For the second time in two years, the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) recently conducted its general election through the deployment of electronic voting (e-voting) system designed and produced locally by Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited.
The first of the e-voting process took place in Ilorin, Kwara State last year, while this latest feat took place at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja during the NSE yearly general meeting/conference.
Engr. Mustapha Balarabe Shehu, NSE president, in his visible excitement said Nigerian engineers have done it again and “this is for the second time. At least those who may not believe what we did last year will be more convinced now that we have the expertise in this country to solve many of our problems, and NIGCOMSAT has made us proud”.
As prelude to the e-voting, an e-registration had taken place a day before where all eligible engineers had their data captured and saved on a data base. Biometric details included photograph, finger prints among others for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).
In all, 2048 engineers were captured during the registration and 1574 voted eventually. These figures surpassed those of previous year which recorded 1313 on the register while 1303 voted.
NIGCOMSAT platform included 30 networked computers that were connected to a central server and the internet to enable agents of contestants monitor the election online, real time. The platform was fitted with enhanced software developed by the Micro Electronic Centre (MEC) at NIGCOMSAT.
“This was a great improvement from the previous year” Dr. Agu Collins, head of MEC, explained.
Engr. Otis Anyaeji, elected deputy president, praised the process which he described as state of the art for voting and therefore prescribed it strongly for national, state and local government election; adding that this is likened to an enterprise that should be sustained; “because of its reliability and fool-proof management”.
Ibrahim Gusau, chairman, House Committee on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and a member of NSE, commended the e-registration and e-voting platform of NIGCOMSAT saying “this is definitely good for the country”.
Gusau participated fully in the e-registration and e-voting processes.
Anyaeji who is believed to be the in-coming president of NSE said “if you say you want to wait until there is a national election, it means you are saying things cannot be started until 2015 or something like that. This thing can be started now so if anybody desires free and fair election, this is the way to go”.
Engr. Charles Mbanefo, chairman of the Election Committee of NSE called on other professional bodies to key into the e-voting system because it saves everybody recurrent rancours that usually trail elections.
Engr. Selikat Adeniran, female member of NSE, described the process as fascinating, precise and technical. That is what engineering is all about”.
Team leader from NIGCOMSAT, Agu said all what NIGCOMSAT needs is encouragement from well meaning Nigerians and government “because we are sure to deliver”.