Human factors in Nigeria’s electoral system are making mockery of the process, and can best be contained through the application of information and technologies, says the Nigeria Computer Society.
The Society believes that manipulators of previous elections in the country could succeed largely for lack of adequate database of voters; hence it is crucial that, national identification number registration is given much attention as critical step to salvage the situation.
It could be recalled that twenty-five staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) indicted in the report of the joint Police/DSS Special Investigation panel on the December 10 Rivers State rerun parliamentary elections are to face criminal prosecution.
Twenty-eight others who were indicted in a Report set up by an Administrative Inquiry set up by INEC into the same election are to face internal disciplinary action for gross misconduct, dereliction of duty and negligence.
National Commissioner, Solomon Soyebi, who briefed journalists after a meeting by INEC management recently said the Commission has received the Report of the Joint Police/DSS Panel.
“From the Report, we gathered that the Police have concluded their investigations and 25 INEC staff who were indicted will be prosecuted. The Commission has resolved to fully co-operate with the Police in this process”, Soyebi said.
To this end, Mr. Iyiola Ayoola, executive secretary of NCS in an interview with Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, said that aside the data to be generated through national identity numbering useful for planning, without that, there is no way credible, free and fair elections or e-voting can be actualized.
The National Identification Number (NIN) is a set of numbers assigned to an individual upon successful enrolment into the national database operated by the National Identity Management Commission.
Enrolment consists of the recording of an individual’s demographic data and capture of the ten (10) fingerprints, head-to-shoulder facial picture and digital signature, which are all used to cross-check existing data in the National Identity Database to confirm that there is no previous entry of the same data.
Speaking to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, Ayoola said, “Personally, I have been meditating on the technological solutions to multifaceted challenges Nigeria face today. We are a peculiar people living in this country. To be honest with you, IT cannot survive without human beings. The humans factor in Nigeria is making IT not to work. Thank God IT is taking a new dimension where we are talking about artificial intelligence, internet of things (IoT), Smart cities, machine learning, Big data, etc., these will drastically reduce human interference and ‘corrupting’ of IT efficiency. We are all political in our approach to issues.
“When you introduce politics you would want it to dance to the political inclinations, therefore, manipulations bring marginalization. If that structure is ‘pulled down’ with the help of artificial intelligence, then the human inclinations can be tuned down. But, the ‘cruel’ ways we do things, it will be difficult to implement e-voting in all honesty, at the moment. The step starts with putting structures in place to minimize the interference of humans in our elections”.
Re-echoing the need for the implementation of e-Voting, he said, “It is crucial that we first identify ourselves whether for elections or for security purposes. The data to be generated through national identity numbering must be used in planning. Without that, there is no way you can have a good election or e-voting; it is not going to be possible! The database must be up to 90% ready before INEC can think of e-voting.
“Today, we hear INEC saying anybody above 18 years can vote, then, people are fortifying their ages either for over/under declaration. And such practice can never eliminate dual voting. If you have 2000 voters in INEC database making up a ward, somebody can just declare any age, whereas if the person had been registered under NIMC project, the system will automatically knock him out.
“That is when the credibility of INEC can be established as far as conducing elections is concerned.
Ayoola said that any data/information that cannot be verified is dunk data and should be discarded.