President Donald Trump vowed to be flexible toward "real friends" of the United States as the White House prepared Thursday to roll out punitive trade tariffs -- singling out Germany for criticism and adding Australia to a list of likely carve-outs.

Amid pitched policy battles inside his administration and fierce opposition without, the White House indicated the measures may, or may not, be signed later Thursday when Trump is set to host steel and aluminum industry and workers at the White House.

With hours to go until the 3:30 pm (2030 GMT) meeting, it was still unclear if it would see Trump sign the contentious tariffs into law, a signing of something symbolic or no signing at all.

But Trump made clear he was pressing press ahead with tariffs of 25 percent on foreign steel and 10 percent on aluminum, while saying Australia and "others" could be exempt -- in addition to America's neighbors and NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada.

"We are going to be very fair, we're going to be very flexible" Trump told his cabinet, pointing to winners and losers from the contentious policy which has stoked fears of a global trade war.

If America reaches a deal on renegotiating its trilateral trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, he said, "it is most likely that we won't be charging those two countries the tariffs."

"We have a very close relationship with Australia," he added. "We have a trade surplus with Australia, great country, long term partner, we'll be doing something with them."

The US leader also cited possible exemptions for unspecified "other countries."

But Trump took aim at Germany -- the biggest economy in the EU trade bloc -- as a bad actor likely to face tariffs.

Railing against countries that had "taken advantage" of the United States, Trump accused Germany of behaving unfairly by contributing much less than the US towards the funding of NATO.

"We have some friends and some enemies where we have been tremendously taken advantage of over the years on trade and on military," he said.

"If you look at NATO, where Germany pays one percent and we are paying 4.2 percent of a much bigger GDP -- that's not fair," he said.

"So we view trade and we view the military, and to a certain extent, they go hand in hand."

- Partners promise backlash -

Last week Trump stunned the world -- and many in his own camp -- with an off-the-cuff announcement of his tariff plan, made before White House lawyers had finished reviewing the legality of the move and before it was clear which countries would be targeted.

He cited Chinese overproduction and national security concerns as the main driver.

Since then the White House has scrambled to catch up, Trump's top economic advisor Gary Cohn -- who opposed the move -- quit in protest and stock markets sank.

More than 100 Republican lawmakers have signed a letter to Trump expressing "deep concern" about the policy, which they warned could "undermine" economic gains from Trump's own tax reforms.

Trade experts at the Peterson Institute now believe US allies -- rather than China -- will be disproportionately hit and imports to America cut by around $14 billion.

The European Union, Mexico and Canada have all warned they will retaliate, with the decision threatening to sour already vinegared trans-Atlantic relations.

The European Union has vowed to hit back with tariffs on items from steel to peanut butter, bourbon and denim -- most of which are produced in states that Trump needs to win reelection.

"Trade wars are bad and easy to lose," EU President Donald Tusk warned, rejecting Trump's assertion they were "good and easy to win".

As Trump has pressed ahead, his staff have tried to limit the fallout.

"We're going to have sensible relations with our allies," Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross insisted Wednesday.

"We're not looking for a trade war," he said.

Data released Wednesday showed the US foreign trade deficit widened in January to its highest level in nine years -- heaping pressure on Trump, who had campaigned on a promise to reverse that trend.

Trump blamed the situation on his White House predecessors, while also taking aim at Beijing over the size of its trade deficit with the United States.

China meanwhile warned Thursday it was ready to respond to US tariffs if they materialize.

"Choosing a trade war is surely the wrong prescription, in the end you will only hurt others and yourself," Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, adding that "China will certainly make an appropriate and necessary response.”

AFP

"It is now incumbent upon the Taliban to come forward with an offer of their own, and start direct talks with the government to put an end to the suffering of the Afghan people," he said.

"Making peace and reaching out to opponents requires resolve, courage and above all national unity," he added. "Political leaders need to place the national interest above partisan agenda."

He said he hoped that parliamentary elections could be held in 2018 and a presidential vote in 2019.

He also expressed concern about the growing number of civilian casualties at the hands of the Islamic State group in Khorasan province.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) was launched in March 2002 to help Afghans build a more stable and peaceful society, although 16 years later the country is still racked by violence and instability.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently unveiled a plan to open talks with the Taliban, including eventually recognizing them as a political party.

In return, Ghani said the militants should officially recognize the Afghan government and constitution, a perennial sticking point in past attempts to open talks.

AFP

The call for the establishment of state police is getting more strident, and continued opposition to it no longer makes sense. The Nigerian society has become complex, and so are the variety and complexity of criminality now buffeting the citizens. 

Just 10 years ago, it was inconceivable that Nigerians would volunteer themselves to terrorists as suicide bombers. Though religious conflicts had always reared their ugly heads, Nigerians boasted that the orgy of suicide bombings in the Middle East could never happen in their country. Today, suicide bombing has become commonplace in the North East.

Other forms of criminality which were unheard of decades ago, such as kidnapping, pipeline vandalisation, the buying and selling of infants, herdsmen’s attacks and cybercrimes, have now become the order of the day. Theterrorists in the North East, as in other parts of the world, do not shrink from any form of abomination. The addition of abduction of school girls as in Chibok and Dapchi, attacks on schools and the murder of school pupils and teaching staff, are evils that no one contemplated would confront the nation.

The amendment of the Constitution to introduce state police is urgently needed. We must confront our security challenges by empowering the states to create their own correctional systems, particularly police outfits and prisons. The Nigeria Police Force, NPF, has not only proved incapable of coping with our security challenges, it has also of late been accused of favouritism over the herdsmen’s attacks on farmers and indigenous communities.

Policing is a local activity. The people of any locality are always best placed to police their communities. Nobody can effectively police the vast precincts of the country from Abuja. Because the NPF is spread thin all over the country and poorly funded, the Federal Government is forced to mobilise the army to do basic police work. It is not solving the problem.

The Constitution should be amended to allow states share the powers of policing with the Federal Government. The fear that state governors might use them to feather their political nests can be addressed through dialogue and power sharing as we have in the health and education sectors. The constitutional rights of all Nigerians to settle and thrive in any part of the country should be enforced by the courts to address impunity by state authorities.

Giving the states the power to establish their police outfits will permanently reinforce the position of governors as Chief Security Officers of their states. They should, by law, be held accountable and liable for the use and abuse of powers while in office.

The state police is an idea that can no longer wait.

Vanguard

Washington’s top diplomat began his first Africa tour Thursday by meeting with the African Union chief, who said the continent had moved on from a reported insult by President Donald Trump

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and AU commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat discussed security and counter-terrorism, trade and development, corruption and conflict in an hour-long meeting at the continental body’s headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.

However looming over the meeting was Trump’s alleged description of Africa as a “shithole” in January, which forced the president to pen a letter reaffirming his commitment to the continent and dispatch his top diplomat to try to heal rifts.

Faki, however, insisted the slur was now in the past.

“I received a letter written by President Trump to myself and I shared that with other African leaders. I believe this incident is in the past,” he said.

Tillerson’s five-nation Africa tour — to include Djibouti, Kenya, Chad and Nigeria — has been described by analysts as a “listening tour”, with no deals or initiatives due to be announced.

“The purpose of my trip is to listen to what the priorities of the countries here on the continent are and see where there is good alignment,” said Tillerson.

Tillerson praised the AU as a “force for good”.

He and Faki discussed continued US support to African counter-terrorism forces in Somalia and the Sahel but no new concrete commitments were given. Tillerson said the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is “clearly an example of countries coming together to counter terrorism, promote stability and enable the delivery of much-needed aid.”

“We have not yet won that battle in Somalia and we must stay at it,” he said.

Tillerson also warned against blind acceptance of Chinese investment, warning African countries to “consider the terms of those investments” lest they “forfeit sovereignty”.

He also solicited African support in pressuring North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

“African nations can contribute to this goal,” he said.

Vanguard

Former Vice President Abubakar Atiku, over the weekend, went to a cinema in Abuja to see the Marvel Cinematic Empire’s latest offering, Black Panther. According to Twitterverse, Atiku became the cinema himself. In the spirit of Baba rere, Baba ke! with which he was heralded, Atiku paid for people’s cinema tickets. Relatively, the one with the perspicacity to use the social media to advantage and position himself as the “youth’s youth,” the former Vice President tweeted his appreciation of the film and wrote his reflection on the lessons Black Panther held for Nigerians. Atiku is likely to run for the Presidency in 2019 and his activities that are being translated into social media showings are calibrated towards having a good outing in 2019. I have no problems with Atiku’s candidature although I believe that, by now, he should be Nigeria’s past tense and not jockeying for leadership roles anymore. 

Atiku, to be honest, came across as a prepared candidate in 2015. He had done his homework far much more than Muhammadu Buhari. But, what counted against Atiku and all those who stood against Buhari then was corruption. Buhari only needed to shout “corruption,” and his followers would take up the refrain without asking him what he meant by corruption and what innovative ways he had designed to counter it. Come 2019, Buhari can no longer use corruption as his unique selling point and get reasonable people to buy his wares. At the rate the “anything but Buhari” sentiment is percolating, the choice for the Presidency might fall on Atiku. That is one reason he should be taken seriously and interrogated with vigour. Otherwise, Nigerians will soon find themselves buying another overrated and overpriced presidential candidate; one who cannot even be honest or reflective enough to see when the ground beneath his feet is giving way.

One of the most significant failings of Nigerians in 2015 was allowing Buhari to get away with not debating with his opponents. If we had stopped to ponder then, we should have asked what manner of officer runs away from battle? From 2015, the cowardice that made Buhari skip an essential ritual of democracy has been a defining trait of his Presidency. From avoiding talking to Nigerians, to the aloofness that has kept him away from those who have been slaughtered in their homes because his government has done poorly on security, Buhari has checked every box. For 2019, it is crucial we learn a lesson and not, once again, let the ostentatious parade of populism obscure what matters. Atiku’s buying film tickets, watching a popular movie, and writing his reflection on it are all part of the games that politicians play at election time. I understand that he has to connect to millennials but beyond all those, he should be talking about specific ideas that show that he has the potential for the creative governance Nigeria needs.

The lessons he took away from the fictional country of Wakanda are the “safe” ones, the kind of things that say a lot without saying anything tangible. While films are soft power political projects, they are also just entertainment. They condense realities and therefore can oversimplify things for its audience. One of the criticisms of some other films now showing in the theatre such as Victoria and Abdul and Darkest Hour is how they bury the rubble of painful history under the gloss of cinematic representation of colonial nobility. Victoria and Abdul talks about an unlikely friendship between the Queen of England and an Indian servant in an era where India was being plundered by rapacious colonialists. The film does not see or hear or talk of the great evils of colonialism to Indians. Instead, it features the trope of a noble savage in an Indian man elevated to civilised western standards and who, in turn, elevated the Queen’s virtues with his earthiness. Darkest Hour narrates the iconic leadership of Winston Churchill in an era darkened by uncertainty; where crucial choices were defining. It carefully elides his racism, imperialism, and penchant for eugenics.

Films are great places to look for inspiration, but no country needs leadership that takes its lessons from films. Africa needs leaders that have read widely, and who, like the sons of Issachar, have an understanding of the times and what a country needs to do to raise its head. They should have read the history of all cultures from Africa to ancient Greek, philosophy, and also have an understanding of how the modern world functions. A popular fare like Black Panther is highly unlikely to fill in those gaps. Atiku can watch all the film he likes, but, when he wants to address the issues that face Nigeria, he needs more than a popular culture reference. If at all he must talk about Wakanda, he should be having a brutal self-reflection on why he is one of the many reasons Nigeria is not – and cannot yet be- like Wakanda. If he reflects on the leadership he was part of between 1999 and 2007, he will come up with far more uneasy answers on why things are the way they are, and what needs to be done.

He would understand why the vision of Africa he wants us to aspire to in Wakandacame from America, and not among Africans themselves. Black Panther was a comic started in the 1960s by a group of young men who were incidentally Jews. More than 50 years after they first dreamt of a sophisticated African future, no African country has come near to inhabiting that vision. We are poorer than ever, our population is outpacing resources, and we still look towards the west for everything — from food to technology, and even to a vision of the future. Our writers hardly write futuristic stories or science fictions; our stories instead are full of pessimism: poverty, corruption, disease and dehumanising spectres. To write stories like Black Panther, we will need to have given our children quality education that premises scientific thinking and its endless possibilities.

Then, they would ask why our schools are so decrepit, and why our children are given an education so poor and outdated that dreams of the future are almost an unaffordable luxury. Recently, a Ghanaian teacher went viral on social media for drawing a computer on the blackboard for his students. In 2018, African children are being made to learn computer in a way it would not have been done even in the 80s. If African leaders gave up some of their vainglorious superfluities, they would be able to provide standard schools to children and hopefully even buy them computers. But no, never, they will not do that because they are too selfish and myopic. They will rather spend the money on frivolities, travel abroad, and try to impress western leaders who already think of them as “shithole” tropes.

A future like Wakanda is worth aspiring to, but the path to that kind of future will take much more than drawing apparent lessons. It takes a lot of work; self-introspection, building a new political and social culture; and a leadership that has cultivated enough self-mastery to challenge our social culture, and rightfully too. Ours is a society where books are unavailable in schools but some of the most vibrant publishing presses are run by the church. They issue out books containing magical tales until impressionable minds are convinced that science is the white man’s indulgence, that some supernatural realities exist beyond the natural and we will never know. In that kind of social context, how can you have a society where vibranium is a thing let alone have the citizenry that understands what to do with it? Sorry, Atiku, you took away only the easy lessons from Black Panther.

Transparency International’s indictment of the Buhari administration is a call to duty

Transparency International’s (TI)  latest report indicating that corruption perception in Nigeria has grown worse under the Buhari administration is a cause for concern. It is a confirmation of the general opinion that despite assurances that the Federal Government is doing all it can to win the anti-corruption war, the impact has been negligible, if not negative. Unfortunately, as is always the case, no sooner was the report of the highly credible organisation released in February than the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Shehu Garba, responded that it was influenced by the government’s enemies.

This type of attitude is very unhelpful for a government that came into office with a promise to leave the country cleaner than it met it. At the heart of this government’s failure to improve on the dire rating it inherited has been its inability to open its books and operations to public scrutiny. Accountability is hoisted on the flag of transparency which successive Nigerian governments lack. In addition, unsuccessful prosecution of politically exposed personalities tends to suggest that the tactics being employed are poor, or there is collaboration between such persons and some public officials.

The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is right to have taken a different position on the matter. He said while the government might have done a lot, the rating is a call to improve on its efforts. This is the direction all officials of the government should take. Blaming all criticisms of the government on enemies is a jaded approach and should be jettisoned. The vice president, being a Professor of Law, should impress on the president the need to radically reform the justice system. Herding former government officials before the courts without the ability to secure conviction or even diligent prosecution is a waste and could only fritter the goodwill hitherto enjoyed by the government.

We call on the Federal Government to set the machinery in motion to arrest the rot in the system. For 2017, Nigeria was ranked 148 out of 180 countries in the world, and 32nd of the 52 countries rated in Africa. In West Africa, Nigeria is deemed better than only Guinea Bissau. This is not good for the country’s image; neither is it good enough to attract foreign investors needed to boost the economy. We reject the government’s position that TI’s rating is untenable because it is based on perception. Since those polled are the same Nigerians who voted for President Muhammadu Buhari on the basis of a touted integrity and thus commissioned him to fight the monster head-long, their verdict after two years in office cannot be easily dismissed.

As the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CSLAC) pointed out in making the damning TI report public, “This fresh setback in the fight against corruption confirms that grand-corruption, political corruption, nepotism, favouritism and bribery persist in Nigeria at all levels;… the negative perception is mainly a consequence of the inability to combat grand corruption and astronomical plundering of public coffers costing the Nigerian tax payers around 25 per cent of annual GDP.”

The president has a duty to ensure that all arms and institutions of state buy into the anti-corruption war. A clearer strategy should be devised to ensure that Nigerians benefit from public fund and all those who brought the country to its knees are expeditiously tried and punished.

The Nation

Looking at the ripple reactions that greeted the hate speech bill currently before the Nigerian senate; one will but agree with the words of John F. Kennedy, that ‘a man who creates power makes an indispensable contribution to the nation’s greatness. But the man who questions power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when the questioning is disinterested; for it is in this, that we determine whether we use power or if power is using us’.

Essentially, the bill among other things proposed, that any person found guilty of any form of hate speech that results in the death of another person shall die by hanging upon conviction. This is in addition to its call for the establishment of an ‘Independent National Commission for Hate Speeches’, which shall enforce hate speech laws across the country.

But, however, noble the bill seems to be, and following the understandable controversy and worries already raised, it has become a moral duty for all to collectively and objectively take a disciplined look at the proposed bill in order to adjust, adapt, incorporate or reject.

Without much labour, the most telling evidence about the bill’s good intention is signposted in its resolve to promoting peaceful coexistence among Nigerians. However, Nigerians are worried that dissipating energy on such which many described as trivial in the midst of the nation’s legion of socioeconomic woes, portrays our parliamentarians as a group that is out of tune with the yearnings of the masses as our failures lie in the system and not in hate speech.

To further lend credence to this argument, the Christian holy book, the Bible, stated that ‘without wood, the fire goes out, charcoal keeps the ember glowing as wood keeps the fire burning’. Same is applicable to the factors propelling hate speech.

It is a barefaced truth that the dearth of leadership, the asymmetrical posturing of our political space and the refusal to have it restructured, among others, propel hate speech; as every tribe/group jostle to be more Nigerian than the other. A development that has since morphed into a hydra-headed challenge such as insecurity, youth restiveness, nepotism, cronyism among others;  with all, culminating to a nation in grief.

The effort to having this scourge reduced should be the preoccupation of our parliamentarians. Getting to the root cause of the monster and having it tackled from that point will be well appreciated by Nigerians.

What is most frightening about this proposed bill is that, at a time when the United Nations and the international community are standing up against capital punishment, has become the ripe time for us, as a nation, to nose-dive into the outdated practice.

A country such as the Gambia and other countries that were notoriously known for capital punishment have recently placed a moratorium on it.

Critical minds have argued that if capital punishment is to be encouraged in any form, the corruption fight should be the right Guinea pig as it remains a scourge that has brought so much grief to the people. And an effort to voice condemnation by the poor masses or group against this malady is now erroneously tagged hate speech.

Apart from this baffling development coming when the nation is still in the throes of economic hardship, Nigerians are not particularly happy about the insensitivity of our leaders towards the grinding poverty and the excruciating pains the masses are going through.

Very instructive, no amount of excuse by the lawmaker to defend his position for coming up with such bill can be sustained as the whole episode in my view is perceived as misguided, ill-timed and a decision arrived at without factoring other causes.

As the debate rages, another area of interest to watch with suspicion is the relationship of this bill with the media. I am aware that the media should reinforce and not undermine the government effort. But in the same token, Nigerians are also aware that ‘a free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a society.

That without criticism, reliable, and intelligent reporting, the government cannot govern well. For there is no adequate way in which it can keep itself informed about what the citizens think of it.

Like the global audience, Nigerians also believe that “the function of the press is very high. It is almost holy. It ought to serve as a forum for the people, through which the people may freely know what is going on.

To misstate or suppress information is a breach of trust.” Still, in the same line of argument, one established truth we cannot shy away from is the fact that the sole aim of journalism is service and in providing this service, the journalists enjoy great power and followership.

Thinking that the proposed move will solve the problem of hate speech can only but meet with a mirage of a challenge as it will increase the already soured relationship and suspicion among tribes/ethnic groups. Allowing this bill to fly in my view will further heighten the already polarized political environment, present hate speech as alluring as ‘whatever that is forbidden is most admired’

Contrary to speculations, a critical appraisal of some of these comments tagged ‘hate speech’, will reveal that the reader or the listener must have put a statement together with previously known facts to come up with a hate speech. What this implies is that some of these so-called ‘hate speeches’ may actually be personal or subjective interpretation, opinion or commentary garnished with a basket full of prejudice by the reader or the listener. So, how will Nigerians know when to draw the line between hate and non-hate speech.

In the same vein, it is antithetical for an administration that had ‘change’ as its mantra and a party that promised us a new order is the one coming up with such a bill. Our leaders should be reminded that some of these people that are commenting when they can and condemning when they should are not in any way enjoying it but are compelled to do so based on the love of their nation.

From what the people are saying, most of the comments tagged hate speech, in my understanding, are not directed to any individual, group or tribe but to the government; criticizing either their policies or inactions. So, the government, in my opinion, is using the bill to shield itself from being further criticized.

Britain will build a new 112-bed wing at Kirikiri Prison in Lagos so that it can transfer Nigerian prisoners there, foreign secretary, Boris Johnson announced in London today.

In a written statement to parliament, Johnson said tenders had been placed and a supplier identified to conduct the building work at Kirikiri. He did not name the supplier.

The project will be funded from Britain’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, which has an annual budget of more than 1 billion pounds and aims to commission projects that can help prevent conflicts and stabilise countries or regions.

The new 112-bed wing, which will cost 700,000 pounds ($973,000) and be compliant with United Nations standards, will make it easier for Britain to comply with a prisoner transfer agreement it signed with Nigeria in 2014.

Under that deal, eligible prisoners serving criminal sentences in Nigeria and Britain can be returned to complete their sentences in their respective countries. The British government did not indicate how many prisoners might be moved or when the project is likely to be completed.

Nigerian prisons — many of them built by British colonisers more than 100 years ago — are severely overcrowded, leading to the spread of diseases.

The Nigerian government has said it is developing a strategy to tackle the issue.

Britain’s own prison system has been showing signs of severe strain in recent years, with overcrowding, rising suicide rates and a growing problem with drug trafficking and other crimes within jails that were sometimes built in the Victorian era.

Kirikiri is not one of the oldest prisons in Nigeria but it does date back to colonial times.

Last month, the government said the prison in the southern city of Port Harcourt, which was originally designed to hold 800 prisoners, currently has nearly 5,000. It said 3,700 of them had been awaiting trial for more than five years.

Sun

Nigerian women deserve a better deal from the society

As women all over the world mark the International Women’s Day and celebrate their achievements in the last century, critical stakeholders in Nigeria must also come to terms with the fact that our women and girls deserve a better deal from the society. Meanwhile, we must also use this occasion to call on the authorities to do all within their powers to ensure the speedy recovery of the more than one hundred girls that were recently abducted from a secondary school in Yobe State by Boko Haram insurgents.

Discriminated against at every level, women and girls traditionally have limited access to education in addition to ownership of land and assets in Nigeria. And they are denied equal treatment in inheritance rights, human resources development and sustainable economic growth. It is therefore worrisome that at a time they are seeking equal treatment and participation on issues that concern them and their families, critical institutions of state like the National Assembly would treat our women almost with contempt.

The essence of the Gender Equality Bill, according to women groups, is not to re-invent the wheel but rather to give effect to section 21 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. But because the Nigerian society is patriarchal, women are subordinated while forced marriage, domestic and sexual violence against girls and women and other violations are either condoned or treated with levity.

Notwithstanding these long-established injustices, women in Nigeria have made their mark in the political and economic institutions and excelled. For this, Nigerian women owe a debt of gratitude to pioneering women like the late Mrs Funmilayo Ransome Kuti who, as part of the Women’s International Democratic Foundation (WIDF) in the 1940’s, fought for women’s rights. Representations from the WIDF indeed played pivotal role in the UN declaration of 1975 as International Women’s Year.

In modern times, Nigerian women have also played such critical roles in the advancement of gender issues. For instance, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) of the United Nations, on which a Nigerian woman, Ms Amina Mohammed, the current Deputy Secretary General, had actively participated in developing, set as one of the goals the undertaking of reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources.

The general notion in our country that women are inferior to men is unsustainable especially because gender equality is not just a human rights issue, it is essential for the achievement of sustainable development and a peaceful and prosperous world.

Therefore, circumscribing access to opportunities that ultimately empowers women and girls is counterproductive. Besides, women make up about 50 per cent of the Nigerian population. It makes no sense to exclude half of our population from maximising their potential simply for archaic and oppressive reasons.

ThisDay

Nigeria’s fragile political system is facing a new wave of scrutiny. Its notoriety for staging elections with dubious outcomes stood out in bold relief again during the February 2019 local council polls in Kano State. The polls generated an enormous uproar in the social media because of underage voting. Minors were recorded on video in queues with Permanent Voter Cards, being accredited and casting their ballots without any inhibitions. This malpractice underscores the tainted electoral process in the country, and it is ominous for the 2019 elections.

Regarded as illegal because a citizen has to attain the age of 18, underage registration/voting is endemic in the country. Politicians, who collude with electoral officials, security agents and the judiciary, with the aim of winning at all costs, employ it to undermine the ballot box, through inflation of figures. Yet, reports about the menace in the past were limited to a few newspaper photographs of minors filing out to vote. Perhaps, this was why it did not provoke much outrage.

With the explosion in the use of the social media, that has changed. Indeed, the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission said there was no underage voting in the LG polls because the videos on the social media were recycled from the 2015 elections. That defence is suspect. Already, the Independent National Electoral Commission has instituted a committee to investigate the polls since it gave KASIEC the soft copy of its voter register to conduct the election. We recommend a thorough probe.

A former INEC National Commissioner, Lai Olurode, has also attested to this, saying he was almost lynched during elections a few years ago for refusing to allow underage voters. “There are certain areas of this country where even if they know the person is a kid, they will insist that the child must vote,” Olurode lamented. “I had to run for my life at one of the election centres in a part of the country because these people said children must vote or there would be no election at all.” His counsel that underage voting could be curbed through enlightenment of the citizens is wise; it should be an integral part of INEC’s strategy to eradicate the menace.

Clearly, INEC has a Herculean task on its hands: elections in the country are won by hook or by crook. In 2007, the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo, described the elections as a “do or die” affair. This was confirmed when, in their assessment of that poll, global bodies condemned it as the worst electoral heist ever in history. It was daylight robbery in several states, the result of which the courts overturned.

The issue resurfaced last week when INEC insisted that it had a case of double registration against a sitting governor. With the benefit of hindsight, the number of registered voters, which stood at 68.8 million for the 2015 general election and increased to 73.9 million in January 2018, might not be able to stand the test of rigorous appraisal, a fact alluded to by independent observers.

In its final report, the European Union Observation Mission to the 2015 polls that brought the All Progressives Congress to power noted that the number of PVCs distributed by INEC was too high. The report said, “…in 11 states over 92 per cent PVC collection was reported, which is implausible given that the deceased have not been removed from the list since 2010.” Arguably, as of February 2018, the register had not been vetted to weed out the padding. This negligence ridicules the political system and gives undue advantage to crooked politicians.

With electioneering imminent, INEC must wake up to the reality of underage voting and purge the register of underage voting. This should be done by using technology. With its biometric database and other technological inputs, it can identify the underage and multiple registrations. The plan to collaborate with the National Population Commission to identify the dead people on the INEC register should be pursued to a logical conclusion.

However, the scientific synchronisation of the INEC register with the records of the National Identity Management Commission is the way forward. The NIMC records the comprehensive biometric data of all Nigerians, so INEC should merge its records with that of the NIMC.

In the course of registration, accreditation and voting, INEC should train its officials to use discreet technological tools to place a red flag on questionable voters. Although these people can be registered, they should not be able to get PVCs nor have their votes count, as during the compilation at INEC, the query on these names should disqualify them.