Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has warned against rushing into full adoption of electronic voting in Nigeria, citing serious gaps in infrastructure and technology.
Speaking at The Platform held in Lagos on Thursday to commemorate Nigeria’s Democracy Day, Professor Jega said that while the country must scale up the use of technology in its electoral processes, it must do so cautiously and realistically.
“We have to understand the need to make haste slowly,” Jega said. “We want to scale up the use of technology, but if we do a realistic assessment, we’ll see there are a lot of gaps in technology infrastructure, which will constrain how far we can go.”
He compared Nigeria’s situation to that of Estonia, a small European country known for advancement in electronic voting “Estonia uses the internet for voting, but it’s a very small country with far better infrastructure. In Nigeria, we’re still struggling with internet service even in major cities, not to mention rural areas that are terribly underserved,” he noted.
Jega also stressed that Nigeria’s lack of local equipment manufacturing poses a further setback. “We’re not even equipment manufacturers, and you need a certain level of relative independence. Otherwise, you become hostage to external suppliers.”
According to him, India, even with its stronger technological capacity, still does not use electronic voting, but relies on mechanical voting systems.
Source: Channels TV
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