The member representing Owan Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, on Monday, blamed the failure of the National Assembly to pass the Bill on the electronic transmission of election results and E-Voting on external and internal forces within the legislative arm.
Ihonvbere, who disclosed this while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after delivering his mid-term report to members of his constituency in Owan East Local Government Area of Edo State, said, however, that the argument for and against the choice of electronic voting and transmission of results at the floor of the National Assembly exuded the beauty of democracy and that at the end, the majority won the day.
“That is the beauty of democracy. We can’t all agree. I support electronic transmission. I know that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has the capacity for electronic transmission of results unless INEC wants to say those card readers they sent to certain parts of the country are for decoration in which case all the elections done through INEC should be cancelled but it is not,” he said.
The professor of Political Science noted that INEC card reader “uses a SIM and in the over 190,000 polling booths, there were card readers using SIM, people are writing NECO, people are writing WAEC, they are doing Computer-Based Tests but Nigeria must move forward”, hence no excuse for the issue of non-availability of network.
“When are we going to grow and agree that where we are, we should leave there. Other countries are moving forward, Rwanda, Ghana, around us,” Ihonvbere lamented.
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He added that he supported “electronic transmission of election results but there is politics within and outside the National Assembly and majority they say, carries the day.”
Ihonvbere who also spoke extensively on the proposed University of Sports that is to be sited at Afuze said it had passed the third readings and expressed optimism that President Muhammadu Buhari would give his consent to it.
“I don’t know why the president will not sign because this is a plus to him to be the one who established the first university of sports. We have hundreds of sportsmen and women who have retired who will be ready to use this institution to train our athletes, we are not doing well in sports,” he noted.
“How many events are we going for at the next Olympics? Very clearly, Nigeria has gone down. How many Nigerians are playing in the top four teams of the premier league now? In the days of Okocha, Kano and others, those days have gone. We are not breaking any new world records. The Federal University of Sports, Afuze, will help Nigeria to do that,” the legislator assured.
Besides that, Ihonvbere noted sport “is now big business, big business. The UK, they are making billions every year from sports, not just endorsements but we are losing money.”
“People are not watching our national Leagues anymore. So, on the side of business, in the part of physical health, in the part of intellectual development, in the part of building capable athletes to represent Nigeria to win laurels, the president will sign it,” he maintained.
He added that Afuze already had the facilities for the proposed university, adding that “it is not going to cost money to do it. It is these same facilities that Ogbemudia used to produce top-rated athletes for Nigeria.”
At the end of the presentation of his mid-term report, a vote of confidence was passed on him for bringing Federal Government presence to his constituency.
The motion for the vote of confidence was moved by Mr Henry Okaka and was seconded by Hon. Fred Omoigberai.
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