A group, People’s Life Improvement Foundation (PLIF), has called on the National Assembly to ensure that the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution guarantees full electronic voting to help sanitise and stabilise Nigeria’s electoral system.
The group’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Waekite Ngoama, made this proposal at the South-West Zonal Public Hearing on the Review of the 1999 Constitution organised by the Senate in Lagos on Thursday.
According to him, for many years now, the word restructuring has gained popularity in Nigeria’s political discourse.
“We have called for our polity to be restructured along economic and political lines to ensure equity for all.
“However, under the present electoral system, even if we were to revert to the regional structure, we may not be able to elect the right type of people to pilot the affairs of the government.
“The feeling of the need of sweeping away decades of bad government owed to rigged elections, using the current electoral laws cannot be over-emphasised. We should formulate a whole new law into our electoral system.
“It has therefore become apparent that any election without the use of a full automated digital electronic electoral system of biometric accreditation, voting, counting and transmission of results is certainly not the ‘pursuit of happiness’ for the country.”
According to him, the nation’s ambition to develop a true representative democracy requires a sense of urgency in reforming democratic values for the survival of the nation.
Ngoama noted that amendment of the Electoral Act would lead Nigeria to attain a nation of freedom, prosperity and peace.
He said that the group also advocated proper implementation of the presidential system of government to embrace a four-tier system: The Federal, the State, the Local Government and Ward/City/Community Government.
The spokesman for the group said that Nigeria should complete the American Presidential System by allowing the fourth tier of government to tackle the direct concerns of the people in the rural areas.
“PLIF is totally against any form of restructuring at the federal level but is in tune with restructuring at the state level. Nothing is wrong with Nigeria.
“The 36 states of Nigeria should have a functional fourth-tier of government with administrative and financial autonomy.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Lagos State, Mr James Adeshina, reiterated the need to sanitise electoral system to accommodate electronic voting.
“The Council believes in gender equality and 35 per cent participation of women in politics. We also believed that vulnerable groups and PLWD’s should be accommodated into politics and governance.
“We believe that the local government is the last and third-tier of government, therefore it should be given some autonomy in their administrative duties and power to govern the people.
“IPAC believes that there should be a constitutional provision for state police. The governors should be empowered as the Chief Security officer of their states to tackle insecurity.
“We support the judicial reforms. We support the electoral reform that will help INEC to deliver a transparent, credible, free and fair elections. We want electronic voting to commence fully by the 2023 elections,” Adeshina said.
He also said that traditional rulers should be given constitutional roles to play. (NAN)
