₦airaland Forum

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said that if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) automate the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and its Results Viewing Portal (IREV), there will be more trust in the electoral process.

Jonathan said this on Tuesday in Abuja at the YIAGA Africa reflection conference on democratic elections in West Africa. He said that the controversy that was generated by the malfunctioning of the IREV during the 2023 presidential election would have been prevented if the technologies used were properly automated to reduce human factors.

“The issue of controversy about BVAS and IREV for example, if BVAS captures data, that data should be automatically uploaded to the IREV.

“It should not depend on an interface by a human factor who will not come and tell us about glitches. Because if it is so automated that no human factor will stop it then of course it will be seamless.

“But if I am to direct the BVAS before the BVAS is supposed to do the work that has been automated then I can do what I think sooths my interest,” Jonathan said.

He said though deployment of technologies alone has not solved most of the issues in Nigeria’s electoral process, technology can’t be jettisoned but improvement is needed.

The BVAS and IREV are new technologies introduced by the electoral body for the accreditation and electronic transmission of votes for polls.

INEC promised to deploy the IREV during the 2023 elections which will enable it transmit results of the elections in real time. However, the electoral body failed on this promise during the presidential election citing glitches.

"Too Many Ghost Voters in Nigeria."
The former Nigerian leader also decried the issue of low voter turn out during elections in Nigeria, linking it to registering of ghost voters.

“There are some areas of concern I also have especially in Nigeria. At the end of elections, you hardly get up to 40 per cent of Nigerians voting. Do you believe that is correct? My belief is that we have too many ghost voters,” he said.

“So, whenever the situation is strong, when both parties are strong, and you cannot manipulate the system, then only the real human beings will get the vote. And the real human beings will be left at 50 percent.”

In the recent elections in South Africa, the people of that country saw, in real-time, as the votes were coming in and everybody could tell who was leading.

There is no reason a similar thing cannot happen in Nigeria. Being the giant of Africa should not be in words alone; we can be the giant in practice too.

In the 2023 presidential election, I observed how a new demography of voters emerged in Nigeria and how their hopes were squashed. Young Nigerian people, who were the worst hit by bad governance, took their future into their own hands and were determined to vote in a new lease of political machination into our country.

These people’s hopes were dashed by INEC. One observed how on the Saturday of the presidential elections these young people came out in their numbers to vote, and when they observed the shenanigans of INEC, they completely lost hope in a Nigeria that could work.

The whole japa phenomenon was exacerbated by this reality. Many of them went on TikTok and tore their voters’ cards on live video. When the gubernatorial elections came, they simply did not come out to vote.

INEC had earlier indicated that a large percentage of new voters have come out to exercise their franchise. These young people came out because they believed INEC would do the right thing but they were thoroughly disappointed.

Racoon:
https://www.channelstv.com/2025/02/26/if-bvas-irev-are-automated-we-wont-hear-about-glitches-jonathan/?s=09

MadPolitician:
Jonathan should go and sit down somewhere. All these his later days preaching irritates..
He is solely responsible for handing the whole country over to these platoon of vampires. He had all the powers to save us this catastrophe, but when the call of duty came, dude started fidgeting because Obama and Cameron were on his neck. That was how all the gains made since 1999 were wiped out.

He had all the security briefings he needed to know that Tinubu and Buhari were just forming a janja-weed party for the sake of turning the country upside down. He knew that Buhari had a dodgy certificate situation, so he could easily manipulate that to save a country. He was in power when Boko Haram chose Buhari of all people as their Chief negotiator. He was the one that took Tinubu to court for corruption, so he was well aware of his sleazy habits..But what did he do after all that?

He started worrying about his life and all that. According to him " my ambition is not big enough to cost peoples lives", so he handed us all to APC, the "savers of lives"! You tell me; How many people have died now under buhari and Tinubus APC? From Southern Kaduna, through Benue to Eastern Nigeria? How many people have died of hunger as the inept APC mismanages Nigeria to no end?

So are thousands of lives not being lost every year under APC because one Goodluck Jonathan abdicated his responsibilities and handed the country over to a clan of executive thieves and incompetent buffoons?

MadPolitician:
Jonathan should go and sit down somewhere. All these his later days preaching irritates..
He is solely responsible for handing the whole country over to these platoon of vampires. He had all the powers to save us this catastrophe, but when the call of duty came, dude started fidgeting because Obama and Cameron were on his neck. That was how all the gains made since 1999 were wiped out.

He had all the security briefings he needed to know that Tinubu and Buhari were just forming a janja-weed party for the sake of turning the country upside down. He knew that Buhari had a dodgy certificate situation, so he could easily manipulate that to save a country. He was in power when Boko Haram chose Buhari of all people as their Chief negotiator. He was the one that took Tinubu to court for corruption, so he was well aware of his sleazy habits..But what did he do after all that?

He started worrying about his life and all that. According to him " my ambition is not big enough to cost peoples lives", so he handed us all to APC, the "savers of lives"! You tell me; How many people have died now under buhari and Tinubus APC? From Southern Kaduna, through Benue to Eastern Nigeria? How many people have died of hunger as the inept APC mismanages Nigeria to no end?

So are thousands of lives not being lost every year under APC because one Goodluck Jonathan abdicated his responsibilities and handed the country over to a clan of executive thieves and incompetent buffoons?

SerpentAWOLOWO:
Yoruba no go gree

Tueh

MadPolitician:
Jonathan should go and sit down somewhere. All these his later days preaching irritates..
He is solely responsible for handing the whole country over to these platoon of vampires. He had all the powers to save us this catastrophe, but when the call of duty came, dude started fidgeting because Obama and Cameron were on his neck. That was how all the gains made since 1999 were wiped out.

He had all the security briefings he needed to know that Tinubu and Buhari were just forming a janja-weed party for the sake of turning the country upside down. He knew that Buhari had a dodgy certificate situation, so he could easily manipulate that to save a country. He was in power when Boko Haram chose Buhari of all people as their Chief negotiator. He was the one that took Tinubu to court for corruption, so he was well aware of his sleazy habits..But what did he do after all that?

He started worrying about his life and all that. According to him " my ambition is not big enough to cost peoples lives", so he handed us all to APC, the "savers of lives"! You tell me; How many people have died now under buhari and Tinubus APC? From Southern Kaduna, through Benue to Eastern Nigeria? How many people have died of hunger as the inept APC mismanages Nigeria to no end?

So are thousands of lives not being lost every year under APC because one Goodluck Jonathan abdicated his responsibilities and handed the country over to a clan of executive thieves and incompetent buffoons?