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Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, has cautioned non-state actors on the use of electronic platforms for e-voting and transmission of election results in the 2023 general elections.
Inuwa canvassed responsible use of personal devices when passing information on election results, adding that Nigeria’s sovereignty and election integrity are sacrosanct.
He described e-voting as vital to the proper administration of elections to enhance transparency and growth of democracy as well as good governance.
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The NITDA boss spoke in Abuja while delivering a paper at a hybrid symposium of the Nigeria eGovernment Summit 2022 with the theme: “Promoting e-Government in Election Year for Improved Governance”.
According to him, “e-voting constitutes a vital aspect of ICT-enabled democratic governance.
“It generally aims at increasing participation of citizens in the electoral process and improving the outcomes of elections by addressing challenges associated with traditional voting practices.”
Inuwa, represented by the Acting Director of eGovernment Development and Regulation Department, Mr. Bernard Ewah, said e-governance had become an important mechanism in enhancing citizens’ participation in development processes.
He explained that the e-voting technologies support one or more of the major phases of the electoral processes from the registration stage in the pre-voting phase to voting, balloting and verification to counting or tallying after voting.
“E-government has transformed Nigeria into a world-class economy and has restructured our electoral and other government processes.
“Participatory democracy is one of the major requirements for achieving e-governance, particularly where a majority of the citizenry is disenchanted with the electioneering or democratic processes or government.
“For successful adoption of e-voting and e-government, grassroots mobilisation through e-democracy should be encouraged.”
He disclosed that NITDA has an e-Government Master Plan that promotes the use of e-government at sub-national and grassroots, adding that, so far, Plateau, Benue, Jigawa, Ogun and Nasarawa states have benefited from this initiative.
The Nation
