The President of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) has said that using ICT to elect credible leaders could motivate successful and satisfied politicians and encouraged emerging governments to adapt ICT innovations to mainstream development and governance.

Professor Adesola Aderounmu, President, Nigeria Computer Society and Co-Centre Leader, World Bank-Designated Centre of Excellence in Software Engineering, said this during a keynote lecture delivered at the 5th Covenant University Conference on e-Governance in Nigeria, on Thursday 7th June, 2018.

Aderounmu, said that it is important to highlight the existence of a genuine need for ICT systems for development in sub-Sahara Africa.

He said, “In particular, we have to distinguish elections as the best opportunity to encourage political leaders to promote innovation in the polity.

“As the 2019 elections draw closer, there is no doubt that putting in place relevant ICT infrastructure now for the application of adaptable technology in our electoral processes will go a long way to ensure transparency and credibility of the elections.

“It is a welcome development that the leveraging of technology had started, even if rudimentary, with the last 2015 elections that ushered in the present administration in Nigeria.

“For instance, the application of technology for biometric registration of voters, the issuance of smart permanent voters card (PVCs) to voters and voter verification and authentication using the smart card reader, has helped the infiltration of ICT into the electoral process.

“So also was the idea to scan and upload all voting result sheets for all the elections on a database, which was made accessible to all stakeholders for some months after the 2015 elections.

“All these formative adaptations of technology with the 2015 elections are commendable, but there is still a long way to go with our future elections”.

He further explained that for us to use ICT to transform our future electoral processes and elections,there is need to employ sensitization,Civic Education and E-Inclusion.

He said that “when it comes to conducting elections, sensitization and civic education are very key in the electoral process and are necessary for democracy.

“It is all about voter consciousness and popular participation in elections.

“The citizens who are voters need to be effectively sensitized or enlightened about their civic duties and rights during elections.

“Voter education should come before and during an electoral event, showing how, where, and when to vote.

“Citizens need to know why they must turn out to vote and how to cast their votes to make them count.

“Sensitizing and educating voters in Nigeria have always been done via the traditional mass media and direct town-hall community engagements.

“Now, with the pervasive influence of technology in society today, educating and cultivating the Nigerian voters can be done better with the leverage of digital media like the mobile phone with bulk SMS, bulk voice call or inbound interactive voice response, and the use of web-portals from pre-election polls.

“Digital technology now enriches political communications and voter engagement like never before.

” And with the majority of people having access to computers and mobile technology devices these days, INEC and other concerned agencies can transform the sensitization, civic education and e-inclusion of Nigerian voters with the use of the Internet via popular social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp and special mobile applications to channel and disseminate voter education messages.

He noted that another way to leverage ICT for Nigeria’s electoral process is through constituency delimitation, using digital maps and charts for proper voter registration.

Professor Aderounmu, stated that voter Registration and Data Capture constitute a major foundational step in the electoral process.

“Without a proper voters register, there cannot be proper elections.

“In the words of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on its website, “Voter Registration is a process through which those qualified to vote are identified and included in a list called the register of voters.

“They are then issued with voters’ cards, which entitles them to vote during elections.” INEC goes further to state that “A credible voters’ register is a prelude to free and fair elections.

“Voter registration helps to facilitate the credibility of the electoral process by preventing multiple voting as each person is only allowed to register once. With this, no one is allowed to register at multiple centres.

“It helps in preventing cases of underage voting because only adults of voting age (18 years and above) are registered.”

He admonish the controversies being experienced in Nigeria, over voter registration as some complains of ghost names appearing on the voters register, names of foreign nationals appearing and names of under-age voters appearing too on the register.

“Others complain of missing names on election days after they have registered.

“All these issues tend to mar the electoral process, but the use of ICT infrastructure can make a positive difference.

“Thus one would recommend the use of a Centralized Countrywide Database for voter registration, drawing on the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) data inventory.

“Updates to the centralized database can be done through Web Portal E-mails with smart fields, mobile apps, and automatic fingerprint and photo identification systems.

“In a way, online voter registration via the Internet is simpler and more secure than paper registration and manual updates,” he added.

Aderounmu, said that, Nigeria would catch up with the rest of the world’s advanced democracies with adoption of ICT tools in securing electoral process integrity and deepening a truly democratic culture, the government must demonstrate enough Political will.

In his words, this implies that there must be implementation of bold policy moves on the part of the stakeholders involved to commit to actualizing an ICT-driven electoral system for the nation.

“It is not enough to make promises; there must be affirmative action”.

He added, that investing in capital and IT infrastructure for an ICT-enabled electoral process is very important.

He said, Sufficient investment (capital wise) and infrastructure will set the country on the right course.

“If a chunk of the trillions of Naira loot being recovered by the government is invested in IT infrastructure for our elections, it will go a long way to help.

“Robust ICT systems for a national electoral system do not come cheap, but they will pay dividends for our democracy in the long term.

The NCS President, also proffered solutions we can leverage on to solve the challenge of poor ICT application in our electoral process.

He stated that if could invest in the use of intuitive and easy to use machines, we will getting close to solving the challenges.

“The government, especially INEC, must invest in intuitive and easy to use database and software technologies that are as simple as using mobile phones.

“This will remove the factor of complexity in the deployment of ICT tools in our electoral system”.

Aderounmu, emphasized the fact that in spite of the many challenges of deploying technology in our electoral processes and elections in Nigeria, its benefits remain enormous.

He said that, we must catch up with the rest of the world in adopting ICT tools to streamline our electoral process, advance our democracy and institutionalize an enabling e-governance culture.

He noted that, the incorporation of ICT in our electoral system will greatly help improve election management in the country.

“We must go further to deepen the ICT usage by upgrading, especially, our applications of Electronic Voters Register, Automatic Fingerprints Identification System and Smart Card Reader in 2019 General Elections in order to minimize the unwholesome practices of multiple registration and multiple voting.

“This is how we can guarantee electoral integrity and strengthen our democracy.

He however recommended the following six step if we want to get our electoral system right and strengthen our democracy.

1. The Federal Government should urgently push for broadband access all over the country through PPP models

2. The Government must develop a robust sustainability model

3. Must roll out and implement effective local content policy

4. Must invest in high quality IT Manpower development

5. Must see to the Establishment of IT parks and Digital Centres in all the 774 LGAs through PPP models

6. And lastly, the Government should embrace a unified database for Nigeria