Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) comprising of Enough of Enough (EiE) Nigeria, Paradigm Initiative and Budgit Nigeria, Tuesday said  there was need for a sustained campaign to ensure that the National Assembly commits to passing laws that would kick-start full integration of technology into the electoral system.
The CSOs made the call during  a media parley on the 2018 New Media, Citizens and Governance Conference and presentation of a report  titled  ‘Rights and Responsibilities’  in Abuja.
The rights groups noted that despite the threat pose by the abuse of social media that Nigerians should  sustainably deepened the use of social media to navigate facet of governance.
They emphasised that social media is not meant to threaten people or government but rather to make government accountable to the people.
Speaking on behalf of the CSOs at the presentation of the report, Mr. Ogunsaya Ade said  the mobilisation of citizens into active citizenship and by extension into political leadership was paramount in a bid to attain proactively accountable governance and governments.
The report recommended  that the collation process during elections has always been a weak link, adding that targeted technology should therefore be introduced to mitigate the challenge.
It also stressed that the issue of midnight collation of votes ‎could be resolved by electronically sending each polling units result to INEC immediately they are pasted, since about 80 per cent of all polling units are located where adequate GSM exist.
The report equally recommended that, “campaigns must be sustained ‎to ensure that National Assembly commits to passing laws that kick-start a full integration of technology into the electoral process -collating and e-voting
“As citizens and CSOs with an in-road into the field of policy, attention must be geared towards legislation and awareness that ensures Nigeria’s‎ corner of the Internet is a safe space for where citizen online
“Citizens should organise, collate and disseminate knowledge with a sense of patriotism and never assume social media is a private space,†the report said.
