TOWARDS DIGITIZATION OF ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA: THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA

Abstract

Nigeria in the past two decades has taken great leaps in adoption of technology in handling most activities of national life. In education, online registration and computer basedtesting are fast supplanting manual registration and paper testing just as banking, telecommunications and other service sectors that strive for efficiency are largely computerized. However, a key aspect of our democratic life – voting appears to be stuck in the dark ages with paper voting with its attendant encumbrances. It is even disheartening that even though, many nations of the world have since the 1960s been using electronic voting with qualified successes, the most recent Electoral Act as amended took special attention to block e-voting just as the novel use of card readers to ascertain voter cards' authenticity met stiff opposition from some quarters. This paper argues that just as the use of card readers in the 2015 general elections enormously reduced rigging, greater embrace of digital applications in future elections is a can't do without requirement to ease our electoral processes and shore up the desired credibility we yearn for. The paper recommends a concerted campaign by the mass media in Nigeria to advocate for far reaching reforms of electoral processes in the country, chief of which should be e-voting and counting.