Written by Tijjani Muhammad Musa
It happened in 2003, 2007, 2011 and is being repeated right now as we (Nigerian electorates) sit patiently waiting for the elections result to be announced. And at this particular moment, I often wonder what is going through the mind of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, his vice Atiku Abubakar both of whom had been through this process before and so know exactly what is going on.
It happened in 2003, 2007, 2011 and is being repeated right now as we (Nigerian electorates) sit patiently waiting for the elections result to be announced. And at this particular moment, I often wonder what is going through the mind of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, his vice Atiku Abubakar both of whom had been through this process before and so know exactly what is going on.
On Saturday 28th March, 2015 many
Nigerians from all walks and cadre of life came out en masse, using their
Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) and voted in a free and fair election. Everything
went as smoothly as can best be obtained without any political violence or
rancor, except of source in one or two places. It can't be perfect, at least
not yet.
The social media provided the
first means of informing, not just fellow Nigerians in other parts of the
country, but to all parties interested in the Nigeria transition about the
immediate outcome of the polls across the world. Thus fresh from the polling
booths results were uploaded by party agents, supervisors, presiding electoral
officers, independent observers etc who were witnesses to the voting process
and the counted votes for each party.
Having documented the results
officially and each party agent collecting a duplicate copy, many posted the
results, images, videos from those polling units direct on to their wall on
social media or on to websites scattered across the internet dedicated for that
purpose. Thus most persons online could easily have access to such vital
information and instantly bear witness to what must have happened at any
election center.
What is baffling this writer is
why INEC would fail to take advantage of this information highway by using it
to confirm and authenticate the results of the election in order to prevent any
electoral fraud or manipulations of the results from taking place?
One cannot imagine, after using
the digital PVC reader to accredit voters at each polling unit before allowing
bonafide voters to cast their ballots, the outcome could not immediately be
posted onto a dedicated INEC website via the internet from official coded
devices that would immediately be authenticated as genuine and so forestall any
manual handling of the results by any person or staff. This way, time and vital
resources could be save, besides making the electoral process as rig-proof as
possible.
But a situation where having done
all the PVC authentication and voting thing, the hard copy results and ballot
papers, instead of serving as mere backup to the e-results sent immediately
upon concluding the elections are subjected to manual manipulation by persons
with vested interest, which makes nonsense of the whole digital electoral
process.
And until such a process is used,
where election results are free from manual handling from the polling units to
the electoral offices by electoral officers and other persons, a free and fair
elections would forever elude us as a nation.
We must of essence design a
process that starts with PVC accreditation, to voting and direct posting of
such counted results on to a dedicated website, email address or something
similar, which can be only accessed by a trusted and reliable INEC official
with a password known to only a few.
The posted results would be
read-only and so free from any manipulations. And having come from a staff of
the commission, who has been assigned to a coded polling unit and could easily
be identified as an official of the electoral process, all results from all the
polling booths in all the wards of the 744 local governments, 36 states
including Abuja could easily and readily be available at the touch of a button
in the presence of stakeholders, journalists inclusive. That way all these
delays and electoral misadventures could then be frustrated and avoided.
In fact, through such a process,
many in diaspora could partake in the electoral process whenever the time for
national elections approaches. Using their emails, such citizens could be
allowed to cast their votes from anywhere in the world, which like all emails
would be marked with the day, date, time and even a reference code. Once a vote
is casted with that email, no other person can use it to conduct a duplicate
vote.
But with the current situation,
how can we expect someone who is empowered to gather all the results from a state
and having collated such from the various polling units across the electoral
areas, not be influence, induced or intimidated into manipulating the results
by forces beyond his or her control? Some of such INEC officials could be
offered huge sums of money, blackmailed into cooperation or even threatened
with death.
Under such conditions, he or she
is likely to do as directed and since as an INEC resident electoral officer his
or her public announcement of the tampered results is taken as the final acceptable
results, then the whole democratic process is often discredited, in jeopardy
and so could never be accepted as being fair and just. Most especially by those
who are witnesses and often have the original copies of the elections outcome
in their possession.
And for the populace who
withstood all the hardship involve in going through the whole electoral process
to end up not having the persons they democratically elect to represent them at
the state and national level, it can truly be frustrating. And often such
injustice could trigger an outburst that could be costly in terms of lives and
properties. Where planned and deliberately and mischievously executed, only divine
intervention could forestall escalation of trouble.
As we await the final and formal
declaration of this 2015 Elections results and winners, it is our ardent hope
as Nigerians that the choice of the people as reflective of their hopes and
aspirations in tandem with the real voting outcome would be respected and duly
announced.
May God frustrate those with the
intention of fomenting crisis in the polity. May peaceful transition to
greatness be our lot as a nation and people through the 2015 General Elections,
amen.
©2015 Tijjani M. M.
All Right Reserved
