2019 is just by the corner and there have been different aspirants and parties sprouting out like mushrooms, and the election system operates in such a style that voters have to take a long drink from patience’s cup to be able to execute their civil right.

In 2015 during the election that led to the transition of power from the then ruling party PDP to the current ruling party ACP, INEC figures showed that 31,756,490 were the number of Nigerians who registered as potential voters. However, only 28,587,564 citizens where available to vote out of which 844, 519 were rejected.

Now, all these facts and figures have their roots in the analog phase of the Nigerian voting system, where citizens can cast their votes using just thumb prints on paper.

The collation process is usually crude and can be easily tampered with in the sense that collating officers could be tired and the entire verification process can become uttered by human factors, or by hoodlums who could snatch electoral boxes from different polling booths.

However, going digital and electronic as you might call it may become the best, but not the best alternative to getting a better electoral output in 2019.

For me, there are several bottlenecks as to why the electronic system may just not be the best alternative to the current at this time and stage in its growth.

Basically, I would class them into two major reasons and from these, you could go on mention other reasons.

Infrastructural limitations in terms of logistics are the first basic reason why Nigeria is not ready for an electronic voting system of election.

I was at a polling booth during the 2015 election and electoral processing could not begin because there was no power, it was the voters at this booth that had to provide the basic amenities needed to power on the laptop needed for the verification process.

Now, the good thing is that these electronic voting devices are powered by solar energy, a cheap way for the government to shy away from the actual reality that Nigerians are totally locked in the dark and do not have access to credible electric power supply.

Electoral voting with paper and thumb is one of the most draggy processes ever, now using an electronic device to me would not make it any faster. Because when the number of devices that will be allocated to each booth, multiplied by the number of voters registered in each center is considered then the question would be crystal clear.

How many electronic devices would be given to each polling booth, would we not have more people getting frustrated after a long queue in the bid to use these machines to vote?

Would the entire process not look like a long queue at a non-paying Auto Teller Machine?

The other angle to it is the human angle. Electoral results are a canceled using the thumb-to-paper system and this has really got me wondering if the electoral body has realised that this has been the major practice since the Country began its democratic system of government in 1999.

An innovative move like the electronic device should only be introduced when there is a wider scope and scheme of public sensitization to be done by the electoral body.

Personally, I do not know how the device works, but I am sure if I get informed about the rudiment of it, I would be able to use it to decide my civil right, but to the random woman and man on the street who is fed-up with the system of governance in Nigeria, this is not an option most of them have not been able to effectively use the thumb-to-paper system even after 19 years of operation in the country, so their votes still do not count.

I strongly believe that an attempt at using it during the next election would not just be a flop, but it would be a total scam.

A scam that would rob the average uneducated Nigerian of his or her civil right to vote, because I cannot imagine a country with 14% internet penetration trying to use an electronic-voting platform to conduct an election.

The test run in Kaduna during the local government elections only validated the view of INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu that the country is not ready for the use of this platform.

Currently, the ₦300 billion budget requested for the 2019 election by the Commission, which includes just the technological card readers may not be fully available before the election.

So, financially the bases to get these devices are not even available to begin with.

As noted by Engr. John Habila Head ICT at the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission, Nigeria is not ready to walk in the shoes of Namibia, because the country cannot totally carter for the electoral needs of 74 million registered voters across the country.

Hopefully, the commission would learn the gradual switch medium employed by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, when it began its Computer Based Test, which has now become the firm standard of writing this examination nationwide.

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