From Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
A lawmaker representing Owan Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Prof Julius Ihonvbere, has attributed the controversy surrounding electronic voting and transmission of election results to external and internal forces within the National Assembly.
He disclosed this while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after delivering his mid-term report to members of his constituency at Afuze, headquarters of Owan East Local Government Area of Edo State.
Prof Ihonvbere, Chairman of the House Committee on Education, stated that the argument for and against the choice of electronic voting and transmission of results at the floor of the National Assembly, exuded the beauty of democracy and that at the end, the majority won the day.
‘That is the beauty of democracy. We can’t all agree. I support electronic transmission,’ he stated.
‘I know that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has the capacity for electronic transmission of results unless INEC wants to say those card readers they sent to certain parts of the country are for decoration, in which case all the elections done through INEC should be cancelled, but it is not.
‘The card reader uses a SIM and in the over 190,000 polling booths there were card readers using SIM, people are writing NECO, people are writing WAEC, they are doing Computer-Based Tests, but Nigeria must move forward.
‘Other countries are moving forward, Rwanda, Ghana, around us.
‘So, I support electronic transmission but there is politics within and outside the National Assembly and the majority, as they say, carries the day,’ he said.
Ihonvbere who also spoke extensively on the proposed University of Sports that is to be sited at Afuze said it has passed the third reading and expressed optimism that President Muhammadu Buhari would give his assent to the bill when passed.
‘I don’t know why the president will not sign because this is a plus to him to be the one who established the first university of sports.
‘We have hundreds of sportsmen and women who have retired who will be ready to use this institution to train our athletes, we are not doing well in sports.
‘How many events are we going for in the next Olympics? Very clearly Nigeria has gone down. How many Nigerians are playing in the top four teams of the premier league now? In the days of Okocha, Kanu and others, those days have gone. We are not breaking any new world records. The federal university of sports, Afuze will help Nigeria to do that.
‘Moreover, sports is now big business, big business. The UK, they are making billions every year from sports, not just endorsements, but we are losing money.
‘People are not watching our national leagues anymore. So in the side of the business, in the part of physical health, in the part of intellectual development, in the part of building capable athletes to represent Nigeria to win laurels, the president will sign it.
‘We have already had the facilities here. It isn’t going to cost money to do it. It is these same facilities that Ogbemudia used to produce top rates athletes for Nigeria,’ he said.
A vote of confidence was later passed on Prof Ihonvbere for bringing federal government presence to his constituency.
It was moved by Edo State House of Assembly member-elect Henry Okaka and seconded by Hon Fred Omoigberai, a former of the State House of Assembly.