REGARDLESS of the eventual outcome of these 2023 Elections. Regardless of whom you may support or even oppose.
There is a larger COUNTRY to protect.
INEC, as with every Elections, has had FOUR YEARS to prepare for the General Elections.
Elections which potentially would involve 90m Voters for the sake of 200m people.
INEC is consistently NEVER PREPARED.
IF I GAVE a KINDERGARTEN CLASS Four years to build an effective Data Capture and Elections Results System, I AM CERTAIN they would do so and using LEGGO Bricks.
It is astonishing that, for a country that boasts Qualified Academia, is quick to proudly brag about achievements of Nigerians all over the World, we CANNOT establish, in 2023, an effective and sustainable SYSTEM, TECH PLATFORM or METHODOLOGY for conducting ELECTIONS.
Every ELECTION CYCLE, INEC starts late, one year to go, to look for funding, request proposals, buy equipment and organise itself by engaging illiterate untrained Staff to conduct serious Elections that they would want to be seen as CREDIBLE… using inadequately tested equipment.
Then there is that PRETENSE that we do not know ourselves.
That we do not know the importance of FALSE NEWS, RUMOURS, CONJECTURE, CONSPIRACY THEORIES in our daily lives. Things we as NIGERIANS thrive on.
YET INEC will stage Elections with dubious Processes and Practices which leave HUGE GAPS encouraging Manipulation and long after Fake Results and preemptive Celebrations amidst Premature Protests have already taken hold.
IT HAS TAKEN INEC 24 HRS to hold a much anticipated RESULTS COLLATION News Conference, with the World watching, only to announce as “confirmed” RESULTS from ONE STATE – EKITI – out of 36 plus the FCT.. and gallantly sign-off to resume the next day at 11AM.
This is 24 whole hours AFTER the Elections were meant to be held AND with some Elections as yet meant to be repeated in many areas.
What happens to those results not yet announced or delivered to INEC HQ in the intervening HOURS and OVERNIGHT?
IT IS A HUGE JOKE to think of a country boasting advancement and positioning in the NEW WORLD of TECH that cannot Propose, Design, Equip and Execute Capture, Validation and Data Transmission Systems and Platform/s in FOUR YEARS!
MEANWHILE, the PULSE of the NATION throbs and waits. High Anxiety and Increased concerns over the CREDIBILITY and VALIDITY of whatever would be the eventual RESULTS to be announced.
Room for the SUBVERSIVE and DARKER FORCES to come out and Play. Additional pressure on the Protective Agencies who are already overstretched.
A NATION put at risk either DELIBERATELY or by sheer INCOMPETENCE.
We are simply NOT READY or just INCAPABLE.
An UTTER DISGRACE.
