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The vice president debate is over and Nigerian Twitter is full of comments on how smart some of the candidates' answers are and how others are simply his hand fell. The anticipation of the elections is growing, as is the enthusiasm for the potential usefulness of blockchain technology in various fields. Unfortunately, some of us may not even have a chance to cast a vote next year.
About three months ago, I decided to transfer my permanent electoral card (PVC) from Enugu to Lagos. I made a request at a registration center in Lekki and was given a receipt to receive the card when it arrived. My PVC is still in the center where I registered in Enugu. He did not move an inch.
There have been reports that unused voter cards are used to organize elections across the country, an event that has been aided by the inaccuracies in collecting a credible voter register o malfunction of electronic card readers who should check voters' suitability. These are some challenges among many. Tech experts all over the world we believe that blockchain technology can provide a robust voting infrastructure that will solve these problems. What are the possibilities when considering the uniqueness of the Nigerian landscape?
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A blockchain is a ledger or a digital database. The technology allows you to store information digitally in a network of blocks that starts with a block of genesis. These blocks are interconnected with unique keys that make it impossible to hide a change or tampering with an information along the chain. However, it is extremely difficult to change the information stored in a block. A blockchain network can be consulted publicly and is verifiable by every peer who has access to the network.
Blockchain technology is already in use in the exchange of digital currency, in improving the logistics in commercial operations and in the creation of credible and easily accessible information database through various sectors. Companies and governments are starting to explore its potential benefits in the elections.
In March, during the presidential elections elections in Sierra LeoneThe Swiss-based blockchain company, Agora, had been authorized by the electoral commission to observe the elections and used the opportunity to test the use of technology in a number of electoral units.
In the US state of Virginia of the West, the technology was successfully tested in March in view of the state primaries that would be held in May. The Voatz app, a blockchain-based online voting application tested in West Virginia allows voters to cast their votes using secure tokens on a mobile device after being verified using biometric tools.
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The arguments for the adoption of this technology by technical experts and companies such as Voatz range from its transparency (accessible to all voters on a network), to its decentralization of the voting process (voters can follow and verify the process from the beginning to the end) to the idea that "online voting could increase voter participation and help restore public confidence in the electoral process and democracy ".
Source: Business Times
Bashir Aminu, CEO of Havene, a digital goods exchange platform, had said in his speech at TEDxYaba this year, that technology could solve the problems of election fraud in the country. A survey in this sense showed a large percentage of respondents in agreement. But I think this is not a situation yes or no. There are a number of gray areas.
One will be the prevailing levels of illiteracy and the apparent complexity associated with this technology. The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, he said in 2017 that 60 million Nigerians are illiterate. How easy will it be to help a farmer in the north to understand how technology works and to be involved in monitoring his vote and the general voting process from the beginning to the end, which is one of the advantages of this technology? There is also the question of the available infrastructure. If Internet connectivity is required to run an application, for example, what happens in places where there is not?
Source: we are social
Also the adoption of blockchain in the elections is subject to political will. The ruling class in Nigeria as we know it today and with all its shortcomings, will allow the use of this technology that potentially destroys its control over the country?
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The issues that surmount our electoral system can be grouped into three main challenges: the collection of an accurate voter register, the conduct of credible surveys at all electoral units across the country and timely delivery, accurate election results.
While a rig-proof digital solution that uses blockchain technology is far-fetched, linking this technology to loopholes in the existing structure we have, like creating a credible database of digital voters, could be what works.
Imagine a system that allows the creation of a register of digital voters that is easily accessible and verifiable by each eligible voter registered? Registering to vote would be much easier, the huge election budget it would be severely cut off and access and verification of the list would be easy for both voters and the electoral commission. Last month, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) attempted to do so by entering lists of eligible voters at electoral units across the country for a week, but claims of inaccuracies still abound. Of 300,000 names Nigerian and non-Nigerian deaths have entered lists at many polling stations.
While it would be great to be able to one day, secure a vote from your couch on an online app and trust that it will not be intercepted by malware before it reaches its destination, there are many promises to do something more credible. from the infrastructure we already have available using blockchain.
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