By Adebayo Aare, MAP News
The 20,973 personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, who participated in the Osun and Ekiti election received their election assignment allowance on Friday, February 18th 2023. This payment is coming about seven months after the elections had been held.
NSCDC deployed 11,226 personnel to provide security during the governorship election in Osun. In July 2022, it deployed 9,747 officers for the Ekiti election.
Development News Nigeria investigation reveals that this payment timeline is unusual and caused concerns among personnel affected as no explanation was offered, for the period the stipend was delayed.
A highly placed source within the agency who confirmed this development to our correspondent described it as a first in their experience with election assignments.
“Based on our previous experience with security deployment for elections, it was expected that the latest a day to that election, we would start getting alerts. This Osun and Ekiti election, in the history of the organization, is the only one that personnel are yet to be paid months later.
“To make matters worse, while on duty in polling booths around the country, our colleagues from other agencies were getting alerts and would share the news with us so it was quite depressing,” the source said.
Earlier, at a Stakeholders meeting on Election Logistics organized by ActionAid Nigeria, the NSCDC’s Commandant General, Associate Professor Ahmed Audi, had sought to know why the agency was yet to receive funds to pay its officers for the Ekiti and Osun elections. Audi, who was represented at the meeting by a senior official, directed the question at the Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu.
Mr. Celestine Ugwu of ActionAid Nigeria in an interview with Development News Nigeria revealed that the Nigeria Police Force was the one to answer questions about the money.
He said, “I remember the NSCDC person asking questions about the non-payment of personnel at that meeting and INEC was able to confirm that it has disbursed money for this payment to the Nigeria Police Force because they are the ones in charge of security for elections. Why the police have not sent this money, I cannot say”.
He however clarified that AAN held the meeting strictly to discuss election logistics challenges with concerned stakeholders.
“That has always been our challenge. And this is the case for every election, especially general elections. INEC will always come out to say they are ready until the dying minute. So one cannot say INEC is 100% ready. Most of the issues are related to security and logistics; moving election materials. This is because of the size of Nigeria. This was the reason we put the experts meeting together. The stakeholders, including all security agencies’ heads, came up with a framework that addresses some of these challenges. And it is this framework they have used to revise their agreement with the transport unions including maritime.”
Constitution And Electoral Act On Election Security
An official of the NSCDC who pleaded anonymity explained that the number of officers deployed for the Ekiti and Osun elections included officers from neighboring states because they were off-cycle elections.
“The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria confers on the Nigeria Police Force the statutory responsibility of internal security. The electoral act, even the latest, also puts them in charge of elections so they are the lead agency on election security. What this means is every other agency is playing a supplementary role.
“For a general election, each agency would do their deployment but there is a minimum number of personnel expected to be in each polling unit, apart from the patrol team. However, these elections we are talking about Osun and Ekiti are off-cycle elections and for this reason, all security agencies gave so much attention to them. Officers were deployed from all neighboring states for both elections to complement the effort of the state command.
Other Security Agencies Personnel Were Paid But……
“Later we started hearing that personnel who got their money early, it was their agency that paid them, from its own purse. I don’t know how true it is but that is what we got,” our source explained.
They further noted that when the INEC Chairman was confronted about the fact that NSCDC hadn’t received payment for the Ekiti and Osun elections, he was surprised and said it was a cause for concern.
“At that meeting, when our representative asked the INEC chairman why we hadn’t been paid, he was surprised to hear that and excused himself from the meeting to call the National Security Adviser. The NSA was able to confirm that men of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps had not been paid for the election. Sadly, participants at this meeting did not get to learn the reason for this development.”
The insider who spoke to our correspondent weeks before the payment was made explained that the stipends weren’t encouraging.
“As I speak to you, no civil defender who participated in the Ekiti and Osun elections has been paid. Be it the big or small oga, no one has received any payment. Oyo, Kwara, Ondo, Kogi, Edo, and Ogun were all deployed for the two elections.
“I am not sure how much they would have paid us this time around but in the past, the best they did was pay a Commandant N70,000. Assistant commandants and Deputy commandants are paid N50,000 while the highest every other person has gotten is N40,000.”
An election monitoring expert at the Centre for Journalism, Innovation and Development, Miss Jessica Odudu in an interview with Development News Nigeria observed that such development can have a devastating effect on the Nigerian electoral process, especially as the country prepares for her general elections, noting that non-payment of security officials may make it difficult for them to discharge their duties optimally.
“It definitely does have dire effects for the elections because the security personnel that was not paid in the last election are likely to still be deployed for the 2023 general elections and that would mean they are coming in demoralized and frustrated by the entire system which leaves them vulnerable and prone to being used for voting buying and other electoral malpractices.
“During the Osun state elections, some of our observers reported that some security personnel watched on while agents of political parties openly engaged in electoral malpractices. So, I imagine that it is a situation where they have been paid off by political parties who need them to turn a blind eye to such acts. So, when you don’t have an incentive or you don’t even trust that you will be paid, it will be easier for you to follow along as opposed to trying to do the right thing,” she said.
Ojudu also noted that non-payment of security officials has become a pattern in Nigerian elections, adding that it’s a dangerous trend that needs to be ended. “I think it is bad to set that precedent because it is not the first time such has been observed during elections. It is always an issue of them not having been paid or not being paid at the appropriate time and maybe after that conversation and a little while, then, they get paid.”
She also observed that having a defined single payment structure for all key participants in the elections will put an end to the problem. “I think the more we can create payment systems that cut out the middlemen, the better for us. If we can create systems within the security force that centralizes payment and have the details of the personnel who are getting deployed within the central system, and have them paid directly, I think a lot of these problems will be avoided.”
Several requests for comment from the police and the INEC were not responded to as of press time.
This report was published with support from Civic Media Lab.