As the 2019 approaches, stakeholders are working together towards embracing electronic transmission and collation of results. At the forefront of this initiative is the Leadership of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).
They recently reviewed the report of a joint committee set up in January 2018 on the issue of electronic transmission and collation of results towards achieving free, fair and credible elections in 2019.
“Remember this joint committee was set up 7 months ago. They’ve worked hard, and the whole idea was to produce a document on the basis of which elections can be conducted in a manner that’s conducive, credible, and of course, transparent. This can only be done by leveraging the power of Information Communications Technology. So this is to bring to bear global best practices in the way and manner elections are being conducted all over the world,” said Prof Umaru Danbatta, executive vice chairman of the NCC.
Responding, who spoke after the meeting, which had in attendance Prof Mahmood Yakubu, head of INEC added: “When we started we were clear in our minds that we must challenge every national institution to contribute towards free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria. We are happy that the NCC has risen to this challenge.
“And we look forward to implementing these recommendations. If there are other areas we need your collaborations we hope you will remain open to us to do so. But we are very happy that one major national institution has been challenged and has risen to the challenge.”
The review session was also attended by Engr Ubale Maska, executive commissioner, Technical Services (EC-TS) of the NCC, INEC’s national commissioners and management staff of both agencies.