₦airaland Forum

This method has the ability to eradicate over voting since ballot papers are generated at polling units.

Pointing out the shortfalls of a system is a good thing but we can go a step further to make recommendations. Below are my recommendations to help improve our electoral system.
First, I think political parties should have a strong base at the local government level before qualifying for state level elections and a strong state level base before qualifying for federal level elections. Meaning, for a political party to qualify to participate in a state government and state house of assembly election, it must have won at least one local government chairmanship election or a local government councilor election; also for a political party to qualify to participate in a presidential and national assembly election, it must have won at least one state government election or a state house of assembly election. Where political parties merge, they can leverage on each other’s success if there are current serving members, otherwise they have to start from the bottom of the ladder if they don’t have any current serving members or if serving members chose to move to another party during merger; and also where there is a split and there are serving elected members in each party, they can leverage on them or start from the bottom of the ladder where there is none.

Second, I would suggest an election procedure that utilizes a tablet with an electoral app, a camera, a barcode scanning and a thumb print recognition ability; the tablet should be able to access printer, a token to generate a set of numbers, printer that can be accessed by the tablet, and lastly and A4 scanner that transmit scanned data. How does the system work? Tokens are released sealed to the accreditation officer and can only be opened at the polling unit in the presence of election observers. It begins with accreditation. The electoral app is opened on the tablet in the form of an A4 sheet and has the ability to scan barcode on the permanent voter’s card. The polling station code and accreditation officer codes are input into the A4 sheet. Scanning is done followed by thumb scanning, the voters card of the voter appears on the A4 sheet. Then the app accesses the camera and takes a picture of the voter which appears on the A4 sheet. After this, a set of codes from the token is generated and typed on the A4 sheet. The app will have the ability to submit which stores the accredited data and sends same to INEC server. The stored data is awarded a serial number and bears the current date and time on the A4 sheet that bears all aspirants pictures and party logos. And then the A4 sheet or ballot paper is printed with pictures of aspirants and party logos, as well as all data collected during accreditation and submission which include voter’s card, picture, code from token, polling unit and accrediting officer codes, as well as serial number, time and date during submission. It means, ballot papers are generated at polling booth with proper sectioning to minimize or eradicate rejected votes due to overlap of thumb print. This is then taken to the scanner and on that scanner, the thumb printing and voting is made. The scanner transmits the votes to INEC as electronic record. The ballot paper is folded and put inside a ballot box for counting at the end of the process. This process can be modified. It is cheaper and helps to bring sanity to the electoral system and improve trust.

This might not make front page, if you have the power to influence decision and think this is worth adopting, kindly push to implement and save lives.

It is no doubt there is black soot in Port Harcourt and residents stand health risk, but what could be responsible for this?

There could be a couple of reasons:

1. Generator fumes
Up to 95% of the city’s homes, offices, factories, businesses, companies, etc depend on generator set for more than 70% of their electricity supply. The city well known as the garden city could also be described as the generator city. Fumes from these generators are a major contributor.

2. Abattoirs and Bush Burning
These activities are also a major contributor to high level of soot.

3. Oil and Gas activities
Ranging from gas flaring, illegal refining, burning down of illegal refining sites, etc. These activities are unchecked and often contribute to soot.

4. Discharge
There is pollution associated with manufacturing and production and they often go unchecked.

If I was the president I would do four things:

1. I will make it a law for government contracts to be given directly to companies that will execute them, and will spell out conditions for contractors to qualify for government projects which should include compulsory registration in Nigeria, must have a certain employee strength as Nigerians, must have been executing similar projects for at least 15 years for federal government projects and 10 years for state government projects with visible track record and excellence.

2. Starting from myself, I will make a law that makes it mandatory for anyone under government payroll to have their wards patronize government institutions or they resign. This must include all civil servants, ministers, senators, governors, teachers, police, workers of state cooperation and establishment, all government workers and anyone who is paid by the government and works for the government. Their children must go to public schools and they and their children and wife must patronize public hospitals. This is the only way attention can be drawn to public institutions.

3. I will give monthly stipend to any woman who is willing to do virginity test less than a week before her marriage. Premarital sex is the major cause of cultism and youth related violence in our society. To bring back sanity to our society, I will encourage youth to abstain from pre marital sex by paying a monthly stipend to a woman who can prove she has done so as long as she remains married to one man who is not and will not marry another woman. Stipend will be stopped if husband passes away or she leaves her husband or the husband marries another woman.

4. Lastly, I will ban all religious activities in the public institutions. While religious bodies are allowed to own schools, hospitals, etc; building of worship centers in schools, government establishment and public establishment will be forbidden, including government houses.

This shouldn’t be a question. It is the right thing to do to keep Nigerians employed, but why should a firm in Nigeria prefer foreigners? Some reasons are highlighted below.

1. Trust: Most foreign firms and businesses prefer to hire experts where they originate. This is natural, even Nigerian firms abroad would like to do the same.
2. Political interference: Most application processes in Nigeria are politicized. Politicians and other influential Nigerians high jack recruitment processes and impose candidates on firms leaving out qualified candidates that would have contributed to the growth of their businesses.
3. Protest against unequal treatment: Most Nigerians usually protest against unequal treatment between them and their foreign counterparts.


Some solutions include:

1. Making sure there is equal compensation for people doing the same job. Nigerians should get more compensation should there be inequality since it is their country. Foreigners are more expensive as flight tickets, hotels, insurance, security adds more to the cost of maintaining them but still some firms prefer foreign workers. This will help to attract the best of Nigerians who have gone out to search for better offers due to inequality they suffer in their own country when they work with foreigners. Where foreign workers must be employed, they must have residence permit for the period of their employment and all salaries and allowances must be paid in Naira into their Nigerian bank account. This will help to strengthen Nigerian banks.
2. Eliminating political interference but ensuring fairness in recruitment processes.
3. Coming up with a labour law that protects and puts Nigerians first.
4. Abolishing visas for certain professions where Nigerians are capable.
5. Punishing anyone or any firm that breaks the law.


Although we might be starting late, other steps to help us scale through these tough times include:

1. Reducing waste. There is a lot of wastage in our system e.g I live in the far east with a port behind my house but I have to bring in materials I need for my business through already congested ports in the far west and transport them by road adding to cost and risk. We have a lot of prisoners, those serving light sentences could be made to do community service or work in a waste segregation plants.
2. Improving security. We could greatly reduce the number of security men on the road if we construct roads in such a way that the closest any grass or plant above one foot tall could get close to the road is 50meters with a small see through fence separating very dense forests. Also, our security outfits need purging. It is now very common to see fake police and military men. I would suggest operation clean or whatever it can be called that will ensure the police and military get themselves rid of fake personnel and greedy officers as I don’t see any meaningful progress with what we have today. Also security personnel need to be better prepared mentally and physically to fight crime. We can also limit the number of registered sims cards per citizen to two and one per network unless such person obtain police permit to acquire more sim cards after stating reasons to do so.
3. Reducing deaths. There is already no benefit system and parents have to die leaving young ones without protection. We must reduce death rate to reduce poverty. For example, I don’t see how an electoral process can produce a winner when people were killed or maimed in the process. The logical thing to do is to cancel the entire results of the election and conduct a fresh election until political parties learn to conduct themselves during elections. Announcing a winner when the process has claimed lives without starting afresh is encouraging more deaths. We can start to improve health care now but am very sure there is no money so let’s put that aside.

I really hope we come out of this a stronger nation. God bless.