THE origin of  the body conducting election in Nigeria goes back to the period before independence when the electoral communion of Nigeria was established to conduct 1959 election. The federal electoral commission (FEDECO) established in 1960 conducted  the immediate past –independent federal and regional elections of 1960 and 1964.
The electoral body was dissolved after the military coup of 1966 from 1966 to 1978 that the military were in power the electoral body was not recognized and the body was not in existence.
In 1978, the federal electoral commission was reconstituted by the regime of General  Olusegun Obasanjo organising the election of 1979 which ushered in the Nigerian second republic under the leadership of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, he also conducted the general elections of 1983.
In December 1995, the military government of General Sanni Abacha established the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NEC) which conducted another set of elections. These constituted institutions were not inaugurated before the death of General Sanni Abacha on June 1998 as his death aborted the process. In 1998 General Abdusalam Abubakar’s Administration dissolved NECON and established the Independent National electoral commission (INEC) and new electoral body organized the transitional election that ushered in the Nigeria Fourth republic on May 29 1999 and since then INEC has been the body in charge of conducing elections and declare the winners in every election in Nigeria.
In April 2007 General election, the election was between Umaru Yar’ Adua and Gen Mohammadu Buhari. The peoples democratic party candidate Yar Adua won the election and was sworn into office on May 29th, 2007. Election observers from the European Union, described the election as the worst they have ever monitored anywhere in the world with rampant election Rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and Intimidation.
According to Ngozi Iwere, over the years, elections in Nigeria have been surrounded by controversy “since the return to civil rule According to media report and statistics, it shows that since the return of Democracy to Nigeria on May 29th 1999, most elections held has been mared by massive  fraud, elections irregularities,  election violence etc.
In his view, Mr. Uwhejevwe Togbolo Samuel a political anaylist said that Election in the past have not been free and fair because the political party in power wants to power by all means and continue with their selfish interest. They map out strategies to enable them rig elections and continue to hold on to power as the constitution allow them.
One will easily deduce that the election was a charade. Even within states, the political party in power tends to win in the state. This is due to influence from the ruling party in such a state. The deploy all within their reach to ensure victory swing towards their party. Political malpractice have taken a new dimension presently because traditional leaders  and religious leaders are even involving themselves in manipulating electoral process.
Mr. Omoregie Alex, a political anaylist in his own view commended the INEC over the success of the 2011 general election. He also said that the 2011 election is considered to free and fair. The European Observers who monitored the 2011 general elections also congratulated the INEC chairman for a job well done, compared to previous elections held in Nigeria.
The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on 8th June 2010 nominated Prof. Atahiru Jega as the new chairman of the Independent National  Electoral commission (INEC), subject  for the House of Senate confirmation as replacement for the former INEC chairman Prof. Maurice Iwu who vacated the post in April 28 2010.
In every democratic process, the votes, who are also known as the electorate need a form of Identification to enable them participate in any given election. In this present dispensation under the leadership of Prof Atahiru Jega, he adopted the use of the Temporal voters card (TVCS) In the 2011 general elections. The TVCS were used to identify voters. It contained the name of voter, facial image, date of birth and confirm if the voter is registered.
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), have declared that the 2015 general elections, will be more credible with the use of  permanent voters card (PVCs). The pvcs is also reffered to as Smart card or voters ID card. It stores voters information such as bio data, bio metrics and facial image. The pvcs is a permanent form of the TVCS.   Also the PVCS card technology provides adequate security features to reduce vulnerability to counterfeiting. The voters card can also be used for identification and authentication of voters during elections.
INEC got the approval of the final specimen of the pvcs to enable it begin the printing of 40 million cards. The INEC ICT director Mr. Chidi Nwafor told newsmen while speaking on the preparation of INEC to conduct a free and fair election in 2015. Furthermore, he said that the project would cost N2.6 billion “The sample have already been checked and confirmed by the technical committee before it was moved to the ICT Commission, the processes are in stages. The first being the signing of the contract with all the arbitrations, while the company was expected to produce all the bio-data for the specimen before we arrived at the permanent sample of how the PVC would look like.
He also assured newsmen that INEC  will work out modalities for the distribution. Nwafor stressed that INEC’s target was to ensure that by 2015, every eligible registered voters had a pvc that would contain all the necessary information and details. The contract was awarded to an indigenous printing company named art technology limited with the technical partner Obature in France at the cost of N65 per card.
POTENCY OF THE P.V.C
The Biometric card reader will add tremendous integrity to the electoral system with the permanent voters card issued.
Also politician can no longer buy cards and give to people to vote or use dead people’s cards to vote unlike the way they used to do before.
The use of card readers and the p.v.c will reduce malpractice during the 2015 general election because the card reader will provide the full details of the person and people without the p.v.c or temporary voters card will not be expected to vote that day.
In addition, the former INEC chairman Prof. Abdulhameed also said that the use of the p.v.c will make the election very credible, in addition with the card reader that will authenticate the p.v.c. He also said in the case the card reader fails, there should be a plan for the election which is the voter register.
According to the INEC chairman, Prof. Atahiru Jega, the P.V.C. is going to be permanent. There will be a continuous production for eligible voters who will turn 18 years to come.
ELECTION POSTPONEMENT
According to media report, on Saturday 7 February 2015, the chairman of INEC Prof. Atahiru Jega announced that while it “substantially ready” to conduct elections on 14 February 2015, he felt compelled to postpone voting for 6 weeks (until 28 march).
This was because the country’s military “could not guarantee security for the election”. And he also said Nigeria’s service had told him they needed to concentrate on military operations meant to defeat the dreaded Islamist Boko Haram group within six weeks and would thus “be unable to provide their traditional support” during a February election. The military, which now claims it will do in six weeks what it has not done in six years, thus forced the electoral commission’s hand, triggering the postponement.
The election was also postponed to extend the date of the distribution of permanent voter’s card because as at the time the date was extended so many people had not gotten their p.v.c and INEC materials have not arrived Nigeria. Also, INEC staff that were to conduct the 2015 general election have not been trained at that point in time.
THE POSSIBILITY OF INEC THE CONDUCTING THE 2015 ELECTION ON THE NEW DATE: According to An INEC Adhoc staff who pleaded to be anonymous said, there is possibility of INEC conducting election on this present dates fixed for the election. INEC hopefully will conduct the election because almost all non-sensitive materials like envelop, inkpad, pooters e.t.c have arrived the state and also at the various local government areas.
But the only materials that have not arrived the local government area is the sensitive materials like the ballot papers and result sheet e.t.c but hopefully it had been said   according to the INEC official that it will arrived the state before the election date.   Speaking with a prospective voter, Mr. Monday Ese, said that he was ready for the March 28 and April 11 2015 elections. He said the postponement of the election have enabled him and some other eligible voters to collect their P.V.C.s.
On the 9 March 2015, the independent national electoral commission told newsmen that about 80.5% P.V.C have been collected by eligible voters. INEC also told newsmen that the card readers were tested in Lagos and it was 90% successful which means that they are ready for use.
Furthermore, if problem arises during the accreditation process, they are ready to fall back to the voter register to help in the election process.
The credibility of the electoral body is under feast with the preparation and conduct of the 2015 general election. There have been accusation and conter accusation on the readiness of INEC to conduct this election but the out come of the election will settle the issue whether INEC is ready or not. The electorate, Observers, political analyst, commentator and all concern stakeholders are watching to see the final out come of the whole process. Whether INEC will be commended or not the out come of the election will tell.