Caretaker Senator of Cross River Northern Senatorial district in the National Assembly, my district, Stephen Odey, also joined 51 others to vote against electronic transmission of votes by INEC.
How did Stephen Odey arrive at his NAY vote?
When did he do the sampling or consultation or engagement with his constituents to arrive at the NAY vote?
Was his NAY vote for himself and his benefactor or was it for our Senatorial district?
Can Stephen Odey say in all honesty that his NAY vote is a reflection of the wish of majority of the people of Cross River North, in relation to having more transparent elections in the future?
Can he explain what benefit or impact his NAY vote will have on the electoral process and fortunes of Cross River North?
Or is it a case of godfather predation and electorate vulnerability?
Increasingly, nations, provinces and municipalities are employing technology to clean up their systems and speed up their process in their everyday living. That’s why the federal government itself is forcing us to link our SIM to our NIN so that no terrorists or kidnapper or any criminal will escape justice anywhere in Nigeria. The Federal government is also claiming they send alert of credit to all beneficiaries of empowerment in ALL 764 LGAs in Nigeria; yet some persons feel that results of our elections cannot be transmitted electronically? Like seriously?
These technologies are not water tight but they are better than what we have today. Their margins of error are traceable and manageable. They eliminate human contact, they are blind to ethnic, religious, gender baises, they leave traces and reduce the chances of brazen corruption and manipulation as we see today to the bearest minimum and above all, they have residual capacity for constant scaling up. Apart from improving our elections, the deployment of these technologies have the potential to open up new opportunities in ICT around the country.
What exactly will any progressive have as a problem with a bill that seeks to mainstream that?
Stephen Odey has his name in the dishonor list as we will not forget the role he played at this critical time in our national history. No one who calls himself our senator, even if it is for one week, should again think that we will not keep records of their sojourn in office. We must not tolerate Stone age leaders who are motivated by political considerations above development and progress and demand an explanation for how we missed this opportunity.
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.
