Before I start, I'd like to say that the inspiration for this article came from reading a post by a new Villager - Olutosin - where she recounted her tale of woe as she attempted to register to vote in the forthcoming 2007 elections.

The tale was not very different from what many people experienced over the last few weeks as INEC wound up its registration exercise. But on reading it, I felt very disheartened and frustrated. Despite the fact that there is likely to be massive electoral fraud, there are people like Olutosin who are still prepared to sacrifice time and energy going out to register to vote. The least that INEC could do would be to reward them for their effort by getting them registered. And then it got me thinking... what can possibly be done about this? Does all this effort have to be a waste of time?

And then it hit me.

As a rule, public officials in Nigeria are very indifferent to their responsibilities because there is no mechanism to call them to order when they fail to carry out their duties. Usually, such a mechanism might be the judicial system - an aggrieved member of the public could sue for damages due to the organisation that the official represents causing him harm in by neglecting their duties. But as we all know, the judicial system is very weak, and it takes a long time for cases to be resolved, so public officials have little fear of being brought before it.

But there is another powerful mechanism for ensuring that public officials carry out their duties - and that is public exposure. For whatever reason, people in Nigeria are still very sensitive to their status in society - and it matters a lot to them that they are not thought of as incompetent or criminal in public, even if they may admit this to close ones in private. So they are very anxious to deal with stories that showcase their corruption or their ineptitude, either by trying to rectify the situation or trying to hush the story.

You may shake your head sceptically at my last statement and say "But every single day, we hear stories of how the leaders of Nigeria have failed the country. Even the leaders make announcements about how bad leadership is the bane of Nigeria. So public exposure doesn't really work - these people are shameless". And you would be correct - the sort of stories that you describe would probably have no effect on public officials and leaders - because they are non-specific and lacking in detail. They are the kind of stories that a bad leader can accept, because they are not specifically targetted towards him - and even when they are, they are so lacking in detail that they do not really fix in the hearer's mind the fact that the leader is incompetent. The official knows this, and as a result he doesn't care.

Note how different the response is when the story not only describes the incompetent or criminal actions but goes into detail to describe when the actions where carried out, who were the actors involved in carrying out the actions, who was affected, when they were carried out, how they were carried out and what the reactions were to the actions. There are now too many details for the official to dismiss them - details that can easily be investigated, corroborated and decided upon as the truth. The official cannot face the prospect that everyone will come to regard him as incompetent, even if they don't openly say so to him - and he is forced to deal with the allegations, usually by issuing a rebuttal.

So - how does this apply in this case? What can you do if you have been forcibly disenfranchised like Olutosin? Four words: Go public in detail. Post here on the Nigerian Village Square (or any other public medium that you know many Nigerians frequent) the details of your experience - when you attempted to register, where you attempted to register, the names and descriptions of who attended to you, what the specific problems you encountered were, what you were told and who else was there. The more detail you provide, the better - that way, it will be harder for INEC to try and dismiss your story as hearsay.

And you need not stop there. If you know anyone else who has had problems in registering, tell them to go public as well in exactly the same way. The more people record their problems, the harder it will be for INEC to dismiss your problem as an isolated incident if the problem is actually widespread. The idea is that anyone who wishes to take on INEC and challenge its handling of the registration exercise will now have a rich body of evidence they can point to. You don't even need to reveal your name, if you don't want to - it should be possible for anyone who wishes to do so to cross-check and corroborate the details you have provided.

So the hope is that over time, a permanent detailed record of our public officials' failures will be built up over time. The more sincere, constructive-minded officials may choose to examine the records, find out where they have made mistakes and take measures to rectify these in the future. But for this specific case, even if nobody uses the details provided, they will always be there to point to when INEC feels like congratulating itself on a job well done - as a stark, clear reminder of its failure to deliver on its promise to the Olutosins of this world.

Robot  Villager

# 1 So - what can you do if you have been forcibly disenfranchised like Olutosin? Four...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 05.02.2007 17:28

John Igoli  JJC

# 2 Another thing that can be done is to send an e-mail around for un-registered Nigerians to put their names. These names can then be sent to INEC. E-mails go around fast and the Nigerian Village Square can also publish the list on its website. The NVS should in fact initiate this. Posted by John Igoli| 05.02.2007 19:49

Dr. S Adetunji  Villager

# 3 Forgery: INEC may disqualify Ogun PDP candidate By MOSHOOD ADEBAYO, Abeokuta Tuesday, february 6, 2007 A member of the House of Representatives from Ogun State who is seeking re-election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may be disqualified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Daily Sun learnt that the commission had lately discovered that the lawmaker (name withheld) from Ogun East Senatorial District presented “doubtful educational qualifications.” In a letter written to the national headquarters of the commission by the state’s branch of INEC, it alleged that credentials presented by the candidate were “very spurious and highly suspicious.” In the letter, signed by the Ogun State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Chief Jacob Nwakpa, Administrative Secretary, Mr E. O. Fakorede and Chief Legal Officer, Chief Don Umealor the commission said: “So much cloud and doubt surround the candidate’s educational qualification.” While recommending the lawmaker’s disqualification to the national headquarters in the reports of its verification exercise held last month, the Ogun State INEC gave five reasons. Among the reasons was that the candidate’s West African School Certificate Examination result was not presented to the commission. It further explained that a letter allegedly written by the West African Examination Council and addressed to the principal of his former school was submitted by the candidate to the commission. The commission recalled that the candidate was dragged to an election tribunal over alleged forgery of credentials after the 2003 elections. INEC observed with dismay that what the lawmaker presented as his West African School Certificate result was obtained in May, 2003 after the general elections. The commission stated that the letter the lawmaker presented as his statement of result “was not supposed to be transferred to the candidate under any circumstances. This was clearly indicated on the statement of result. The commission also noted with dismay that a letter allegedly written by a university, where he obtained his law degree in 2003, was not dated. The commission which recommended to the national headquarters that it is safer not to present the candidate for election stated: “A close look at the WAEC statement of result shows that the candidate made only one credit (Bible Knowledge) out of seven subjects and passes in four other subjects, but failed English Language and Mathematics. “We do not know of any university in Nigeria that would admit the candidate to read law with a pass much less a fail in English and with just one credit overall.” As a result, the commission recommended that “In the light of the foregoing, it is our respectful view that so much cloud and doubt surround the candidate’s educational qualification. It is therefore safer not to recommend him. He is accordingly not recommended.” Posted by Dr. S Adetunji| 06.02.2007 04:52

Exxcuzme  Villager

# 4 We live in digital age and the use of digital camera or even cell phone could be use to out and shame these govt officials. It can even be used to record INEC shaninigans and the forth coming elections. Hey! all you techies or even NVS can come up with database or application where we can all vote(I know it does not count). We can use this system to see our diaporans vote and it could be a rudimentary form of census. What do you say? Posted by Exxcuzme| 06.02.2007 12:04

truthsayer33  Villager

# 5 1.! discovered INEC website and found they even had an email address.I wrote to ask whether they had any plans to involve diaspora nigerians in the forthcoming elections. 2.The email bounced back as an unknown address 3.I reformulated the address and repeated the exercise but to date have not received a reply So INEC is all show and no knickers......like the manager of egyptair told me at MMA lagos 'don't expect european standards here in Africa' this was in response to my fury that i could not board a flight for which I had valid but non refundable or amendable tickets. Posted by truthsayer33| 06.02.2007 13:58