A tedious electioneering process

In the day and age of technological advancement, when kids of developed countries get drones for toys, the giant of Africa is yet to understand and comprehend the concept of upgrading its system from analogue to digital to save tax payers fund, and better the lives of the electorate who intend to perform their civic […]

In the day and age of technological advancement, when kids of developed countries get drones for toys, the giant of Africa is yet to understand and comprehend the concept of upgrading its system from analogue to digital to save tax payers fund, and better the lives of the electorate who intend to perform their civic responsibility to country.

Take for instance the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections held on Feb. 23, 2019, many Nigerians have only expressed their satisfaction or dissatisfaction on the outcome, forgetting or ignoring the cost implications mother Nigeria had to bear because of the long and tedious electioneering process in the country.

Firstly, for a Nigerian to cast his/her vote at a polling unit, such individual must travel to the local government area of registration, this is irrespective of the fact that such citizen is permanently resident in that area where the polling unit is located, or just happens to be in that location when the process of registration was ongoing due to one happenstance or the other.

What this implies is that, if peradventure, one was registered in a particular polling unit in Lagos State due to schooling, but resides in another state, on the day of election, such citizen must either have applied for his voters’ card to be transferred to his/her current place of residence, or travelled back to Lagos to exercise his/her franchise.

Likewise, the four-year period is a long time for the status of an individual to change. President Muhammadu Buhari was living in Katsina five years ago during registration, but now resides in the Aso Villa in Abuja. Similarly, President Goodluck Jonathan was residing in the Aso villa in Abuja but now resides in Otuoke, Bayelsa State. This creates a scenario where a voter is likely to be some distance away from a polling booth on the day of election. It might also happen that for love of country, a citizen might incur the cost of stocking and travelling for the election, only for it to get postponed at any moment without consideration to the unplanned financial burden it places on a voter who just wishes to perform his/her civic responsibility.

Then we get to the Election Day, the whole country is economically shutdown, borders are closed, business activities are all on pause for electorate to go out and exercise their franchise. Finally, when the electioneering process begins on the Saturday, another herculean task is placed on the voter of standing on long queues for hours to get accredited and cast that one vote. A picture of an elderly woman who went to the polls with her mat and pillow to alleviate the long hours of election voting went viral on social media on election day as it relates to majority of Nigerians at the polls. When voting closes at the polling unit, all the ballot papers would be displayed, separated according to party and collation begins.

After counting at the polling unit, a state collation centre is established where results of all polling units would be counted and collated. Once this is done, the Resident Electoral Officer then travels to the National Collation Centre in Abuja, where state compilation of results begins. Just recently, it took the Independent National Electoral Commission three (3) days to collate and declare a winner.

Which begs the question, in this time and age, coupled with the difficulty of living in Nigeria, can Nigerians further afford the luxury of the stress that comes with analogue living, when things can be seamless and easier with the help of Information Communications Technology (I.C.T)?

Do we really need to travel, stock our homes with food, or shut down the economy all in a bid to exercise our franchise? Why can’t citizens be able to vote anywhere they find themselves on the day of election? Can’t the result of every polling unit be uploaded to INEC’s database online so that counting happens automatically and transparently in record time?

It does not take rocket science to upgrade a system from analogue to digital, and therefore sad that as giant of Africa with huge amount of money budgeted for elections every four years, the hardship of the electorate (tax payers) to exercise their civic duty to country only gets tougher by the day, thereby reducing voter participation and confidence in the system.

It would be wishful thinking to ask for such technological feat to be accomplished in the forthcoming gubernatorial election. One can only ask that going forward, the electoral commission can transform our electioneering process from being a burden on the electorate to a thing of pride and passion for all involved.

Godspeed!

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