The Independent National Electoral Commission has been threatened with legal action by Nigerian printers who are members of the Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria for allegedly outsourcing the printing of a significant portion of its electoral materials.
The CIPPON Act 24 of 2007 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, according to the agency, was violated and this was illegal.
The task of regulating, controlling, managing, and administering printers, the printing industry, and other printing-related matters in Nigeria falls under the purview of the council.
According to The PUNCH, the President of CIPPON, Mr Olugbemi Malomo, admitted that the electoral body had been awarding printing jobs to local printers, but he insisted that contracting printing contracts to foreign firms was a violation of the law.
Malomo stated that per the legislation, INEC was required to use CIPPON to award the printing of all electoral materials, including ballots, to regional printers.
He cited Section 23b of the CIPPON Act, which states, “In regulating the registration of printing practitioners, the council ensures that no firm or partnership shall practise as printers in Nigeria unless it is registered by the council.’’
Malomo claimed that since the CIPPON council visited INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu in Abuja last year, there has been an improvement in the awarding of contracts to Nigerian printers.
The CIPPON President said, “There was an increase in patronage of our members. To that extent, that advocacy was meaningful. The second point is what percentage were we able to get? We have not been able to collate that.
“Was there any percentage (in INEC printing jobs) that was taken out? Certainly, but we don’t know what percentage that was taken out. The next level of advocacy, we are thinking of doing and I want you to quote me on this; is that we need to approach a court to interpret the law because the Act that established us says, ‘If you are not our member, you can’t get a printing job in Nigeria.’
“But we are aware that they patronise people who are not our members, so, we will eventually seek an interpretation of that (in court). But by and large, more people are patronised but we can’t say at what level or how many people were patronised.
“But with the help of the fourth estate of the realm (the media) and for the benefit of all Nigerians, we all need to work together. People are taking the jobs out of the country and I can tell you it is not because of lack of capacity, it is because of other interests.’’
Malomo responded to suggestions that Nigerian businesses might not be able to complete the project by the deadline by asserting that the switch to electronic voting had removed the mystery around ballots.
He emphasized that no single company could deliver the quantity of ballot sheets and other materials required for the election and claimed that the new Electoral Act had eliminated the argument of lack of capacity typically used against Nigerian printers, giving INEC enough time to prepare.
He noted, “About four, five elections we have had. I’m not talking about presidential elections; election has moved away from ballot papers to card readers and electronic voting. The election is now one man, one vote.
“In other words, people who were compromising ballot papers, even if you give them a million ballot papers now, it doesn’t count anymore. So, when you talk about capacity, there is no single printing company in the world that can take up this (INEC) job at the required time.
“Capacity is also a function of time. The Electoral Act was also amended to give more time for printing. So, the excuse of lack of capacity has also been reduced or eliminated.
“INEC is one of the biggest users of paper, in particular, this election. We held a paper conference so that the issues of paper can be addressed so that we can use locally produced paper. How can we talk about capacity when the biggest spender is not even interested in an Olympic solution to the challenges it is having? Rather, it is taking the easy way out by going abroad because somebody is going to make more dollars.’’
According to the council president, funding should be allocated to building local capability, as is typical in affluent nations.
“The American government will give you some grants and ask you to spend them on your company because they know what they are doing. That is why we have this post-election session a few years ago to talk about the future and learn a lot of lessons,’’ he submitted.
The INEC Chairman’s chief press secretary, Rotimi Oyekanmi, declined to comment when approached.
