The clamor for diaspora voting, which commenced in 2011 with a number of public hearings by the NationalAssembly, reached its climax on Tuesday, 28th November 2023, with the hosting of a Citizens’ Townhall meeting on Electoral Reforms by the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Electoral Matters. It was supported by the European Union(EU) and Yiaga Africa.
It is inevitable that the campaign for diaspora voting will, sooner than later, reach its crescendo as well as occupy a significant place in the upper reaches of electoral discourse. Millions of Nigerians reside abroad. Their number has swollen with the recent mass migration of professionals and academics to other better heeled climes in search of greener pastures and professional fulfillment, referred to in the Nigerian parlance as the “japa syndrome”.
Not less than five million Nigerians reside in Sudan. Four million Nigerians reside in Cameroon. This is not to add another 120,000 who live in Cameroon as refugees on account of the Boko Haram insurgency. According to the 2021 census, 271,390 Nigerians reside officially in the United Kingdom. By its 2019 accounting, the United States government stated that 392,811 Nigerians reside in that country. Another 22,085 Nigerians reside in Canada. This is not to add that 100,000 Canadians are of Nigerian descent. According to the Community Survey conducted in 2016, 30,314 Nigerians reside in South Africa.
If millions of Nigerians reside in diverse countries abroad, their annual remittances are a major contributor and boost to the Nigerian economy. Consider: In 2021, according to the World Bank, $20.1billion was remitted by Nigerians in diaspora. In 2022, they remitted $22billion. According to Augusto and Co., Nigerians in diaspora are expected to remit $26billion in 2025.
These remittances, by Nigerians in diaspora, make them a lynchpin of the Nigerian economy. This is more so, when in recent times, the Naira is receiving a buffeting in the foreign exchange market and we are living in straitened times. Their huge remittance makes them a formidable force which the Nigerian government can only trifle with or ignore to our collective peril.
Apart from the critical role which they play in shoring up the economy and sustaining their impoverished compatriots at home, it is international best practice that citizens who live and work abroad are given the latitude to exercise their franchise and to determine those who govern their affairs.
Much more significant, these Nigerians in diaspora, who number not less than eleven million, and counting, will give robust effect to our First-Past-The-Post(FPTP) or majoritarian system in which, among others, the winner of an election must secure the highest votes cast.
While the case for diaspora voting is formidable and compelling, we must ponder its implications, modalities and modus operandi. Our extant laws do not allow for diaspora voting. What this means is that to bring it about, a law must be enacted in earnest. Also, our laws insist that one must register close to where he resides. This helps during Claims and Objections (in the course of Continous Voter Registration) where members of the community can identify those who are ineligible to be in the Register of Voters or those whose names are not captured in the Register of Voters. It also facilitates voting on Election Day especially where there is restriction of movement. This law will need to be revisited or amended to allow Nigerians who reside in distant lands to vote.
Assuming the law is amended such that Nigerians can vote abroad, where do they vote? Which areas will be designated as Polling Units or Voting Centers? Who will secure these Polling Units or Voting Centers on Election Day? How will election materials be deployed to these Polling Units/Centers and retrieved after the conduct of elections? How does the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) generate a Register of Voters for Nigerians in diaspora in a situation where Nigeria’s embassies and consulates may not have data bases of Nigerians resident in their respective countries? For instance, whereas the census authorities claim there are less than half a million Nigerians resident in the U.K., a BBC report about a decade ago gave a higher figure. Besides, the number of Nigerians captured during the said census was based on those who presented themselves as Nigerians!
Apart from generating a Register of Voters, how will Nigerians in diaspora vote? Will they use the Permanent Voter Cards(PVCs) being used domestically? Will they be accredited, using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System(BVAS ), which is being deployed locally?
How will election officials(permanent and ad hoc) be trained? Will their allowances be paid in Naira or denominated in Dollars? If they are paid in Dollars, will it not create a disparity between local and international staff?
And assuming the bill on diaspora voting is passed, will the voting begin with a pilot as is common practice and tradition with new innovations introduced by the Commission? Will diaspora voting encompass all countries/continents or begin piece-meal? Will it begin with the West African sub region before it is extended to the African continent and thence to other continents? Will diaspora voting be restricted to the presidential election or affect other elections? What will be the cost implication? Can Nigeria afford it at a time when the refrain by government officials is that the country is bankrupt?
Is the Commission in such a fine fettle as to conduct diaspora elections? Has it perfected the recent technologies it introduced as to deploy same in the seamless conduct of diaspora elections? Has it fully internalised its reform measures as to put it in good stead for diaspora elections?
These, certainly, are questions which INEC is best suited to answer. And as the clamor for diaspora voting continues unabated and as it continues to dominate electoral discourse, the Commission must provide requisite leadership so that other stakeholders can follow. The Commission will do well to begin to put in place a muscular and practical framework which addresses the aforementioned posers and concerns. It should succinctly articulate a road map for diaspora voting with milestones. It should assign responsibilities to stakeholders where necessary. It should, as much as possible, be guided by the experiences and lessons learnt in the conduct of diaspora voting in other jurisdictions in designing such a road map.
The Commission should commence a seminal discussion of the prospect of diaspora voting. It should do so in the manner of other crucially important projects which it had successfully carried out such as the Continuous Voter Registration(CVR) exercise, which was first flagged off on 27th April 2017, and the expansion of access to Polling Units which, for the first time in twenty five years, resulted in the seamless creation of additional PUs in the country.
Such an onerous effort should begin with a comprehensive, well thought out and well rounded paper or memorandum to be presented to the Commission and rigorously debated by the experts within the Commission.
It is do-able.
Dazang is a retired director at INEC