PREAMBLE: The just concluded Nigeria 2023 elections was marred with election violence, ballot snatching in broad daylight, voter intimidation and rigging by some polling unit agents and Independent National Electoral Commission INEC officials, in some of the polling units across the Federation.

SOME STATS: Let me start off with some statistics. Over 300 billion naira was spent on this election. This is approximately equal to over 651 million dollars, over 530 million pounds. Approximately 90 million Nigerians were eligible to vote but only approximately 25 million Nigerians voted. INEC financially catered for over 1.5 million polling agents from the 18 political parties that took part in the election. INEC financially catered for its officials who worked in over 176 thousand polling units spread across the Federation. Bear in mind that there were 4 INEC officials per polling unit, I believe.

THE EUREKA MOMENT: The above statistics are staggering because of the large numbers of individuals involved in the election process and the billions of naira spent on an election which is now facing multiple challenges in the courts and tribunals. The staggering sum of over 300 billion naira spent on the election is what got me thinking about this bespoke idea of how a free and fair election can be conducted in Nigeria. An idea that will make voter apathy a thing of the past such that election turn out of registered voters could hit the 90s in percentage terms, I believe. An idea that will immediately nip voter intimidation, ballot box snatching and rigging of elections in the bud.

THE IDEA (FINANCIAL INCENTIVE): With the astronomical number of Nigerians involved in conducting the elections i.e. polling unit agents and INEC officials, it is clear that any new idea must look to drastically cutting down these numbers, which is more prone to collusion, corruption, fraud, vote buying etc. Also, any new idea must use the over 300 billion naira in a better way in order to deliver free and fair elections to the masses. 300 billion naira can be delivered to the masses, literarily. Imagine if 100 million Nigerians were eligible to vote. If 300 billion naira is shared equally amongst them, each will receive 3000 naira. Basically, I am proposing that the Nigerian masses are given 3000 naira each, or more, paid to them in cash, immediately after they cast their votes. Please, keep reading and don't stop now, thinking it's a crazy idea. Bear with me. This part of the idea immediately deals with voter apathy because registered voters will have an incentive to come out and vote. Note that the masses are mainly the poor in Nigeria and so I don't expect any middle class Nigerian to say that 3000 naira is not enough an incentive simply because it is nothing to them. Also, it is not compulsory to take the cash after an individual casts his or her vote.

THE IDEA (DEDICATED POLLING UNITS): There are 36 States in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory FCT Abuja, where voting takes place. Instead of having thousands of polling units scattered all over the Federation, over 176 000 as mentioned before, these can be drastically cut down to a few hundred, if not even less than 200 dedicated polling units across the Federation. Of course, depending on the geographic size of each State, this will determine the number of dedicated polling units each will have. Lagos State, the smallest in geographical size, albeit the most populated, can have maybe 2 or 3 dedicated polling units. These dedicated polling units will be well equipped, e.g. state of the art CCTV monitoring of the goings on within and outside the building. They will also be well secured with armed police and/or soldiers. The INEC chairman promised that all polling units will be secure but obviously this didn't happen, only because of the sheer size of the number of polling units, running into thousands, which far outnumbered the number of security personnel the security agencies could provide.

THE IDEA (VOTING PROCESS): India, the largest democracy in the World, takes weeks for its voting process to start and conclude. Nigeria, the largest democracy in Africa, can follow a similar process, albeit allowing voting to take place over a few days, maybe 3 days to a week. Also, the dedicated polling units can be manned 24 hours a day i.e. voters can vote anytime they wish during the days/nights when voting is open. If it is convenient for some to vote in the early hours of the morning, say 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., for instance, it's their call. The whole purpose of these 2 suggestions here is to ease congestion in the dedicated polling units by cutting down on long queues. INEC will provide hundreds of buses that can take voters free of charge to dedicated polling units, thus curbing voter apathy.

APPEAL: Please make this idea go viral by posting in all your social media groups. This will encourage discourse about how Nigeria and some other democracies can finally put an end to voter apathy, voter intimidation, vote buying, rigging and violence during elections.

https://chng.it/yYG6B6LJ

I like it when people come on Nairaland to share their thoughts. Those who come here to promote tribalistic content are the scum of this country.

That said, the only thing wrong with Nigeria's electoral process is that Nigerians are evil people. Nigeria is a country full of negative energy that breeds thieves, opportunists and hypocrites.

As for your approach, it will not convenient for people to travel to long distances to vote. Imagine states like Borno and Niger that are extremely big. People will have to travel long distances to vote there.

That means if you vote against a terrible thug like MC Oluomo, he can send his boys to ambush your bus and set it ablaze. Nigerians are evil people.

Again, there's nothing wrong with the system we have today. We just need to arm our security operatives with guns and cameras so they can effectively man the polling units.

That's the thing, there are not enough security personnel to man thousands of polling units. Armed security personnel can be in the buses transporting the voters. A State as large as Borno State will have maybe 10 to 15 dedicated polling units and so the buses will not have far to travel.

For LP press *588*1#