The immediate past Resident Electoral Commissioner of Independent National Electoral in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, says the infusion of technology into Nigeria electoral system will change the country’s political dynamics and election outcomes.
Igini said technology is critical to the development of any society and those who fail to embrace it are courting chaos.
Speaking during an interview with Nigerian tribune, Igini said the introduction of BVAS will checkmate rigging and make many politicians useless.
“Any society that fails to embrace technology will be overtaken by the chaos of decline and decay. At the moment, INEC has developed a technology to deal with the historical challenges of election service delivery, some of which you have mentioned. Therefore, if the current system that has gone through a series of piloting to the extent that it has been used to conduct over 105 off-season elections and the elections reflected the will of electorate, why do people still express concerns over a system that is working? The difference between BIVAS and the previous system of card reader is that BIVAS has been tested in some of the states such Edo, Anambra, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun. It is those who are afraid of a credible process, where the votes of the people determine who becomes what, are the ones expressing this concern.
“In Ondo State, INEC transmitted successfully from the riverine areas such as Ese Odo and all that. It is a bad workman that blames his tools. What has not changed in respect of our democracy is that despite INEC’s reforms, there has not been a reform of the behaviour of the political class in conformity with the current reform of INEC. Regrettably for them, the current system has been designed in such a way and manner that the human agency interference has been limited. And because it is limited and people don’t want to come to terms with this reality, by 2023, many politicians will have a dinosaur experience waiting for them.
“You go and find out how the dinosaur went into extinction. It went into extinction because it was too adapted to a particular climatic situation. So, where there was a change in climate, it could not adapt. There are those who are used to rigging for so long. They have survived in politics because of rigging. But the current reform will not allow that to happen again. If they don’t go and endear themselves with the people, they will go into extinction or what is meant by dinosaur experience. It is going to happen to them” he said