Organizing a free and fair election is not rocket
science..it is a simple as A,B,C but the PDP will not allow it because they
know in a free and fair election they will lose.
2015 is coming , elections would be conducted; parties in
the opposition are threatening fire, thunders, brimstone and acid if the
elections are rigged. Some have even said they won't go to courts anymore as
both winners and losers of the election would not enjoy their 'victories'.
There is a grim expectation as the unity
of Nigeria is greatly threatened.2015 could make or mar Nigeria if not well
handled.
The race to 2015 is really polarizing the country, and any
attempt by PDP and Jonathan to rig or manipulate the 2015 election would be
disastrous and may plunge the Country into blood shed...that is the reason I am
writing this short piece
The only way to convince the people and the opposition that
an election is free and fair is by deploying electronic voting. Since the mutual
suspicion in the system is so high, no amount of credibility done on paper
voting will convince the opposition-this is quite unfortunate..In Nigeria,
anyone who loses election claim they have been rigged, whether true or not. No
candidate ever accepts defeat in Nigeria because they believe the system is
highly corrupt and manipulated. Their fears can be justified based on the
antecedents of the past elections from 1999, through 2003, through 2007 and
2011-these elections especially the 2007 and 2011 were grossly marred by crude
and scientific rigging, and judiciary validation of the fraud. Hence, the
present cries from the opposition is understandable. But the greatest threat is
that the opposition will only accept the elections in which they emerge winners
as free and fair; anything otherwise would be seen as rigged. On this premise,
I say the opposition is wrong. Only accepting elections that are won by you as
free and fair, is prejudicial and wrong. The PDP are not ready to relinquish
power, whether in a free and fair or rigged elections; and the opposition is
not ready to accept any elections that PDP wins as free and fair..hence we have
a dangerous political stalemate that may drown the Country waiting to
happen..The oppositions have agreed to present a common front in 2015 believing
they will wrestle power out from the PDP at all cost, and the PDP is busy
re-engineering themselves to win again at all cost. It is important that
Nigerians see that this dangerous stalemate that will take place in 2015 be
broken now by consciously developing voting methods that will be accepted to
all.
This is why I am proposing Electronic Voting in 2015
2015 being a watershed election year should be taken
seriously , and all preparations at making it free and fair to both winners and
losers should not be taken for granted. Any attempt by the ruling party/class
to rig, manipulate or stage-manage the 2015 election may cause a conflagration
in the Country
Electronic voting is the only solution to this..it simple,
not easily tampered with, and the results are transparent for all to see, and
contentions can be easily traced. Electronic voting can be easily implemented
in Nigeria, and would cost less than the N108B Prof. Jega squandered in 2011 .Electronic
voting will eliminated the voters register manipulation, ballot-stuffing and
snatching, multiple voting and result manipulation between election centres and
collation points.
To avoid contention, Nigerian should insist that the 2015
election be conducted using electronic voting. To have electronic voting it is
simple, what we need is a centralized database where all voters' data have been
captured and stored. INEC claims that we have about 120,000 pooling units in
the Country. With this we require 2 voting machines per unit( made up of a
laptop and a touch-screen voting pad) ; these laptops would have a voting software
that are connected directly to the central database by internet. To vote, a
voter would have to put his thumb on the column of the party/and picture of the
party/candidate of his choice, and this is immediately transmitted to the
Central database. At the end of the election, the results is read directly from
the central database and the winner is declared based on that.
It is that simple !The cost of implementing electronic
voting will be much cheaper than the N108B Jega squandered. Since there are
about 120,000 polling units, and about 2 voting machines are needed per voting
unit, a total of 240,000 pieces of Voting Machines will be needed. The Voting
Machine is a simple computer with voting software installed, connected
touch-screen pad that displays the parties/candidates' picture. Since 240,000
pieces would be needed, we can assume a unit price of N100,000 at bulk price.
When the calculation is done, it will amount to N24B ! The other cost will be
that of getting data stick about N7,000 per unit will amount to N1.68B for 240,000
units..The other cost will be the
setting up cost of the data centre which should be handled by
international Enterprise organization like IBM , SAP etc
Electronic voting is the only way to ensure elections that
will be accepted by all since the level of human manipulations will be greatly reduced.
Electronic voting will be cheaper , more transparent and less time consuming
than the present paper voting, and any manipulation can easily be traced.
The Nigeria elite will not want any process that will
eliminate their influence, they will resist any platform that will emasculate
their god-fatherism power. They want to be power brokers without responsibility
..in electronic voting, the fate of
candidates depends on their electoral value of that candidates and their
acceptance by the electorates..electronic voting will ensure that the electoral
box is the only platform for changing leadership.
In Nigeria, we make simple matters complex..things that
should be straightforward and easy are entangled in webs of complexities..To
have a free and fair elections that are accepted by all, the only way forward
is the use electronic voting. We have more than 2 years to prepare for this,
and there is enough time to implement this.
If Prof. Jega, President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP are sincere about their
readiness to conduct an election where the
wishes of the people will be respected, and eliminate unnecessary
litigations and manipulations, the way to go is electronic voting. This is
simple to implement, does not request much high expertise, and does not need
much logistics of carrying heavy voting materials.
If Prof. Jega, President Jonathan and PDP think this is
impossible, we are ready to give them an elaborate presentation, with business
case and implementation timelines for bringing this about. There are tens and
hundreds of reputable international firms that can implement this solution
easily.
It is our right to demand for a truly free and fair
election, and come 2015 we MUST have a truly free and fair election .
