Incidence form and 4 other lessons from Nigeria voting processes.

It is said that in every democracy, the people get the government they deserve and today it was very very obvious that the people of Nigeria wanted a government they could finally call their own.

1. Nigerians are into governance process:

It’s no longer the time when some sections of Nigerians sit at home while elections are going on in different part of the country. Under the scotching heat of noonday sun and under the rain in some venues, Nigerians marched to the polling unit to vote their conscience, and most importantly vote for candidates of their choice. In time past Nigerians are quick at asserting that their votes will not count and hence, there is no need to vote since the winner is already decided before the vote.

Nigerian troop out in mass to cat their votes and underwent different harassment just to cast their fingers on the ballot papers and have the government of their own chosen.

2. Electorate Illiteracy:

From every indication and more specifically the incidence that took place in my polling unit and several other locations where voting took place shows that INEC education of the voters was not efficient and as effective as it should be. The INEC ad hoc staff used over 30 minutes educating the gentlemen and ladies on the queue on how to vote and indirectly pointing on some logos of different political parties, thereby, influence the mind of the undecided voters.

Moving forward: There must be massive sensitization and voters education up to the grassroots level, targeting the less educated Nigerians – meaning both the INEC and the political parties must work together bring voters to the required level before they approach the polling stations.

The political parties must take the advantage of their countless rallies and political campaign to let their voters know what to do at the Polling stations and not to look utterly confused.

3. Time issues:

INEC have done a massive job in trying to produce a near perfect election for the country to be proud of, but there is still too much to do. There are several loop holes that need to be tackled if we are to achieve a near perfect election in the future. We as a people must kill the spirit of ‘Africa time’, because there is never a watch created to produce African time.

Accreditation which is supposed to begin by 8:00 across the federation, started at exactly 11:25 in my station, that is 3 hours, 25 minutes of wasted time which rubbishes the entire idea of setting up a timetable for the whole exercise.

Moving forward: Nigerians would be proud to have a well organised system where INEC will have to sort out the logistics bottleneck before advertising their confusion in front of the electorates.

4. Technology assimilation:

This part gives me great pleasure. As the giant of Africa, the most populous black nation in the world and the number one economy in the world it is pertinent that we adapt to new technologies. Kudos to the entire INEC team, led by Attahiru Jega for introducing the ‘Card Reader’.

Of course, just like every technology is prone to malfunction at some point or reject some persons – they were clever enough to have a plan B, which is the incidence form which will enable certified voter not to be disenfranchised.

Moving forward: Perhaps if new innovations such as the card reader receive little resistance we can have our entire voting process digitized in the near future and every individual can afford to vote at every nooks and crannies of the country.

5. Civility of Nigeria uniform men:

The politeness of Nigeria men and women on uniform stunned me. There is a massive hope for Nigeria after all and the message is loudest, to the rest of the world that the project Nigeria is progressive.

Four Nigeria Police men, two Road Safety officer, and three Nigeria Security and Civil Defense officer was deployed to my unit and all their words starts and ends with – please and thank you sir! Even when the solder men patrol came around, they were very civil in their approach and not attempting to intimidate.

We may not be there as a people, but together we can show the world that as an indivisible unit our voice can be heard in all corners of he world.