THREE IDEAS FOR ELECTORAL REFORM IN NIGERIA: VOTERS PERSPECTIVE
This Article focuses on making the electoral process easy especially from the side of voters.
Every four years, Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa goes to the polls to elect her leaders. This process has been on since Nigeria began democratic rule in 1999 and we’ve had a fair share of good and bad leadership which are results of the electoral process.
With Covid 19 ravaging the world and changing the systems and structures of governance and the economy, we have no option than to review and reform our electoral process for the new normal that we have come to embrace as a people.
The electoral process, from where people get to register for their PVCs to when they actually cast their votes is not free of its challenges. Just as we still battle to provide 24 hours electricity since 1999, Nigeria still battles with having a credible, free and fair elections.
Some of the challenges emanating from the electoral process includes:
Delays in voter registration and getting voters cards
Electoral violence, Insecurity during and after the elections
Rigging and manipulation of election results
Thuggery and intimidation of voters
And more.
The murder of the PDP women leader in Kogi state is a very good example of electoral violence. A good number of Nigerian voters have lost their lives as a result of electoral violence. I think that this happens because there’s a lot of human contact and physical connection with the electoral process. If it were online or digital, electoral violence would be curbed.
Now, let’s look at top three ideas for electoral reform in Nigeria.
1. Online Voting:
This is not new. In fact, it’s not news. And a lot of folks in and out of Nigeria have called for a review of the electoral process to allow for online voting. I’ll share how I think the online voting process would work.
First, the online voting will exist with a modernized version of the traditional voting process. Just like JAMB did with the online UTME alongside the paper and pencil system when it was first introduced in 2013.
The good thing is we can start practicing online voting with low level elections: for instance, elections into house of reps, senate, local governments, etc and then we can move on to the general elections.
We have BVNs in this country and no person has two BVN. As long as it’s only one person to one BVN, this makes it easier. The issue of multiple voting is solved. Our voters card would be a smart card that is linked to our BVN. So when it’s time for elections, we simply log into our profile on the INEC portal with our BVN and password and vote online, selecting the party and the candidate.
Once online voting is complete, a central database receives and collates the votes such that you can see the results real time. If we don’t trust our institutions to handle online collation, we can outsource the process. But we should be able to have institutions we can trust. Just like the Nigerian Bar Association did recently with their elections where Olumide Akpata emerged the winner. I liked the way young Nigerian Lawyers took it upon themselves to vote for the right candidate. This was possible because the voting process was online and their votes counted. The election wasn’t rigged.
And this is simply all we’re asking for.
Individuals in Nigeria have erected private institutions that are reliable and functioning efficiently and we have a good number and example of them. Why can’t we come together to create an efficient electoral system that we can be proud of?
We may decide to bring banks into the electoral process. Especially in terms of registering people for BVN. An electoral desk or officer would be available to register individuals eligible for voting. The BVN registration desk in banks can also champion this. Secondly, PVCs can be distributed via banks nationwide. Banks can also be contracted to handle the process of producing/issuing PVCs. It’s easy these days to get ATM cards on the spot in banks. You get your voters card at any bank branch close to your preferred location. Just like it is with ATM cards. The good news is that banking in Nigeria is far more advanced when compared with banking in some foreign countries. Can we even turn our ATM cards to our voters’ card? (just thinking out loud) or merge our voters card, national identity card and driver’s license and international passport? Whichever works is great. By the way, you can open an account online and get a debit card delivered to you on the OneBank App at your convenience. Click here for more or send a DM here
Recently, a task-force was set up to give Nigeria a digital identity in 5 years. I will strongly suggest that the task force ensures that the digital identity will eventually allow Nigerians to vote electronically.
If the collaboration with banks in terms of registering for voter’s card is not feasible, another strategy could be that an online platform on INEC’s website exists where people are able to register online for their voters’ card. In fact, every voter in Nigeria should have an account online with INEC. Voters can stop by at any INEC experience centre or bank to capture their finger prints after they’ve initiated the registration from home or at any computer centre. Voters can also update their records from time to time and they can also specify where to collect their PVCs. Thankfully, the electoral process is such that people are able to vote anywhere irrespective of where they registered. But the process of transferring or switching polling units should be made easier.
At the time of publishing this, there are tweets that the Nigerian government has developed an app where citizens can now print their national ID themselves. This hasn’t been officially confirmed yet by the NIMC but its good in some way. It gives citizens power, freedom and flexibility over their national ID. We can take this a step further by allowing people to register for their ID or Voters card themselves. This would definitely reduce the burden on the various commission in charge and ensure efficiency. (https://twitter.com/AjuriNgelale/status/1294652899214135297)
During the last elections in February 2019, I went out to vote. Lots of young people came out to exercise their civic rights. But there was a long queue. The queue was very long that it stretched from Government Secondary school, Life Camp, Abuja down the main road, close to Gwarinpa Hospital. I mean we had to queue and it was that long. From the school to the road and down. We covered everywhere. The sun even met us on the queue. Thankfully, there was restriction of movement. We spent so much time standing and waiting in the sun. The queue was moving slowly but later scattered and everyone found their way in.
While on the queue, I noticed something. Everyone was busy, heads down with their phones; browsing, chatting, tweeting, snapping, posting and stuff. For once, I imagined that these young people, like me could just log into the INEC portal and vote online. Life would have been easy.
Traditional voting as we have it typically takes time and makes the whole day useless for most of the parties involved in the electoral process. As accreditation and voting could take from morning till evening.
Another thing is, people with influence were always jumping the queue. They come with their tush cars and escort, go straight to the voting space, cast their votes and go. Those who came out early in the morning would still be there hoping and asking; God when? When would I be able to vote?
One thing the online voting would do is that it will reduce the pressure on INEC and its staff. Imagine a polling unit with about 1000 voters of which youths who are tech savvy make about 60% of that number, that means we would have reduced the traffic on the polling unit by 60%. Sounds cool right?
I understand that a good number of Nigerians are not tech savvy and may not be able to vote online. I agree. That’s why we would have a USSD platform also. Where people could dial a certain code, enter their BVN and vote.
For those who are not able to vote online as well as the USSD platform, these people can go the traditional polling unit where they’ll thumb print. This time, they are not thumb printing on a paper into a ballot box. They would be thumb printing on an electronic device. This device automatically sends the result from each thumb print to a central database.
Those who steal ballot boxes would lose their jobs. Even if they steal the machines, they would not be able to manipulate it because they don’t have access to people’s BVNs and their passwords. They don’t have access to the database.
2. Diaspora Voting
Ladies and gentlemen, Nigerians are everywhere in the world, doing great stuff and contributing their quota to the development of places they find themselves. We are resilient and this is why we go all out to seek for better opportunities.
Reports from Vanguard and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission indicates that there are about 15 million Nigerians in diaspora and this number keeps increasing every day. Buhari won the 2019 elections with about 14 million votes. Imagine if Nigerians in diaspora were part of that number. According to the World Bank, as shared by TheCable, Nigerians in diaspora sent home over 20 billion dollars in 2017, there by contributing to the development of the Nigerian economy.
Why are we disenfranchising Nigerians in diaspora?
Nigerians in diaspora are more exposed economically and politically. They want to vote. With the numbers rising, no one is doubting that they can change the political destiny of Nigeria with their votes in the mix. If the online voting is well implemented, then Nigerians in diaspora would be able to cast their votes without the challenge of logistics.
3. Young people running
Thanks to the NotTooYoungToRun movement. We now have young people running for public office. But more needs to be done. We need to get more young people to run for public office especially from the grassroots of politics. Everyone can’t be president. And that’s just one vacancy. There are many vacancies at the local government level, state house of assembly level, federal house of representatives and also the senate. We need forward thinking young people in public offices. One of the challenges we’ve had is that those who lead us are in the previous generation but where we are going has a lot to do with the future generation. How do you lead people to a generation that you would not be part of? How do you lead people to a future you have not really envisioned?
Imagine if we had great people like Banky W, Sowore, Ezekwesili, Fela Durotoye, Kingsley Moghalu, Aisha Yesufu in the legislative houses, making and promoting laws that would impact our lives, business and our country positively? What if we have the likes of these great people as Governors? Heads of MDAs? Presidents?
Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk on elections in Nigeria. I rest my case.
