Should INEC Still Be Talking Of BVAS?

All things being equal, in less than 90 days, the country will file out in the direction of the polling booth to elect a new set of leaders for federal and state offices in the 2023 general election. To ensure that this exercise is carried out hitch-free, a set of rules were clearly spelt out in the Electoral Act of 2022.

A key component of this law is the role technology is expected to play in ensuring that the electorate exercise their franchise without let or hindrance. One aspect of this technology, that is exceeding heart-warming, is the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), a new system of voting which was introduced to replace the smart card reader (SCR). Apart from authenticating the permanent voter’s card (PVC), it also authenticates fingerprints and facials of voters. To ensure credibility, BVAS will first authenticate a voter’s PVC. This innovative technology has the capacity to improve and strengthen the voter verification, authentication and accreditation process.

Anambra state governorship election was the first major off-season poll where this technology was tested. Its success, then, recommended it for use in the Ekiti and Osun elections with reasonably acceptable successes and is positioned to be deployed in the forthcoming general election. For most Nigerians, combined with electronic uploading of results, BVAS is the only guarantee of a free and fair election in the country now.

It is, then, no surprise, in the opinion of this newspaper, that election riggers and ballot box snatchers are jittery because BVAS and electronic uploading of results will render their past obnoxious practices that had been the bane of the nation’s democratic effort, useless and impracticable. Some political office holders, who had wasted the nation’s resources through bad governance and who had hoped to perpetuate themselves in office through the old discredited methods, have the temerity to argue that the nation was not ripe for this level of sophistication in election management.

For some of them, they are giving their supporters the cold comfort that the Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) may not be used in the election and even encouraging them to continue to rehearse their evil practices of ballot box snatching. For this set of politically exposed persons, we can only pity their ignorance.

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However, what is coming to this newspaper as a surprise is that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has time, in spite of its busy schedule, to join issues with these bunch of carpetbaggers by coming out to re-assert that “no PVC, no voting”. Of course, it has already been stated in the Electoral Act that the only ticket that grants any potential voter access to the polling booth is the PVC. Similarly, the law has made it clear that electronic uploading of results is practicable and possible. So why is INEC over-flogging the issue?

We are encouraged that Nigerians came out in their numbers, while the exercise was on, to register to obtain their PVCs which means that the message by INEC sank in. The electoral body is also calling on these potential voters to come forward and collect their cards.

In our opinion, the INEC team should concentrate its efforts in mobilising Nigerians in this direction by making sure that these cards are ready for collection in readiness for 2023. They must not waste their lean resources countering the negativities of politicians of doubtful relevance.

It is reassuring, in our view, that the average Nigerian, presently going through a most excruciating socio-economic pain, and who cannot wait to assuage that feeling of discomfort by electing a leader of their choice who is capable of giving them a new lease of life, are already waiting, with bated breath, for 2023 to come. The turnout of people at the registration centres, then, is proof that the day of reckoning for bad leaders is here already.

Giving the new found excitement and interest of Nigerians in the democratic process of which election is a major part, we are persuaded to appeal to INEC to remain focused and unwavering in its commitment to ensure that every vote cast in 2023 counts. To this extent, therefore, the deployment of technology is a policy that has come to stay.

It is also important that their public enlightenment campaigns are intensified and sustained. This is even as we worry that politicians are busy taking undue advantage of the people who they had impoverished by mopping up their PVCs and offering them pittance in return. In our opinion, this should be a major concern for INEC. It is often said that the capacity of Nigeria politicians for devious acts are limitless. We are also aware that the INEC management presently in place is perspicacious enough to be able to check and control such incendiary plots.

Meanwhile, and with the assurances from the election commission, Nigerians may yet be able to pull this through, elect and install officers who will govern with conscience and in the interest of the people.