A former All Progressive Congress (APC) National Legal Adviser and former Chairman of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Dr Muiz Banire, SAN, on Thursdau, urged the National Assembly to urgently take steps towards legalising electronic voting.
Banire advised President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the eventual bill on the issue, in the country’s interest.
He reasoned that this was a step towards guaranteeing a credible elections from 2023, and warned that without it, Nigeria stands “a terrible chance” of losing more frustrated young people to the Diaspora.
In a statement, he urged the government to learn from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which, despite allegations of vote manipulation, had made steady progress with each election, since it introduced electronic voting.
“My view, over time, has been that a mixture of both manual and electronic modes be adopted in Nigeria’s elections. My position is premised on the fact that the Internet availability in Nigeria is still relatively poor, particularly the bandwidth. There is hardly any significant coverage in the rural areas and the country cannot afford to exclude this sizeable number of Nigerians from exercising their franchise,” Banire said.
He said this factor played out in the 2019 general election in which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “that had earlier boasted of deploying electronic voting across the country suddenly realised that it was just being unduly ambitious in view of the limitations confronting availability of Internet in most parts of the country.
“However, if it is possible to effectively use satellite to power the process, the advocacy for manual voting in this regard may be dispensed with. Last Sunday, I read about 50 companies jostling for the contract for the introduction of electronic voting system to the electoral process via the procurement process of INEC and I was elated.
“Among the 50 bidders, I believe that a company with the capacity to put in place national coverage will emerge. If this is eventually so, I support fully the introduction of electronic voting system in the entire country.
“This will, among others, enthrone some measure of transparency in the country’s electoral system, eliminate thuggery that leads to voter apathy, reduce, if not totally eliminate money politics, as money could not be received, while voting electronically would allow a person’s conscience to thrive and prevail. Electronic voting will also eliminate multiple voting and tampering with electoral materials.”
He noted that electronic voting “will enable more informed people to participate in elections as opposed to the present system where majority of the voters determining the leadership of the country are largely uninformed, endangering all of us.
“Most elite avoid going out to vote due to fear of political thugs and other miscreants whose bread is often buttered by unscrupulous politicians to facilitate electoral manipulation and are always ready and available to unleash mayhem to secure victory for their sponsors,” Banire said.
He added further that electronic voting will also help to ensure diaspora voting by Nigerians abroad, who “deserve to be allowed to contribute to our democratic evolution considering the amount of money they remit home annually, which runs into billions of dollars. This is in addition to the fact they are Nigerians and have a stake in the Nigerian project.”
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