Election Infrastructure: FG Urges INEC, ICT Stakeholders to Harness the Digital Provisions of Electoral Act 2022

Emma Okonji

As Nigeria prepares for the 2023 general election, the federal government has called on the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) stakeholders to take advantage of the digital provisions enshrined in the Electoral Act 2022, in ensuring inclusive and transparent election in 2023.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ibrahim Pantami, gave the charge, while speaking as a special guest of honour at a three-day national workshop on election infrastructure, organised by the Centre for Cyberspace Studies, Nasarawa State University, held in Abuja.

Pantami commended the organisers for providing a strategic platform that would enhance stakeholder engagement to ensure that the digital provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 deliver the expected credible, free, fair, inclusive and transparent election in 2023.

The central objective of the workshop was to avail stakeholders in the Nigerian electoral process, an opportunity to brainstorm on the concerns, challenges, and desirable interventions needed to enhance effective preparations and delivery of successful 2023 national elections. This is against the need to balance the benefits of digital transformation and the usual negative effects of cybercrime and cyber warfare directed against election infrastructure. 

A cybersecurity expert and pioneer Commandant of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Academy, Dr. David Wodi Tukura, who delivered the keynote address, stressed the need for INEC to involve ICT stakeholders who are cybersecurity experts to ensure that hackers do not take any advantage to disrupt the election.  

The workshop, which was conducted in a hybrid mode, had a total of 162 national and international participants and featured over thirty-five top-level resource persons from academia and industry across the globe.

In his welcome address, the Convener and Vice Chancellor of the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Prof. Suleiman Bala Mohammed thanked President Muhammadu Buhari, for the boldness to reform the Nigerian electoral process to include the use of digital resources like BVAS and IReV for the first time.

He stated that the workshop was primarily conceived by the university to support the vision of President Buhari in digitizing the electoral processes.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the workshop and co-signed by the Chairman, Workshop Working Group, Chris Uwaje and the Director, Center for Cyberspace Studies, Nasarawa State University, Professor Uche Mbanaso, it was observed that the nation was faced with the challenges of stable and reliable broadband internet connectivity across the country to support effective digital electoral processes, as well as the unresolved interoperability challenges in synchronising the Internet Protocol version four (IPv4) and the Internet Protocol version six (IPv6) networks, which participants said, could affect election processes.

According to the communiqué, stakeholders have therefore recommended that INEC should work closely with the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), Galaxy Backbone, NigComsat, and other private internet broadband providers to improve broadband connectivity and deploy and protect robust seamless network infrastructure across the country, in order to extend reliable connectivity to remote areas. 

They also said NCC and NITDA should facilitate full implementation of IPv6 and ensure timely synchronization with IPv4 to enhance interoperability of digital infrastructure elements.

They advised the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) currently in charge of cybersecurity, to designate some tertiary institutions as Centres of Excellence (CoE) in cybersecurity, in order to advance capacity building, research and development, as coordinated and measurable measures to improve national cybersecurity posture.