The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is a technological shift affecting governance and economies globally. As every nation aligns their vision towards the year 2030, it is critical for Nigeria to also start aligning with this global technological drive.
The major characteristics of the year 2030 is the outburst of the 4IR, which will influence virtually all spheres of our LIVES. At the moment, there's a huge research and innovation going on in the sphere of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Data Science is also growing at an alarming rate with many universities starting Masters degree programs in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
The epicenter of this piece is to advise the Nigerian Government to start adopting the use of new technologies in the entire electoral system in Nigeria, as this will enhance a smooth conduct of the elections. Ugly experiences such as vote buying, stealing of ballot boxes, undue violence at the polling units would be eliminated perpetually.
MODUS OPERANDI:
1. As soon as an electorate votes digitally, their votes are automatically transferred to the INEC collation centre server. Such votes would contain the full biometrics of the voter as well as their ward/polling units. There is no need for electoral officers to MANUALLY enter results into the INEC portals. This is open to gross manipulations.
2. INEC simply need to set a time frame for the voting exercise. If voting is opened from 08h00 to 18h00 for example, at exactly 18h00, the portal automatically closes against voting and immediately, the total votes cast for each party/aspirant is determined electronically. There is no need to manually count votes at any collation centre. The returning officer will simply wait for the cumulative results from the server and then make his announcements.
This advanced technology will prevent undue influence and/or rigging in favour of ANY of the contesting political parties. It will eliminate undue killing of innocent Nigerians on election days.
Regards,
Dr. Akinola Ikudayisi
(aka The Wisdom Preacher)
20 July 2022
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