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Corruption, Doubts Threaten e-Voting System

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Chris Onyemenam, director general, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC),
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Unless the corrupt human chain is removed from the possible use of electronic voting system (e-voting system) for the conduct of the 2011 general election, the outcome of that election may be worse than all the elements of subjectivity that bedeviled the past 73 years of voting experience in the country, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now reveal.
Supporters of electronic voting mostly election officials and voting machines companies, had long argued that, though manipulation of such systems was possible, nobody had actually ever done so.
In reality however, the greatest security threat to e-voting system come from election insiders, not from the voting public and dubious claims of “voter fraud”.
Emmanuel Amos, chief executive officer of Progammos Software Limited said that “voting machines themselves aren’t corrupt. Corrupt human beings corrupt them. The machines can deliver whatever the manager wants from them.”
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that the hairs have been raised since Prof. Maurice Iwu, chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec), muted the possibility of the introduction of Electronic Voting System (EVS) to ensure the principle of one man, one vote.
Inec, the permanent body created by the constitution to organize Federal and state elections in Nigeria insisted that the e-voting method was rig proof.
Prof. Iwu said that the EVS is simple to operate, guarantees one man, one vote, disallows ghost voters and ensures quick and uninterrupted simultaneous transmission of election results to the centre.
He added that electronic voting system does not require any academic qualification to operate adding that all a voter needed to do was just to walk to the voting centre and press the button of the political party of his choice which can not be done more than once by the voter.
Voting machines companies also said that electronic voting can reduce election costs and increase civic participation by making the voting process more convenient.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that the commonest EVS is the Direct Recording Electronic System (DRE) where voters view ballots on a screen and make choices using an input device such as a bank of buttons or a touchscreen.
Votes are stored on a memory card, compact disc or other memory device. Election officials transport these memory devices to a centralized location for tabulation, just as they would with paper-based ballots.
Many DRE devices also have the capacity to print a paper record of ballots cast.
Critics however, maintain that the human chain was responsible for illegal voter registration, intimidation at polls, and improper vote counting and not machines.
According to them, unless the system is designed in such a way that it is independently transparent and as independently verifiable as possible, it may well be a white elephant.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek also gathered that with EVS, fraud is a major concern with e-voting.
Experts said that the possibility of fraud on a monumental scale is still present under the right circumstances (for example, a programmer who has accepted bribes) and that fraud is potentially more difficult to detect when using electronic ballots versus paper ballots.
A programmer could alter the electronic record of ballots cast and, because votes cannot be linked back to a particular voter for verification, detection of vote tampering could be impossible.
There is also the concern of transparency because without careful examination of the code, voters cannot be certain that the system is doing what it is supposed to do in the first place.
Fraud could originate with the vendors either intentionally or through a programming error, and votes could be misattributed without chance of detection.
Dr. Fabian Duru, a psychologist called for moral orientation urging electoral officials to put national interest first before their avariciousness.
He blamed the electoral officials for acts of fraud that affect vote counts by increasing the vote share of the favoured candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both.
Duru warned against wholesale adoption of EVS without first putting in place the necessary legal and policy framework while urging Inec to embark on sensitization campaign to drum support for the system.

 

 

 


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Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

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Elon Musk to Become First World’s Trillionaire with SpaceX Historic IPO

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Elon Musk is poised to become the world’s first trillionaire after  SpaceX, his company, confirmed plans to go public.

Elon Musk to Become First World’s Trillionaire with SpaceX Historic IPO

Elon Musk

Because Musk owns the majority of the shares, it could push his net worth over the trillion dollar mark.

The entrepreneur is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X, and xAI.

Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025; as of May 2026, Forbes estimates his net worth to be $788 billion.

SpaceX has filed for a blockbuster public listing in the United States, paving the way for what could become the largest stock market debut in Wall Street history.

The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, announced plans to begin trading under the ticker symbol “SPCX” as early as next month.

The listing values SpaceX at about $1.25 trillion, with Musk’s majority ownership potentially worth more than $600 billion alone.

Combined with his existing holdings in companies including Tesla, the IPO could push Musk’s personal wealth above the $1 trillion mark.

The long-awaited filing also offered investors a rare look into SpaceX’s finances.

The company reported $18.6 billion in revenue last year but recorded a net loss of $4.9 billion. In the first quarter of this year, SpaceX generated $4.7 billion in sales while posting a $4.3 billion net loss.

Financial disclosures showed the company holds $102 billion in assets, including rockets, launch infrastructure and satellite systems, while carrying debts totalling $60.5 billion.

Despite the losses, analysts suggested investors were unlikely to be deterred given SpaceX’s dominance in commercial space launches and satellite internet services.

Ruth Foxe-Blader, managing partner at Citrine Venture Partners, described the planned flotation as “extremely exciting.”

“SpaceX is just an absolutely sprawling, enormous project with so many different selling points, and so many points that really point to the future,” she said.

SpaceX operates the Starlink satellite internet network and also owns Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI.

The IPO filing revealed that xAI recently reached a major commercial agreement with rival AI company Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot.

Under the arrangement, Anthropic will reportedly pay $15 billion annually to access data centre infrastructure linked to xAI operations in the American South.

The filing also disclosed that SpaceX expects to incur more than half a billion dollars in legal costs from multiple ongoing lawsuits and regulatory disputes.

Among the cases listed were claims alleging that xAI’s chatbot Grok had been used to create sexualised deepfakes of women and girls, alongside patent infringement disputes, music copyright claims, data breach allegations and investigations into compliance with European Union content moderation rules.

Musk has previously said he plans to dissolve xAI as a standalone company and pursue his AI ambitions directly under SpaceX.

The filing came shortly after Musk lost a high-profile legal battle against OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman.

Musk had accused OpenAI of abandoning its non-profit mission after shifting towards a commercial model, but a jury dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that he had waited too long to bring the claims.


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Moniepoint Boosts UK Payments Security

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African financial services platform Moniepoint has partnered with open banking software-as-a-service provider tell.money to deploy a transaction security system in the UK market.

The companies said the partnership will allow Moniepoint to implement Confirmation of Payee, an account name-checking service designed to verify recipient details before payments are processed.

The integration will be rolled out through Monieworld, Moniepoint’s UK remittance subsidiary, as part of the company’s broader European expansion strategy.

Tell.money will provide the underlying verification technology, which the companies said is intended to reduce misdirected payments and help protect users against cross-border fraud.

Ravi Jakhodia, CEO of Monieworld, said: “Our goal with Monieworld is to build financial services for Africans in the diaspora.”

He added that tell.money was selected because it manages compliance and accreditation requirements, allowing the fintech company to focus on customer service.

Moniepoint is entering a competitive UK-to-Africa remittance market that includes established providers such as Wise, WorldRemit and Remitly, as well as African fintech firms including Flutterwave’s Send App.

According to data from the World Bank’s KNOMAD programme, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are estimated at about $620 billion annually, with digital -first platforms capturing increasing market share through open banking integrations and automated compliance systems.

The rollout reflects a broader trend of African fintech firms expanding into developed markets by adopting local regulatory and open banking standards.

Industry analysts expect diaspora-focused platforms to evolve beyond money transfers into services such as multi-currency banking, credit and investment products.


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Meet the 39-Year-Old Genius Replacing Oloyede at JAMB

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President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed 39‑year‑old Professor Segun Aina as the new Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), succeeding Professor Is‑haq Oloyede whose two‑term tenure expires on July 31, 2026.

Meet the 39-Year-Old Genius Replacing Oloyede at JAMB

Professor Segun Aina

Aina, who will turn 40 in July, will become the youngest registrar in JAMB’s history, marking a generational shift in the leadership of Nigeria’s premier tertiary‑admissions body.

In a statement issued in Abuja by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the new registrar was described as a distinguished academic and systems expert with extensive experience in national examination systems, digital infrastructure and public‑sector institutional reform.

A professor of Computer Engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile‑Ife, Aina holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Kent, an MSc in Internet Computing and Network Security and a PhD in Digital Signal Processing, both from Loughborough University, United Kingdom. He also completed the Senior Management Programme at Lagos Business School.

His early career with JAMB began during his National Youth Service Corps scheme, where he gained foundational experience in national admissions and data‑driven institutional processes; those insights have since shaped his contributions to examination reform and systems optimisation.

At 39, Aina became one of Nigeria’s youngest professors of Computer Engineering and has advised federal and state governments on system design, digital transition and operational reform, while also consulting major examination bodies such as NECO and NABTEB on ICT systems and examination integrity.

He is a member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

President Tinubu expects Aina to leverage his experience, knowledge and practical insight to further strengthen JAMB’s operations and to build on the achievements recorded under Professor Oloyede’s leadership.


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