I’m not done with my rants on the Nigerian elections yet. One of the questions I wish INEC – the organizer of the botched Nigerian elections – could answer is how the fingerprint information and other data collected during the voters registration will help in investigating the zillion cases of electoral fraud it now has pending.
As a form of unique identifier, fingerprint information can be used to rule out electoral fraud if the data is properly collected and well maintained. When INEC introduced it’s intention to collect fingerprint data during the voters registration, some applauded the measure while several questioned the relevance of the use of the technique. INEC went ahead all the same and procured biometric machines and necessary equipment at significant cost; I was lucky to be in Lagos (in January) during the exercise, to witness how registrants’ fingerprints were collected, scanned, and stored on laptops.
Given the extent of fraud during the state elections, INEC should be asked if the fingerprint database would prove useful in resolving the electoral mess? Or was it just another case of wasteful government endeavor and clever scam to enrich some individuals?
When the dust has settled on this election, and a new government in place, it is only proper that the national assembly investigates the lapses recorded during these elections. And those found wanting sanctioned appropriately.
***
PS: Boy, this is really naive! By the time the election is over, won’t a sizable portion of the national Legislators be beneficiaries of a failed electoral process? How would they find the impetus to investigate? Duh!
You were spot on when you said it could be to enrich some individuals.
When INEC knew in the first place that electronic voting won’t be implemented, why did they introduce electronic registration?
It further hardens the task of fraud detection ‘cos they have to start scanning each ballot paper and matching with the database.
Pure discombobulation.
April 20, 2007 at 2:01 am
…Imnakoya, as I was reading this piece and the comment you left on my blog, I burst into laughter for no apparent reason…
I guess It has to do with the frustration most Nigerians are experiencing presently–you see things obviously going wrong,and you are in no position to do anything about them as it were…
In addition to your P.S, even if INEC has the ‘technical know-how’ to investigate the bogus elections using the fingerprint database, it will take something in the neighbourhood of ‘five years’ to come up with a result…I think INEC and those who instituted it know exactly what they are doing…
April 20, 2007 at 5:16 am