INEC doesn’t appear to understand that this is not about the ego of its chairman, the reputation of its commissioners, or the short-term satisfaction of shouting down nay-sayers, this is about the enormous importance of the task ahead – conducting what is unarguably the most crucial and tightly contested election in the history of Nigeria.

A rare silver lining from the discredited general elections of 2007 was the prospect of staggered elections. The cancellation of some elections and repeat of same crated the scenario where not all elections are held in a fell swoop every four years.

The advantage of this new circumstance is clear, and important – the  Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has time to fine-tune its logistical  preparedness in these elections while waiting for the leap year marquee of General Elections. 

Unfortunately, INEC appears to be unaware of the gift it has been given.

Sure, since 2011 INEC has managed to dispel perceptions of a corrupt commission focused on malpractice, and has emerged from the pits of Maurice Iwu to become a respected and respectable institution. But the administrative and operational preparedness from then has robbed from Peter only to pay Paul, it appears. 

Anambra, for instance, was a cauldron of inefficiency. The November 2013 governorship polls were such an operational mess that the commision’s chairman, Attahiru Jega came off his usually sky-high horse to apologise. Much of its other inefficiencies haven’t grabbed the nation’s attention with such a ferocity, but they have festered nonetheless.

And so here we are. The 2015 General Elections are barely a month away, and INEC is set to make a big mess of it. A big mess because it doesn’t matter how peaceful elections are, if a large percentage of eligible and willing voters are disenfranchised, then the entire essence of electoral democracy is removed. 

At the last count, at least 30 million of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) that INEC has insisted on for voters are yet to be collected. A week to the closure of the PVC process, millions of Nigerian citizens including the Lagos governor and the Sultan of Sokoto haven’t seen the colors of their card. 

Unless there is a miraculous turnaround, what this means is that 30 million Nigerians out of a total of 70.3 million voters will be disenfranchised and unable to participate in selecting a government of their own choosing.

Voters from across the country trying to collect their PVCs speak of long, endless queues; INEC officials who don’t show up, the flimsiest reasons given for non-availability and processes so badly collapsed that once INEC has the littlest tasks like transfer from one polling booth to the next, things fall apart.

We cannot understand why, despite the creation of 30,000 electoral wards by INEC, these simple details cannot be taken care of.

The nation’s electoral referee has also been terribly slow to put in place arrangements for those who have been displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency in parts of the Northeast to vote, especially in camps for the internally displaced. Yet, many of these camps did not just emerge. With the amount of time INEC has had to solve these problems, we are terribly worried about its capacity to respond to the fluid situations that are bound to arise in February.

Even worse, Nigerians need to worry for the commission’s capacity to hold presidential run-off elections in the seven day period required, if it comes to that.

Unfortunately, rather somberly engaging its institutional failings, INEC has chosen to be tone-deaf, insisting on holding elections without paying attention to the electorate, denying that the problems are momentous and its fault, contemptuous of suggestions by the House of Representatives for alternatives where it as failed.

INEC doesn’t appear to understand that this is not about the ego of its chairman, the reputation of its commissioners, or the short-term satisfaction of shouting down nay-sayers, this is about the enormous importance of the task ahead – conducting what is unarguably the most crucial and tightly contested election in the history of Nigeria.

INEC needs to humble itself, and quickly seek and get the help it needs to conduct the elections Nigerians deserves.

All of its hard won credibility over the past five years will go up in smoke if it doesn’t, and Nigeria will once again suffer the global indignity of electoral malpractice.

For a country that has worked hard to leave that terrible past behind, that would be an awful shame indeed.

Isime Esene