Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has called for the electronic transmission of election results in the country come 2023.
Jega made the call at weekend on the occassion of national political summit in Abuja.
“Transmission of election results has been one of the key areas in which reckless, unpatriotic, and self-serving politicians have undermined the integrity of the Nigerian electoral process,” Jega said.
- APC has not failed Nigerians, PGF replies Jega
- Why Nigeria needs restructuring – Prof. Jega
- Group faults Northern Elders Forum on 2023 Presidency
“Bringing remarkable integrity to the Nigerian electoral process, therefore, would no doubt require the jettisoning of the traditional obtuse manual transmission of results, and its replacement with using appropriate technology with electronic transmission of results.”
The former INEC Chairman also expressed worry over citizens’ lack of trust in the electoral process and the poor performances by those elected through the process.
On his part, A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, blamed failure of the electoral system on Nigerians who ‘enthrone tyranny during elections for peanuts’.
“Are we practicing democracy? No. We are practicing election-ocracy, that is my new term for it. What do I mean by election-ocracy? Every four years, Nigerians go out to the poll to carry out a ritual of electing their leaders,” he explained.
“They never actually elect them anyway because their leaders select themselves, they are state captors. They have captured the state.”
In his remarks, A political economist, Professor Pat Utomi, proposes a solution – the merger of three political parties aside from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said, “To project these desires, the comity of NCFront for Political Parties is proposing the merger of three of the leading political parties outside of the PDP and the APC to merge with a plan to absorb other parties and righteous wings of the APC and the PDP.”
