For the second time in as many months, the Conference of United Political Parties, CUPP, has raised the alarm over alleged plots to scuttle free, fair and credible elections in 2023. Ikenga Ugochinyere, a lawyer and the CUPP Spokesman, said this at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday October 13, 2022.

The Conference had earlier alerted on the alleged padding of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s, voter’s register with fake names in several parts of the country to give a particular political party unfair advantage.

However, INEC cleared the air on this issue. Its spokesman, Festus Okoye, informed that no new registrant had been included in the voter’s register until the ongoing automated clean-up is concluded. He reassured the public that the list will be displayed for public scrutiny before being integrated in the voter’s register.

The new alarm centres mainly on alleged plots by some powerful, desperate politicians to allegedly remove INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu and other officials perceived to be firmly committed to the delivery of credible elections early next year. According to the CUPP, the plot also allegedly involves the deactivation of INEC’s Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, and discontinuation of direct transmission of results to the INEC central server.

These alleged moves are meant to return the electoral system to the past manual template where elections were violently and criminally stolen. Many people may choose to wave these alarms away as “improbable”. Former INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, however, said on a television interview that anything is possible in Nigeria, and that technology “scares politicians”.

We recall that there were also similar rumours of conspiracies to remove Jega in 2014 when he introduced the Permanent Voter’s Card, PVC, and Smart Card Reader, SCR, which were primarily aimed at stopping multiple voting. The BVAS and direct transmission of results will cut off ballot snatching, thumb-printing of ballot papers outside the polling units and falsification of results at the collation centres.

From what we have seen in some state elections, it enables the public to watch the results live as they come in. This technology-driven system has returned the power of elections to the hands of the people where it rightly belongs. Nigerians now see that free and fair elections are now possible in 2023. That is why the youths are fully triggered.

INEC and Nigerians fought very hard to birth a technology-driven electoral system through the National Assembly and the Presidency. We must not allow enemies of our country to take us back to the era of barren elections.

Even if there is little substance in these alarms, they call for vigilance by all and sundry. Politicians will do anything to “win” elections. But with vigilance, free and fair elections are guaranteed.

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