Mudiaga Affe

The recent passage of the amended version of the Electoral Act which scaled through the National Assembly has elicited a lot of reactions across the board. From elected representatives to politicians and analysts, the diverse views expressed have continued to provoke further debates even though the bill is still awaiting the President’s assent.

Ordinarily, the passage of the Electoral Act would have been applauded, but for the removal of a critical aspect that has to do with the electronic transmission of election results.

The situation was further worsened by the stance of members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) who are the majority in both chambers of the National Assembly. Their position on the issue, many argue, may have sent negative signals to the populace.

The approach used in stepping down the electronic transmission aspect in the Electoral Act was also alleged to have gained momentum following the nay support by Senator Oluremi Tinubu, after which many lawmakers toed her part. The senator, who represents Lagos Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, is the wife of the National Leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu.

Opposition members of PDP in the Red Chamber voted in favour of the inclusion of the electronic transmission of election results in the amendment, while their colleagues in the Green chamber simply staged a walkout, having seen where the pendulum was swinging towards.

Apart from the political dimension that trailed the amendment, the worrisome situation, according to analysts, was that the National Assembly was said to have invited the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC). But while INEC did not show up, the appearance by an NCC official did not sway the majority of lawmakers from taking the stance that was believed to have been pre-planned.

In 2018, a committee set up by INEC in collaboration with telecoms operators seemed to have agreed that election results could be transmitted electronically from polling units as the votes were declared. The committee was headed by Ubale Ahmed Maska, who is the NCC Executive Commissioner (Technical Services).

The committee, it was learnt, recommended, among others, that data communication service for mobile network operators (MNOs) was a practicable solution that would provide a wide range of services for INEC’s coverage units.

The committee, it was further learnt, noted that the data communication services guaranteed more secure end-to-end connectivity as well as election result confidentiality.

The MNOs, during the committee report, confirmed that they had delivered similar services to Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in the recent past, but curiously, at the floor of the House of Representatives when he was called to defend the position of NCC, it was the same Maska that contradicted himself, informing the lawmakers that election analysis conducted in 2019 showed that about 50 per cent of the polling units had 3G network and 2G network services, while 49 per cent had 2G network and below.

His position had shown that the agency seemed to be approbating and reprobating, at a time when service providers already have 4G.

Putting certain technicalities in perspective, the Chairman of the Association of Licenced Telecom Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, in a recent television interview, said it was possible to deliver secure text messages on 2G networks.

He, however, added, “The basic phone is the 1G which is strictly voiced only. The 2G delivers voice and text messages, while the 3G delivers voice, text, and videos. Sending encrypted messages is better done on 3G than 2G. In the circumstance of what is being discussed, if they are looking to send reliable data with high speed, it is best done on 3G and that is important.

“Electronically, it is possible to transmit messages through 2G. If in 2018 a survey was conducted and technology was not in contention or the type or mode of data to be sent was not considered, Maska could be right, but if now that technology is considered, then you begin to talk about the certain grade of services or the other.

“Simple text messages can be done on 2G, but if you require encrypted information with high reliability, a 3G will be better. In terms of availability across the country, we would say we have our presence in nearly all the polling units in the country, but if you require certain encrypted information to be transmitted, then we should be concerned about technology and I think that is what has come to play here.”

Although the electoral body did not show up at the National Assembly to defend its position, following days of acrimonious debate over the decision of the National Assembly on the amendment to the Electoral Act, INEC almost immediately came out to say it has the capacity for electronic transmission of results from remote areas of the country.

“We have uploaded results from very remote areas, even from areas where you have to use human carriers to access,” INEC’s National Chairman and Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye, said.

“So, we have made our position very clear, that we have the capacity and we have the will to deepen the use of technology in the electoral process,” but INEC will be guided by the power granted it by the constitution and the law, he added.

But there appears to be more to what Adebayo, Maska, and Okoye had explained given the political dimension the development took just before the passage of the bill.

According to a former senator and APC chieftain, Ayo Arise, if Senator Tinubu had openly supported the removal of the electronic transmission of results in the amended bill, it meant it was possibly a party decision.

“If Senator Tinubu voted the way she voted, it could be her conviction that that is what she wants. But most people would want to link it to the fact that her husband has a tremendous influence on the party. So, I would not put any blame on those who voted in that way, but we need to start thinking about what is good for our country,” he stressed.

Recall that during the critical moment when the vote was to be taken for or against the amendment in the bill, some lawmakers quietly left the Upper Legislative Chamber for reasons not clear, but according to Arise, it was also for political reasons.

“It possible that those who absconded at that decisive moment were troubled as to which way to go. There had indeed been some directive which is the way the party wants to go, but it is safer for them not to vote than to vote against their conscience. I am not making any excuse for them because everybody there is an accomplished person and we should be able to stand up for the people,” he said.

The senator, who was the Chairman of, senate committee on privatization of the sixth senate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said what transpired in the National Assembly was capable of ruining the nation’s democracy.

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He said, “If we continue in this manner, the ordinary people in the streets, will have no say in the affairs of this nation and that is a recipe for crisis. Everybody must have equal opportunity. If it is a school teacher who knows his work and the people want such person to represent them, what are the chances of him winning when you do not know the immediate outcome of the election results? It does make any sense.

“This is a temporary victory for a group of people and I will not support such. These people have a date with history and they need to do what is right and this is the right time for electronic voting and transmission of results. It is something that nearly everybody knows what to do by simple SMS.

“There must be a revisit and the amendment process