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An effort to register 70 million voters across Nigeria before its April presidential election wobbled to a start Saturday, as volunteers fought with malfunctioning equipment, and frustrated people struggled to find registration stations.
The two-week effort in Africa's most populous nation will see volunteers scattered across about 120,000 locations in Nigeria's arid north, fertile central valleys and oil-rich southern delta. They'll use laptop computers, digital cameras and fingerprint scanners to register eligible voters.
But on Saturday, the drive's first day, problems began almost immediately.
At a school on Lagos' Ikoyi Island, officials argued with each other at a distribution point hours after volunteers should have staffed their locations. When workers finally opened the metal cases containing their laptops, printers and extra batteries such as Toshiba PA3399U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3395U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3250U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3356U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3291U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3506U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3591U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba Portege 4000 Battery, Toshiba Satellite A10 Battery, Toshiba Satellite A100 Battery, they discovered the electronic equipment hadn't been charged, in a country where electricity remains scarce.
Later, workers sat idle at several locations as they couldn't make the machines the government bought for more than $230 million work. At another station, Nigerian-born rapper and singer Nneka said she had waited several hours to register, but officials shut down and left. Many complaints focused on the fingerprint scanners.
"It is only people who are politicians who can afford to wait for four hours," said Oluwa Aren, one frustrated voter.
Adding to the confusion for prospective voters, the Independent National Electoral Commission has not published a list of registration points or posted the information to their website.
Commission spokesman Kayode Idowu said Saturday that Nigerians had been instructed to walk around near their homes to find a station. He called the issues Saturday as "teaching problems." However, he acknowledged that some locations had not even received their equipment yet.
"They'll be sorted out in the next 24 hours," Idowu said.
The April elections include a presidential poll in which President Goodluck Jonathan will face opponents from minor parties. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party, the only force with the money, political connections and muscle necessary to manipulate an election.
International observers called the 2007 election of the late President Umaru Yar'Adua rigged, even though it represented the first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power in the nation's history.
The registration points are staffed by members of Nigeria's National Youth Service Corps, a mandatory yearlong program for students after they graduate from university. Those volunteers also will serve as local election officials in April elections, though the corps leader recently warned: "If anybody wants to snatch the ballot box, just give it to them and save your life."
On Lagos Island, one registration point along a busy road did work. Muritala Okeowo, 48, held up his card to passers-by, which was simply two pieces of computer paper in a laminated cover bearing a fuzzy photograph and a bar code on the back.
"To get the card there was a queue," Okeowo said. "The machine is not working well. We've been waiting here since morning."
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