2023: Working towards E-Voting to disenfranchise electoral foul-play
Electoral matters within the Nigerian political space remain a touchy subject. These subjects no doubt, remain one of the most contested matters in Nigerian politics. The lines of manifestations that surround the waves of activities before, during and after elections are matters that mostly generate confusing sensations. Pre and post election contests have always been characterised with tussles which most times are coloured with counteractions evoking intense atmosphere of heating up the polity.
While every election even at the levels of party primaries has been known to witness some bitter experience of misadventure, the experiences with general elections have roughly been on the high lanes of gimmicky and belligerent politicking which largely do defy a clean sheet process of running an election in the standard of global best practices. Pre and post election violence, uncivil contests, bribery and corruption, are characters which have been noted to be rife for elections in Nigeria. Other menaces such as on-the-spot violent clashes, vote buying, and ballot snatching are some of the escapades that are rife during election in Nigeria. These have been featural characters which are recorded by electoral observers, on the basis of which elections in Nigeria are mostly adjudged to fall short of being free and fair. The number of electoral cases that awash the Court before and after elections, particularly those that surface from the tribunals to higher courts of resort after elections are indicative of the infantile state of electoral practice in Nigeria.
While it cannot however be said that Nigeria has not witnessed any development in her electoral profile from 1999 till date, it is arguable that such growth has been slow and tardy. The prevailing system by every means, projects facts which reveal that Nigeria is practically far behind schedule in the light of conducting her elections with close resemblance to the standards of the developed world. The need to reform and transform the electoral practices of the Country in the light of recent development that satisfies best global practices is sine qua non. Such move manifestly demands adopting and employing modern technological modalities that frown against some gaps created by the traditional system which has left rooms open for several electoral misadventures. One of such modality which has proved civil, efficient and effective with minimal threats of heating up the polity in the advanced world, is the full adoption of electronic voting (E-voting). Redirecting, refocusing and restructuring the workings of Nigeria’s electoral practice to embrace this systemic architecture, holds the potency to check against such electoral menace as vote buying, ballot snatching, election violence, and political lobbying among other demonstrative escapades which are permitted by physical gathering to cast votes at the traditional polling booths.
Giving expression to the significance of this measure to vitalising electoral practice in Nigeria, Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, on Tuesday, averred that Nigeria needs to reform its electoral system by adopting electronic voting. According to him, the architecture will be instrumental to eliminate errors occasioned by human factor in compiling results. According to a statement released by the Press and Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Science and Technology, Josephine Ademu, the Minister was reported to have raised the significance of the necessity during a facility visit to the Electronic Development Institute (ELDI) in Awka, Anambra on Monday. It was contained in the statement that the Minister was positive that if the Country reforms its electoral system and adopts e-voting, election malpractices, fraud and less credible results would be a thing of the past. Stating that with this in place more Nigerians would be willing to participate in the nation’s electoral processes, he asserted that Nigeria’s democratic processes would experience tremendous improvement with these reforms. He was quoted: “Democracy is like a living organism that grows like humans, animals and plants but for this to happen, we need electronic voting which shall reduce malpractices associated with human errors.”
It is imperative for the Government to reckon with the significance that the need to strongly go electronic holds to transforming electoral practice in Nigeria and thereby boosting political culture in the Country. It is indisputable that the politicking towards the 2023 general elections has strategically commenced. The observations of pundits have reflected that the nature of the parameters surrounding the political space towards the 2023 general elections may yield strings of contests which may set the foundation for animosity and irreparable heating of the polity. It is therefore, instructive for the Federal Government to take proactive measures to eliminate tools of foul political gimmicks that characterise election in Nigeria. Working towards building the architecture of electronic voting is paramount to forestall the unsavoury contests and panic that usually come with every general election in the Country. It is essential for the Presidency to work with the National Assembly and all relevant stakeholders to make the necessity a reality. It is essential that linking patterns of collaboration be established between the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to harmoniously work to complementarily set the foundation and develop the architecture for electronic voting towards the 2023 election and beyond. It is important to state that while the introduction of Permanent Voters Card and Card Readers technologies for the 2015 General elections brought some sanity into curbing some electoral foul play, it is essential to take the experience higher to conform with the practice of the advanced world where e-voting is structurally employed to check against disarray of avoidable electoral foul-play.
