• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

The logistics and cost of Nigeria’s elections

Naira hits new low of 915/$

As the 2023 election draws close, it is pertinent to review the logistical framework needed to ensure a smooth process. This includes the movement of election officials, sensitive and non-sensitive materials, security operatives, and more. To critically review this framework and determine what needs to be done to have a successful election, let’s analyse the current data.

There are about 170,000 polling booths in Nigeria’s 36 states and 774 local government areas. For every election cycle, each political party has at least one observer at the polling booth. According to the law, observers are necessary to safeguard the integrity and transparency of the election.

However, most political parties would prefer to have at least three observers at the booth. That’s a total of 510,000 people per political party. A lot goes into mobilising these people for the election, and it is a logistics challenge.

History has shown that the government has never successfully run elections smoothly or logically. If this process is privatised, the process will be more secure

Apart from the manpower needed to make this happen, there’s also a lot of money involved. Each observer has to be transported to and fro the polling unit for the entire electoral process, provided decent accommodation and maybe even food. In addition to this, a stipend is paid to each person as an incentive to defend the integrity of the elections and monitor the process. Ultimately, for 170,000 polling booths, each political party will require billions of naira to ensure their party’s interest is protected.

Now, let’s focus on getting the materials to the nooks and crannies of the country. There is a visible absence of adequate road networks in many communities in the country, yet when it is time for elections, the ballot boxes get to them. It’s not news that getting these materials to these areas also involves a lot of money.

Another logistic detail is the dispatch of security personnel to each polling unit. These officials help to ensure that the voting, collation, and declaration of results happen without any disturbance or threat to peace. The amount of money needed to transport the officials, feed, and pay them is also a lot. One can only ask how this amount of money is available to these political parties and the government when the country’s economy is reeling in debts. When will we admit that Nigeria is too poor for elections to cost so much money?

It is time to realise that the election process is driven majorly by supply chain and money.

Why do I say this? The aggregation of votes from local areas to deliver them to counting areas, ensuring the ballots are certified, and getting party requirements to the INEC headquarters for consolidation, are all run by a supply chain.

The logistics of fuelling vehicles carrying electoral materials, maintaining them, and getting the vehicles to where they need to be, are supply chain requirements. It’ll be interesting to also calculate the amount of money being pushed to support the logistical dispatching of these ballot boxes. This costs the country a lot of money.

Let’s take a look at the storage of electoral materials. There are areas where the ballot boxes need to arrive a week before the elections because of the difficulty in navigating those places. Have we thought about the cost of storing those materials till the elections?

After the elections, these ballots are also stored for a while in case someone challenges the results and the votes need to be recounted. The overhead, storage, warehousing of these ballot boxes, and moving them are all logistical issues.

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What’s the solution?

The election process should be privatised and outsourced to an organisation with the capacity to run the electoral logistics. The government should not be involved with the electoral process. History has shown that the government has never successfully run elections smoothly or logically. If this process is privatised, the process will be more secure.

A consistent problem with people in government is their lackadaisical attitude towards their jobs. By privatising these processes, you introduce a sense of urgency, and efficiency is heightened. Many private companies already have logistical footprints in the country and access to communities that the government lacks.

Since the election is only done once in four years, why should the government spend exorbitant amounts of money on building infrastructure to support the process? Another way to reduce the financial implication of the elections is to encourage volunteers to participate in the process.

This can only be possible when the process itself is safe as no one will volunteer to be a part of something that could harm them. By doing this, the electoral commission doesn’t have to pay every single person involved in the process.

Citizens should be able to register to assist as volunteers in their wards as a service to the community. These volunteers will be vetted before the elections and approved once their record is clean. Citizens are always happy to participate if the process is seamless. It is a part of democracy.

If these are put in place, the elections are more likely to be seamless and less expensive.