Nigeria & INEC election 2023: A Software Developer’s Perspective

source: google images

INEC has to do everything possible to improve on the shortcomings of the 2019 elections and give Nigerians hope for tomorrow. For our foreign readers, INEC is an abbreviation for Independent National Electoral Commission, as the name implies, is an electoral body set up in 1998 to oversee our elections within Nigeria.

We are now in the era of technology. There are literally no excuses to give. JAMB is now fully online, bank operations within physical offices have been significantly reduced because of technology outlets like ATMs, POS, and recently USSD services ( you should know the meaning of those abbreviations abeg 😫 ), the recent compulsory NIN registration and of course the exposure in use of sophisticated mobile phones by most youths in this country. The time is ripe for INEC to move all their previous technology to the new horizons (already stating the obvious there)😑 .

INEC budget for last Election. (source: google images)

Wait…we can discuss that budget showing above us ☝️ much later. But.…

My main aim of writing this article is to advice INEC on the right steps to make Nigeria great again in the forth coming elections from a Software developer’s perspective.

INEC biometric fingerprint and Card Reader (source: google images)

THE OLD SYSTEM

I will focus on the recent “old” method of INEC used in the recently conducted 2019 election which used the SCR(Smart Card Reader) method to authenticate voters before they could vote through a paper ballot. The materials used within the election include: election paper ballots, a plastic ballot box, and multiple Card readers.

This system needed the Voter to come authenticate himself with his voter’s card against the Card reader machine and then proceed to vote using paper ballots after the card recognizes him. The results are then transmitted in any way that the official in that Ward deems fit😞.

This smart card technology improves the efficiency of the voting process no doubt, but not the entire electoral process, as elections may appear more organized, but they have little democratic content.

This process is still flawed because in the end, the Court can still disregard the information on each and every Card reader as far as the result has already been announced by INEC because the votes are still counted MANUALLY ☹️.

MY PROPOSED SOLUTION

My approach to this upcoming election in 2023 ( And I pray INEC will be interested in it 🙏) is to leave digital footprints everywhere in the electoral process, such that it reduces the chance of any corrupt electoral winner of denying any evidence that may be presented in court in case someone in INEC decides to tarnish the credibility of that ministry by aiding corruption during the voting process.

First, from a tech perspective, INEC needs to understand that the election can be OFFLINE+ONLINE ( Call me I can help INEC with this…like seriously 👌). Secondly, since the beginning of July 2021, we have been hearing that the Nigerian Senate had given a go ahead to electronic transmission of results plus citizens arguing that there is no proper network coverage across Nigeria but gave no detail on how the electoral process would be conducted. Well 🤔.…….

THE NEW ELECTORAL PROCESS ✍️

Straight to the point, the process should look like this:

Step 1: INEC has to create a web app that will serve as a National site for online results polling with a unique way of filtering results per political party (shown in %) up to the Ward as in this form -> Nigeria 👉 State of Origin 👉Senatorial District 👉 Local Government 👉 Ward. This app should be open to everyone and be real time because all votes must now come in ONLINE and be counted DIGITALLY. This app should also have a way to allow voters to login using the details of their voter card and give their honest opinion on that day about the ongoing election, show if the user’s vote counted at all within the System along with a timestamp and don’t allow any picture uploads for simplicity sake.

Step 2: INEC has to decide what kind of end user device they want to use to interface with the Voter ( choose between a generic Android OS Tablet or a Laptop computer loaded with Linux OS ). Once they decide this, they have to develop a software that they load into the device that will :

1. Load an Offline/Online Database driver with encryption capability into that device (😕 I hope its not too technical)
2. Load a native software with access to native capabilities like Bluetooth & WIFI authorization of the host Device , that will give the user the power to vote Offline in a safe encrypted way and the INEC official can pass the data to the online server whenever there is network connectivity. (😕 I’m really trying my best)
3. The software will at the beginning of the the voting process, preload all the Voters-in-that-Ward details into the System’s offline database ( gotten from INEC’s online API database), then when the Voter is accredited through the Card reader, the Card Reader sends a Bluetooth payload response to the INEC Voting device close by, connected to it, to signal to her(😺 the Voting device I mean) that this Voter has been accredited and should be allowed to vote. Voting by the user should then be a maximum of 4 clicks to end of activity per category (categories like Presidential, Senatorial or Houses of Assembly ).
4. The software at the end of the the voting process, should be able to create a report in picture form or PDF form, that shows the voting statistics of each category and will allow the INEC official to click a button that uploads that same image/PDF into that Ward section of the General Voter’s website I had discussed above ☝️ in Step 1. ( N/B It is created automatically with a unique code number plus can have any other security feature that I may not know of right now 😳). This point is critical in the Election process because all Voters should wait to have this copy of the report transmitted to the social media or photographed manually from their phones after its been printed out or even while still on-screen on the Device.

Step 3: Believe you can make Nigeria great again by employing the right hands ( say no to Nepotism 😞) to bring all our plans to give Nigerians a free and fair election however possible. It will be difficult I know, but there is simply no excuse in the World to say that electronic election is not possible in Nigeria.

CONCLUSION

Source: google images

Election in Nigeria can be 90% free and fair if INEC can get a strong independent mindset free from nepotism and political manipulation to help give sweetness to our electoral process indefinitely.

My name is Emmanuel Etukudo and I have the confidence that I could help INEC achieve these ideals within this administration’s tenure if given a chance. But frankly, if by 2023, I find out that we still have to use paper ballot to vote, I won’t even bother myself about that electoral process 😐, and I hope you all reading this too will support this move so that we can get the right thing done. That’s all for now.

Thanks you.🙂