Abiodun Ajiboye, Executive Secretary of National Institute of Cultural Orientation, has said that electronic voting is not possible in Nigeria, as the government cannot afford it due to lack of required infrastructure.
Ajiboye said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday.
“Transmitting election results electronically is the function of manner of voting. If you vote manually, and you collate results, how do you then transmit electronically real-time? It’s just not possible. We can’t even afford it. Even if we wish to, we can’t afford it.”
Highlighting the reasons behind his claim, Ajiboye questioned:
“Do the telecom operators have that capability? Do we have enough electricity to undertake that responsibility in Nigeria? Is the infrastructure of telecom companies sufficient enough to undertake such exercise? The last election we had, the INEC server was attacked over a million times. So what they’re saying is that we should put the electoral process within the vulnerability of hijackers, causing a lot of confusion. This is what I see them pushing.”
He added: “There are manual parts of election. And what can happen, like it has always happened, is you vote, and they count the votes there, the party agents append their signatures on the paper, the paper can then be scanned and transmitted anyhow you want.”
Insisting that Nigeria is incapable of electronic voting, Ajiboye said:
“A man is only able to do what he is capable of. We have no capability to do electronic voting or real-time transmission at this time.
“America does not even do real-time transmission. Go and check. We don’t even have telecom provided for some rural communities. Some rural communities don’t even have electricity. You’re trying to disenfranchise a lot of people by pushing for what is not possible. Technologically, it is not possible. Stop stampeding the Senate and National Assembly into getting into something very difficult, that will put everybody in a mess at the end of the day”, he said.
Speaking on the functions of the National Institute of Cultural Orientation, where he is the executive secretary, Ajiboye explained that the institute cannot be merged with other agencies as it has its own distinct functions.
“The National Institute of Cultural Orientation is a research institute formed to allow the public to understand the essentialities of their culture. A man without a cultural identity is a man without a future. A nation without a cultural identity is a nation without a future. The thinking behind the creation of the National Institute of Cultural Orientation is to understand that man, first of all, must have a cultural identity, which will now lead to cultural pride.
“And we may need more than four agencies to achieve this. As we speak, our young people do not even understand our culture enough. And if they do not understand the culture of where they’re from, they cannot be good citizens of any country. A man is a first a citizen of a culture before a becomes a citizen of a country”, he added.
Ajiboye also mentioned some of the ways the National Institute of Cultural Orientation aims to promote cultural awareness.
“We organize public lectures. We do a lot of cultural orientation courses; we have an institute, we have a school. We are even trying to start the Nigerian Academy for Cultural Studies, with the campus in Ogbomoso, as we speak”, he said.
Speaking further on the Federal Government’s promise to merge duplicating agencies, Ajiboye said:
“There is a committee in the National Assembly that manages this. And we’ve been called to several meetings, where agencies justify why they still exist. And that is going on very well. And until that process is complete, it won’t be nice to start discussing it here and there. I do not see the president of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, leaving any stone unturned in actions and activities that are geared towards a better nation”, he concluded.
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