TheCable

Ben Nwankwo, a chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has called on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to “adopt a faster technology” to ensure the smooth success of the 2023 general elections.

According to NAN, the former member of the House of Representatives spoke in Awka, capital of Anambra, on Sunday.

Nwankwo aired his views on the recently concluded Anambra gubernatorial election, won by Chukwuma Soludo, his party’s candidate.

The election was rife with complaints about the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) glitches in several polling booths across the state.

The technology forced many registered voters to wait for hours before voting, and the commission had to extend voting hours in many polling units.

Reacting to the situation, Nwankwo praised the election as “one of the best in recent times” before describing the BVAS glitches as “the sad news.”

He added that such technological failure means Nigeria is “taking steps backward” from countries of its ilk across the globe.

The former lawmaker urged INEC to acquire faster technology to ensure the smooth conduct of future elections,” Nwankwo said.

“The election will have been one of the best in recent times, and everybody will have been commending INEC for that.

“The Security arrangement was wonderful. There was no breakdown of law and order to the best of my knowledge.

“But the sad news is that the technology failed to work by not being rapid that culminated in a loss of time, people coming out not getting accreditation at the right time.

“INEC must strive hard to ensure that it adopts a faster technology to ensure smooth conduct of future elections, especially the 2023 poll.

“Nigeria by now should have been classified as a developed country, but we are taking steps backward.

“The procedure will have been wonderful because it was accreditation, vote and go, that will have looked like what is obtainable in advance countries of the world.

“But the technology was on trial, and being on trial, I think its effectiveness was around 30 percent. I don’t know why it failed to work, whether it was a network issue or something else. It may be a bandwidth issue or something else.

“May it was heavy traffic that caused the network not to work. INEC should be improving. It should not be going back and front.

“The budgetary provision for INEC is sufficient enough to guarantee credible and fair election. Nigeria in the 21st century should be able to organise a hitch-free and credible poll.”