Dr. Abdu Bulama, Minister of Science and Technology, has said that
use of technology will enhance the integrity of electoral process ahead
of the forthcoming General Elections billed to hold next month.
According to the Minister, “the use of election technology to ensure
integrity and/or enhance transparency in the electoral process can be
tremendously effective.”
The
Science and Technology Minister said that social media platforms such
as Facebook, Twitter, Blackberry Messenger (BBM), Whatsapp, Linkedin and
Instagram are veritable means of technology that can be deployed in
enhancing the electoral process for quick transmission of results.Dr. Abdu Bulama, Minister of Science and Technology
He said this at a two-day capacity development conference supported
by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with the theme:
“Enhancing the use of Technology during the 2015 electoral process” held
recently in Abuja.
The Science and Technology Minister said that social media platforms
such as Facebook, Twitter, Blackberry Messenger (BBM), Whatsapp,
Linkedin and Instagram are veritable means of technology that can be
deployed in enhancing the electoral process for ensuring quick
transmission of results.
The Minister of Science and Technology told attendees at the event
that globally, “innovative technology with peculiar local content have
been deployed to ensure hitch-free electoral processes.”
The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology said that the
programme held towards having a transparent and robust electoral process
that will ensure a non-violent 2015 polls. Under the programme, the
two-day conference on Technology and Electoral Process was held for its
staff and officials of the 17 agencies under its supervision to equip
them with “the requisite skills in the application of technology-based
solutions in the conduct of credible elections.”
It was against this background of the pivotal relevance of the use
of technology in electioneering exercise that the Ministry secured the
support of UNDP to execute a project with focus on sensitizing
Nigerians, especially the youth, Dr. Bulama added.
According to the Minister, the key objectives of the project were to
expose staff of the Ministry of Science and Technology to global best
practices in electioneering processes and equip them with capacity to be
able to identify short, medium and long term plans to ensure the
adoption of technology use in election. The project will also draw up a
plan to implement the relevant project and to provide an opportunity for
the Ministry to extend technology training to youth of voting age
across Nigeria.
In recent times, election administrators have long used technology
to help address some of their most pressing challenges, including voter
registration and candidate nomination to voter identification and
results transmission, Bulama said.
According to the Minister the present Administration in its renewed
efforts to forestall controversy like the one that trailed the 2007 and
2011 elections, has given the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) a huge task of adoption on improved method to ensure a free and
fair election in 2015.
The Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) and Electronic Voter
Identification (EVID) are the major pieces of election technology used
by INEC for the purpose of engendering transparency in the whole
process, according to Bulama.
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