political parties and tendencies in the governorship and in the National and State Assemblies.

As an individual, I received strong support and encouragement from the Chairman of the Commission and the Directors responsible for Voter Education and Publicity in making my modest contribution to strategic communication as the National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education.

My unhappiness stems from the fact that we prepared well for the 2023 general election, yet the challenge of uploading the presidential results in real time created confusion and became the dominant issue throughout the collation of the presidential election results and thereafter.

As you reflect on your days with the commission, can you paint a clearer picture of what transpired at the ICC, Abuja, during the collation of the 2023 presidential election?

I don’t understand the picture you want me to paint. The Collation of the Presidential Results was conducted transparently. The commission explained the protocols to all political parties and stakeholders in the electoral process. The truth, which some parties have masked, is that before the election results reached the National Collation Center in Abuja, all major political parties already had them.

The commission established 176,846 Polling Units. The APC deployed 176,223 polling agents nationwide. The Labour Party deployed 134,874, and the NNPP deployed 176,588. The PDP deployed 176,200, the SDP deployed 87,562, and the ADC deployed 96,043. This suggests that these parties already had the results from the Polling Units.

Nigeria has 8,809 Registration Areas and 774 Local Governments and Area Councils. Collation also took place in the Registration Areas and Local Governments, as well as in the 36 States and the FCT, Abuja. At the Registration Area, Local Government, and State Collation Centers, APC had 9,581 collation agents; PDP, 9,539; SDP, 3,310; Labour Party, 4,859; NNPP, 9,539; and ADC, 3,626. The collation officers provided the collation agents of the parties with the results from these strands.

The National Collation Centre was professionally organised, and all National Commissioners and Directors fulfilled their roles and responsibilities. The only challenge arose at the end of voting in some polling units. Some Presiding Officers reported they could not upload election results. We initially thought it was a temporary issue, but it persisted and put many Presiding Officers in harm’s way. Some were beaten, some were held hostage, and some were severely traumatised.

As the commission noted, attempts to upload the results generated internal server errors, indicating a significant impairment that usually originates within an application due to configuration or permission problems, or to failures to create or access application resources correctly.

The commission also noted that further review of the Election Result Modules revealed an unexpected configuration issue that mapped the presidential election results uploaded to the system to the participating Polling Units.

After identifying the source of the problem, the commission quickly created and deployed “Hotfixes,” software updates that fix bugs or vulnerabilities in a system. The hotfixes eventually resolved the HTTP error, and the first presidential election result sheet was successfully uploaded at 8.55 pm on 25 February 2023.

Unfortunately, some people have alleged wrongdoing by the commission. What we witnessed was opportunistic grandstanding by certain individuals desperate to justify their false assumptions and frustrations. Those with a fact-based counter-narrative should share their facts. The commission explained the challenges it faced in uploading presidential election results in real time. It covered this in its Report on the 2023 General Election.

The Deputy Director of Information and Computer Technology at INEC appeared before the Court of Appeal, sitting as a Presidential Election Tribunal, and explained what happened and why the uploads for the Senatorial and House of Representatives elections were successful, while the Presidential election upload could not begin until 8:55 p.m.

Rumours and propaganda cannot replace facts. Those with facts about interference and deliberate, malicious human action behind the upload failure should share them in the national interest. But we are unfazed by their attempts to discredit us over a “technical glitch,” despite the commission’s well-known achievements. We did our patriotic duty to the Nigerian people and nation. I am confident that history will be kind to us.

What is your biggest takeaway as a former National Commissioner in conducting general elections in Nigeria?

Conducting free, fair, and transparent elections is a multi-stakeholder effort. The electoral management body cannot do it alone unless critical stakeholders develop a democratic spirit and agree that sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria. The electoral management body continues to improve and innovate, but the political elite continue to devise strategies to undermine the process.

Free and fair elections cannot take place when voters cannot access polling units. They cannot take place when people are maimed and killed for going to the polling units. They cannot take place when ballot boxes and ballot papers are snatched and results are altered. Free and fair elections cannot take place when security agencies are suspected of partisanship and their neutrality cannot be guaranteed.

Electoral Officers manage elections, and a good election cannot take place without professional and ethical election managers. It is important to audit the commission’s various local government offices and ensure that the right people serve as Electoral Officers and Assistant Electoral Officers.

Electoral Officers must not remain in the same local government and State for more than two electoral cycles. They must not become entrenched in the local government and the State.

What is or are the most difficult and challenging decision(s) you took while serving with the commission?

The commission is composed of 12 National Commissioners and the Chairman. Most of the commission’s policies and programmee, as well as the decisions arising from them, are made collectively. However, serving as the spokesperson for an electoral commission in a complex and diverse country like Nigeria is difficult. It is also challenging in a partisan political environment where issues are viewed primarily through a political prism.

Sometimes, people equate the commission’s decisions with the person communicating. Some people and parties take what does not favour them personally and see the communicator as the enemy. This happened during the deregistration of political parties in Nigeria.

After the deregistration of 74 political parties on Thursday, February 6, 2020, some party leaders took it personally and claimed that I had earlier described them as commercial entities for hire and that I had moved the commission to deregister them.

The postponement of the 2019 general election was also highly challenging for the commission. The lessons from the postponement and the storm that followed led to adequate and timely preparation for the 2023 general election.

If you had the opportunity to return to the commission, what is the one singular thing you would do differently?

The commission is a collective body, and its members must balance personal principles with the commission’s overall mission and the national interest. In the commission, personal interests must not always prevail. The commission and its members must continually remind themselves of their constitutional and statutory obligations and remain within their bounds. The commission must also continue to innovate and gradually integrate technology into the electoral process.

The commission must also strengthen its social media presence by procuring modern equipment, hiring young, resourceful people who understand the social media landscape, training them, and allocating resources to ensure effective communication.

What do you tell those claiming that you did not leave the commission as the same Okoye Nigerians knew you before taking up the job?

I was appointed to work in a collective. In a collective, your opinion does not always prevail. The President appointed Festus Okoye as a National Commissioner of INEC. The commission consists of a chairman and 12 National Commissioners. It is a large institution. In its wisdom, the commission first appointed me as National Commissioner in charge of the Electoral Institute and later as National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education.

As National Commissioner, I communicated the commission’s policies and programmes. I did my best to communicate the commission’s work. We worked hard. We came from diverse backgrounds, but we paid close attention to the health of the electoral process. We made modest contributions and introduced many innovations in the electoral process. I strongly believe in democracy and the democratic process. I fought for democracy and will continue to fight. Anti-democratic forces must not be allowed to derail the modest gains we made.

What challenges must INEC surmount to guarantee Nigerians free, fair, credible, and transparent elections?

A mistaken belief that has gained currency is that the INEC is the only institution capable of conducting free, fair, and credible elections. Conducting a good election is a collective effort. It is a multi-stakeholder endeavour. Interconnected institutions must work together to deliver a good election. First, Nigerians must imbibe the democratic spirit and be prepared to fight for democracy, especially when anti-democratic forces are on the rampage. A docile people cannot protect democracy. Democracy requires a vigilant citizenry. Nigerians must therefore protect their mandate and weigh parties’ policies and programmes before casting their votes.

Secondly, the parties, as presently constituted, lack clear ideological direction, as most of them are merely platforms for seeking power and relevance. That explains the frequent movement of leaders between political parties. The present parties must give way to ideologically grounded political parties that will give Nigerians clear choices.

Thirdly, the political elite must stop making choices for the people. Rather than campaigning on issues, they exploit our people’s vulnerabilities to corrupt the process. They engage in bribery, conspiracy, undue influence, threats, and disorderly conduct, and dress it up as vote buying.

The political elite must stop arming political thugs to humiliate voters and election duty staff. They must stop carrying ballot papers and ballot boxes and preventing election duty staff from reaching Collation Centers. They must stop using insensitive, incendiary, and base language that can ignite violence and scare people away from the polling units.

They must use government funds for the public good to enable the younger generation of Nigerians to re-engage in the electoral and democratic process. Security agencies must demonstrate strong neutrality and non-partisanship, and people must be able to access polling units without difficulty.

Adequate resources must be made available to the electoral management body to enable it to recruit, train, and deploy Presiding Officers and Assistant Presiding Officers for the 176,846 Polling Units in the country, and Collation Officers for the 8,809 Registration Areas or Electoral Wards, as well as for the 774 Local Governments and Area Councils, the 36 States of the Federation, and the FCT, Abuja.

The commission must also have funds to recruit, train, and deploy Supervisory Presiding Officers and Local Government Supervisors. It must have funds to replace stolen, damaged, or obsolete BVAS and to upgrade them. It must be able to replace its cubicles and other election paraphernalia. It must have funds to upgrade its Election Monitoring and Support Center.

It must have funds to pay the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) for using their vehicles to move people and materials on election days. It must have funds to pay boat owners for using their boats in riverine areas. It must have funds to improve election management and conduct.

How do you feel that Nigerians seem to have forgotten all the good efforts of Mahmood Yakubu, whom you served under, and only remember him with the derogatory tag of ‘technical glitch’?

The Chairman is a historian and can speak for himself. I am sure that at the appropriate time, he will provide the Nigerian people with an account of his stewardship. It is a duty and an obligation. Thereafter, history will be the ultimate judge, and, as is said, history will vindicate the just.

However, I know he led the commission in introducing revolutionary innovations and transformations. He believed technology could solve some problems in the electoral process, but he insisted on integrating it gradually. He also painfully realised that the political elite’s desperation over electoral matters is confounding and can lead them to undermine technology and technological innovations.

The commission decided on a dual balance of technology and manual approaches to our electoral process. He was also passionate about maintaining cohesion within the commission, bringing together the diverse tendencies, disparities, and dispositions among the National, Resident Electoral Commissioners and Electoral Officers across the 774 LGAs and Area Councils, as well as in the FCT, Abuja, and getting them to focus on building a progressive and enduring electoral system for the country.

What is that untold story about the technical glitch during the 2023 presidential election?

We don’t have an untold story. Our story is that of a commission that understood that the end of one election cycle marks the beginning of another. Our story is that of a commission that had an Election Project Plan, an in-depth, comprehensive plan for the 2023 general election.

The Election Project Plan provided the commission with a template for coordinating and executing roles, activities, and timelines for planning, organising, and delivering a good election. We planned well and wanted to deliver a good election for Nigerians.

The commission developed and deployed new technologies, automated certain aspects of the electoral process and procedures by creating portals for a hybrid training platform, Virtual Library, Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), CVR Live Locator, Candidate Nomination, Media Accreditation Management System, RATECHs Management System, Observer Management System, and Political Party Agent Management System.

The INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED), used for registration during CVR, was modified with a few add-ons to serve as an accreditation device for the BVAS on Election Day. BVAS accredited voters, uploaded polling unit results to the IReV portal, and captured Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates for the 176,846 polling units nationwide.

The commission conducted a BVAS mock accreditation exercise on the eve of the 2023 General Election to test the system. The commission made it clear that result collation at the Registration Area remains manual. We also stated that results from the polling units will be uploaded to the IREV for accountability and transparency, not for collation, because the IREV is not a collation portal and results from the IREV do not go to the collation portal.

To protect the mandate and ensure citizens’ involvement in announcing and collating results, political parties deployed polling agents to polling units and collation centers. Despite our preparations, the House of Representatives and Senate results were uploaded in real time, but the presidential election results were not uploaded due to technical challenges.

Having identified and established the source of the problem, the Commission quickly created and deployed “Hotfixes,” which are software updates to fix bugs or vulnerabilities in a system. The deployed hotfixes eventually resolved the HTTP error on the system, and the first presidential election result sheet was successfully uploaded at 8.55 pm on the 25th of February 2023.

Did the presidential election technical glitch affect the commission’s integrity during the 2023 poll?

Yes. The dominant opinion, especially on social media, was that the uploaded results went directly to the collation portal and were used to collate the election results. Unfortunately, some political parties abandoned their duty to protect the mandate, failed to deploy some polling agents, and could not obtain primary results from the polling units.

Some apparently relied exclusively on the uploaded results, and challenges with uploading results in real time affected some people’s perception of the elections and of the commission’s independence.

I have taken time to read the judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court on the petition filed by the presidential candidates, and I am convinced that the electoral management body must continue to educate and explain to Nigerians the functions and relevance of the technological innovations used and being used in the conduct of elections.

What was the biggest lesson you learned serving with the commission?

Life’s lessons form a continuum, and the challenges of the electoral process will not disappear because of puritanical grandstanding by those who benefited, are benefiting, and want to continue benefiting from wrongdoing.

In serving the commission, I found hardworking, principled, decent, and revolutionary-minded individuals across our institutions who are making a difference. I have also realised that civil society and other civic leaders should have at least two years of public-sector experience. This will create balance and better equip them to understand the country, the challenges our institutions face, and the best ways to overcome those challenges.

What should the commission do to ensure better, credible general elections in next year’s 2027 elections?

Your question assumes that conducting free, fair, and credible elections is the commission’s exclusive responsibility, but I believe that assumption is incorrect. A good election is the product of the symbiotic relationship among various organs and institutions of government.

The commission cannot deploy materials and personnel if the security situation is challenging, insurgents have taken over certain communities, and security agencies cannot guarantee the safety of election officials and voters.

Elections cannot take place if political parties cannot hold primaries and if their campaigns lead to a breakdown of law and order. A good election cannot take place if the voters’ register is opaque and most people have disengaged from the process because of the political elite’s irresponsibility.

More fundamentally, a good election requires proper, early planning. The National Commissioners must be able to exercise independent judgment without fear of the unknown or of pandering to external forces. Sometimes, people censor themselves even when no one else does.

The commission must also upgrade its equipment and processes and conduct a thorough test run. Election duty staff must receive comprehensive training and uphold their oath of neutrality and non-partisanship. The commission must, on no account, be perceived as aligning with any political parties or tendencies.

What is your take on the clamour to change the mode of appointment of the chairman of the commission?

I served on the Electoral Reform Committee (2007-2008), also known as the Uwais Committee. We recommended a new framework for appointing INEC’s National and Resident Electoral Commissioners. The Committee also recommended reorganising and repositioning INEC to ensure its independence and professionalism in conducting elections in the country.

It also recommended amending the 1999 Constitution to ensure that INEC is truly independent, non-partisan, impartial, professional, transparent, and reliable as an institution and in its constitutional functions.

For the positions of Chairman and National Commissioners, it recommends that the National Judicial Council advertise all positions, specify the required qualifications, accept applications and nominations from the general public, shortlist three candidates for each position, and forward the nominations to the National Council of State to select one from the shortlist and forward it to the Senate for confirmation.

I think the NJC can still shortlist three candidates and forward them to the President for selection of one, who would then be forwarded to the Senate for confirmation. The nominees must not have been card-carrying or registered members of any political party in the 10 years preceding the appointment, and each nominee must swear an affidavit confirming this.

Having served the commission, what is the reality about interference and pressure on the electoral umpire, and is INEC truly independent?

The commission is an institution with over 11,000 permanent staff across the national headquarters, the 36 States and the FCT, the 774 LGs and Area Councils, and Registration Area Officers in some of the 8,809 Registration Areas or Electoral Wards in the country.

It has a chairman, 12 National Commissioners, and 37 Resident Electoral Commissioners. It also has Electoral Officers and Assistant Electoral Officers in local governments. The Electoral Officers are, for all practical purposes, the Managing Directors of Elections. They are located across diverse locations and come from diverse backgrounds.

You cannot say with certainty that all of them are independent and clean. However, disciplinary procedures and processes exist to address those who compromise their positions. For the 2023 general election, the total number of Polling Unit Officials required was 1,131,814. The commission also engaged Supervisory Presiding Officers, Registration Area Managers, and Collation and Returning Officers for the Registration Areas, LG and Area Councils, the 36 States, and the FCT.

These categories of election duty staff include Nigerians undergoing their National Youth Service, students at Federal Tertiary Institutions in their penultimate year, staff of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of Government, lecturers and professors at various institutions of higher learning.

Election officials are Nigerians from diverse backgrounds and walks of life. They swear an oath of neutrality and non-partisanship. Most are patriotic and perform their duties to the best of their ability. Some are threatened and coerced into improper conduct. Some are compromised by candidates, their middlemen, and consultants.

On election day, National Commissioners and some Directors converge at the National Collation Centre to monitor the election’s conduct and progress. They do not go into the field. They are policymakers from different walks of life. The commission has collective responsibility, but each Commissioner brings a different background and can only decide for themselves.

I cannot vouch for other people. I know that most of the National Commissioners I worked with are accomplished and did their work diligently and to the best of their ability. I am not aware of who recommended them for appointment or how they came to the commission. If any of them were pressured to do the wrong thing, I am not aware of it. I did my work to the best of my ability, driven by my resolve to help make incremental improvements to our electoral process.

What is next for you? Are you joining politics, or continuing with your law practice?

I am a lawyer and active in civil society. I will continue my legal practice and civic work.

How are you handling operating behind the scenes after being in the limelight for years now?

I have been active in public life for a long time and have not stepped away. I served in the University of Jos students’ parliament and was the General Secretary of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in 1983.

I served as Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Kaduna Branch, and as National Publicity Secretary of the same association. I served as Chair of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) for four years. I served on the Electoral Reform Committee (2007-2008) and as a Civil Society Delegate to the National Conference (2014).

After leaving office as a National Commissioner, I served as Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Election Working Group (NBA-EWG) and led the delegation for the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections. Nothing has changed. I still make a few radio and television appearances and accept a few public engagements.

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