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By John Okiyi Kalu
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is, on paper, an effective tool to check some aspects of electoral malpractices that have bedevilled Nigeria’s election processes over the years since the inception of the Fourth Republic. It is indeed commendable progress for a country that wishes to continuously improve its ability to properly identify genuine voters and check multiple voting or dumping of votes by political actors and their hirelings. If correctly applied across board, it will certainly help us get accurate data on real voters and also make nonsense of attempts by unscrupulous political actors to dubiously deploy troves of PVCs already in their custody.
So far, the system has delivered good outcomes in Ekiti, Osun and Anambra states. But, interestingly, it is yet to be tested in any major northern state as the above three states are all in southern Nigeria.
Therein lies my worry: will INEC religiously deploy BVAS in northern Nigeria and insist on its use or nothing?
Experience from the 2015 and 2019 election rounds indicate that while INEC has shown willingness and enthusiasm in deploying innovative technologies and ideas in southern Nigeria, it has not done the same in the North. For example, in 2015, INEC insisted on card-reading in most parts of southern Nigeria, which even prevented then President Goodluck Jonathan from voting in Bayelsa as a result of the malfunctioning of the equipment, while his opponent and current President, Muhammadu Buhari, never experienced any similar challenge in the North. Indeed, we had a situation where more than two million votes came out of Kano State without a single void vote, whereas in the South that is acknowledged to be home to more educationally advantaged Nigerians there were several void votes for every 100,000 collated.
In that 2015 election, northern states were able to produce very high number of votes, thereby giving credence to the fact that card readers were hardly applied, if at all, in the region. Interestingly, the one man who could have explained to Nigerians how the miracle of two million votes came from Kano State alone just within the eight hours voting window allowed and without any single mistake from any voter that could have led to even one void vote died before he could face Nigerians. A suspicious fire incident that also claimed the life of his wife and two daughters was blamed for his death.
If INEC is going to deploy BVAS in the South in 2023, then they must also ensure full deployment of same in the North, including the ‘K’ states. Should there not be verifiable uniform application of BVAS across the country, we will lose the anticipated benefits of the system that the country invested billions of naira to acquire.
Civil society organizations in Nigeria owe us the duty of using all legal means to compel INEC to apply technology uniformly in conducting the 2023 elections.
Deploying in the South alone will ensure that, while we have high turnout numbers from the North, the reverse will be the case in the South. That is systematic rigging in favour of candidates with strong northern base.
Let only our genuine votes count and be counted in all polling units across the federation, and not just in some regions. BVAS must be applied everywhere in Nigeria without excuses, or else, we don’t deploy anywhere at all.
•Kalu writes from
Umuahia, Abia State
