Steemit Engagement Challenge S8-W3 | Elections in my country.

Hello friends and dear Steem Cameroon, I bring you greetings from here today. This is the third day of the week and my third entry in the ongoing engagement challenge. I think I should be to respond to the topic in question given the just concluded electioneering process in the country. Let's get started with the topic, friends.

What do you think about Elections in your country

My dear country Nigeria happens to be the largest country in the African continent with a population of over 200 million people. The country practices a democratic system of governance which entails that its electioneering processes are conducted to change governance after a given period. This is an opportunity given to the citizens of this great country to elect their preferred candidates at the different levels as required by the law.

It is a good intention for such a process in conducted every four years so as to either retain good leaders for another term of four years or re-elect other competent individuals to take over this seat as the case may be. Since the era of the third republic, which started in the year 1999, the country has conducted 7 series of elections with each having its uniqueness.

Elections in my country have kept evolving, as we continue to witness different challenges as our democracy is being referred to as nascent democracy. Challenges from the conduct and processes have been a clog in the wheel as there is distortion, irregularities tailored to rigging, pre, and post-election violence, and loss of lives as the case may be. But all these have continued to ease off as the mode of conduct improves.

What do you think about the electoral system in your country

I have earlier mentioned how elections are managed in my county and how it has continued to evolve over time. The 25th of February 2023 marked the 7th electioneering process that has happened since the advent of the third republic which has not been truncated as witnessed in the first and second republics where military juntas hijacked power. Despite the fact that there have been improvements in the electioneering process over time, there is still enough to be done.

This is 24 years of uninterrupted democracy in my dear country and this removes the name of nascent democracy as we have continued to build on every success garnered over time. Before it was an all-manual way of conducting elections from start to finish, and then it got to the use of card readers which helped reduced the massive rigging activities that happened in that all-manual system. At a time, the card reader was bypassed due to the use of incidence forms that allowed for manual accreditation in case of failures to verify intending voters.

The present era came with the Bimodal Verification and Accreditation System (BVAS) that eradicates all forms of manual activities associated with accreditation. Voters who are unable to be verified by fingerprint scanning also have the option of facial verification. Either of the two is expected to verify voters or they are not allowed to vote. This brought sanity in this regard but was also compromised in the place of the IReV portal. A server-based site that displays uploaded results done from polling units. Results were delayed at real-time synchronization, results were manually changed and collated before authentic results were uploaded. At this time, there are conflicts between what was displayed in the IReV portal and what was announced.

We really need to introduce a system that empowers electronic processes from start to finish. The issue of manual accreditation and collation should be disregarded with electronic transmission upheld for a more efficient and effective electioneering process. The nation needs a hitch-free process that is saddled with less bickering and capital intensive. We cannot continue to spend hugely every four years with the economy shut down just because of a process that shul be done in a seamless manner.

How is it done in your country

Firstly, Nigeria's voting age starts from the age of 18 to be eligible to participate in any of the conducted general elections. Before any participation in an election, the individual should have enrolled in the compulsory biometrics for an ID card called PVC (Permanent Voters Card).

This is the flagship to participating in any General election. The body charged by the constitution of conducting elections is the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC). They are solely in charge of conducting presidential and national elections as well as Gubernatorial and state assembly elections.

This independent body is seen to fix a date at least a year before the first election date. The presidential and national assembly elections come first before the gubernatorial and state assembly elections. After the first date of the election, the commission gives at least two weeks space to conduct the second election. This is to allow the commission put back all necessary logistics in place for efficiency.

The commission uses ad-hoc staff for this process especially the corp members who are on compulsory national service in their different states. They are trained prior to the election period and deployed for this purpose. They manage the Presiding Officer role and Assistant Presiding officer 1 & 2 who takes care of all voting activities from the polling unit.

Results are collated and uploaded and submitted to the Local Government collection officer which later transfers them to the state collation officer for announcement and onward carriage to the national collation center (Presidential elections). Also in the polling unit, we have the SPO - Supervisory Presiding officer who monitors and resolves issues in the polling unit of coverage.

Is it transparent and fair in your country

We have been unfortunate in this process. Every electioneering period that comes brings its own waves of irregularities. This trend has kept mutating from stage to stage. Initially, we had ballot box scratching on the increase, where manual accreditation was in place. It got to a point where winners are declared when polls are still ongoing. It was really crazy then.

When it got to the use of card readers, accreditation was done through these gadgets and it stopped the incessant ballot box scratching. However, the use of incidence forms for failed accreditation capture was used. This was terribly abused. When this card was further improved, there was the introduction of vote buying. Voters are induced at polling units to vote for their candidate.

Lastly, which was just after the concluded presidential election, the introduction of the BVAS (Bimodal Verification Accreditation System) was in place. Just like others, we assumed this was the solution to most rigging and rascality, it was also subverted. At the point of uploading the results from the polling unit, it was delayed and not real-time. Results were collected manually and announced leaving the original results that were uploaded but not in real-time. It was a systematic fraud this time. We hope this glitch could be corrected in the state elections.

Assume there's no fairness and effectiveness as far as elections are concerned, what solutions can you propose to ensure it's being carried out the right way

It has not been fair all this while and there is no gainsaying that we should continue trying in the same way or pattern. The little that has been introduced which is currently the BVAS was quite disheartening. The BVAS was comprised at the point of capturing and uploading information to the server. The server which is the IReV portal was glitched and there was a disconnect to uploading in real time. Announcements of results were made only on manually collected results with the uploaded results.

At this type, I believe the full introduction of electronic voting should be implemented. Both accreditation and voting should be done electronically that does not allow human effort before they are counted. I have to understand that human activities are the main and major concern in this process.

Conclusion

My country Nigeria has got to the stage where the electioneering process shouldn't be a do-or-die affair. It should be a process that should guarantee a better future for everyone with the right leaders elected at different levels. We should be implementing a full-scale electronic voting system to streamline most of the concerns we have.

Thank you,