Much ado about electoral amendment bill

The most trending topic for now and possibly for the next week is the electoral amendment bill. Trust Nigerian emergency armchair critics and lawyers to spring up, and give their reasons for or against.

As expected, there was uproar in both chambers of the national assembly, specifically over the electronic voting and electronic transmission of results.

Was I surprised by the decision of the senators? Absolutely not. Were people expecting the senators to pass a bill that will put their reelection in jeopardy? The opposition senators are not different either. If there were the majority, they would have done the same thing the ruling party did.

Staging a walkout might earn them some brownie points, but I am not deceived. They are just playing to the gallery.

Also, it’s not about the 9th national assembly; the sixth, seventh, and eighth assembly would have done the same thing. It’s all about self-interest. Altruism is missing from the DNA of our politicians.

No doubt, we need electronic voting and electronic transmission of results, because I strongly feel that’s the only way we can get a semblance of free and fair elections in the country. There are fears that hackers will take advantage of the electronic transmission of votes to inflate figures. This is where our cybersecurity experts will come in and try as much as possible to reduce incidences of hacking.

Sadly, our elections are like war; the one who rigs the most wins. Rigging is not peculiar to any political party. The All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party( PDP) share an unbiblical cord in the rigging game.

We seriously need to reduce the incidence of ballot box snatching, brigandage, maiming, and killing in our elections. Let the people decide who they want to rule at all levels. Is that too difficult for our politicians to understand?

I must commend the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission. The more they look for ways to have a free and fair election, our politicians also look for ways to circumvent the process.

Similarly, I see no reason why we will have our election and results not announced in 24 hours. Do we have to shut down the whole country because we want to have an election? We need to move with the times, we can’t be stuck in the stone age forever.

Jonathan Nda-Isaiah, political director at LEADERSHIP Newspapers, can be reached via 08061573299, 08054518774.