OPINION: How to bypass BVAS

BIMODAL voter accreditation system [BVAS] was touted as part of the evolving tech antidote to Nigeria’s perennial problems with dodgy elections, controversial results and often difficult to prove frauds arising from the elections in tribunals. Faith in that piece of tech increased after it was deployed for offseason governorship elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states. The elections were said to have been reasonably above board given our experiences in the past, especially since 1999.

If BVAS had been in place from the beginning of this so-called fourth republic, it probably would not have taken Peter Obi, who contested for Anambra state governorship in 2003 under the All Progressives Grand Alliance [APGA] political party, all of three years, moving from one court to the other, to retrieve his mandate from the grips of Dr. Chris Ngige of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP]. Ngige is now of the All Progressives Congress [APC] political party while Obi was the presidential candidate of the Labour Party [LP] in the February 25th election after moving from APGA to the PDP where he was the vice-presidential candidate in the 2019 election. As we said earlier, BVAS delivered in the recent off-season elections. But just. In Osun state, the role of BVAS is still unsettled. It delivered Ademola Adeleke as governor but the election tribunal upturned it also using results from BVAS and the backend of the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] server. The tribunal declared the second term seeking Gboyega Oyetola as the rightful winner. However, the Court of Appeal recently restored Adeleke’s mandate. Now the Supreme Court will make the final determination on who really won the Osun
governorship election. If BVAS is a game-changer, should we continue to witness this musical chair?

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: Fallout from presidential election, did BVAS fail Nigerians

There probably should not be any doubt that BVAS is a game-changer. But this is Nigeria. What we cannot corrupt, we bypass. And that is the fate that appears to have befallen this innovation which was first widely used in our general elections of February 25th and March 18th. The reckoning by the election cheats in our country is that you have to, as a voter, get to BVAS first before the tech can influence and authenticate the election and its result. How to get to BVAS is now the new challenge. Lagos state was outstanding in separating voters from the BVAS during the governorship/state assembly elections on March 18th. Ostensibly stunned by the outcome of the presidential election in February where the ‘owner’ of the state lost [and by a wide margin by yet unofficial vote count], his foot soldiers and sundry roughnecks marshalled by one Musiliu Akinsanya otherwise known as MC Oluomo ensured through verbal and physical violence that ‘non-indigenes’ were kept away from polling units and separated from the tell all BVAS. The target were the Igbo who reside in Lagos and who were suspected to have swung the presidential votes in favour of their kinsman Peter Obi, and who were working to install a Yoruba youngster in place of the incumbent governor. But we will not promote the obviously false narrative that Lagos state was alone in designing and implementing the template of how to bypass BVAS during elections. In Imo state it was a different approach. The state’s governorship election is not due until November but there was state assembly polls. The report about town was that in different guises, the state government and its agents ensured that suspected ‘deviant’ voters were separated from ballot boxes in as many constituencies as possible. The government in Imo state, as in Lagos state, is led by the APC. And unless the situation changed prior to that election, conventional thinking was that the APC was not a party of first choice in the state, and indeed elsewhere in the south east region. In Ebonyi state, Gov. Dave Umahi won his first and second tenures on the ticket of the PDP. But as at the last count the APC has won, some cynics would say captured, about 23 of the 27 assembly seats so far declared in Imo state. When the Supreme Court declared Hope Uzodinma as the state governor nearly four years ago, the assembly was overwhelmingly PDP with a sprinkling of APC lawmakers. As is common in our party politics, virtually all the PDP House members defected to the APC immediately PDP’s Governor Emeka Ihedioha was dethroned and Uzodinma installed by the Supreme Court. In a viral video during the assembly election, a team reportedly led by the deputy speaker of the House, was seen steamrolling from constituency to constituency allegedly enforcing disenfranchisement of those who were suspected would vote against APC candidates. The rampaging convoy which left sky high dust in its trail also included and armoured personnel carrier [APC]. Imagine APC [party] using APC [security vehicle] to intimidate voters. Unlike Lagos where voter intimidation and suppression was orchestrated by a few Yoruba loyal to Alhaji Bola Tinubu on Igbo, other non- indigenes and Yoruba who resembled Igbo, in Imo state and other parts of the south east it was a case of Igbo on Igbo. In Delta state a similar thing of separating ‘enemy’ voters from polling units and BVAS played out. A video purporting to show one Fred Ajudua, a man noted for having a run-in with the law went viral on March 18th in which a speaker was clearly heard telling those who would not vote for the ruling PDP candidate in the state to stay away from polling booths in their own interest.

So the game changing role of BVAS is automatically defeated by the voter suppression antics of Oluomo, Ajudua and Opara, the deputy speaker of the Imo Assembly and similar persons across the country who ensured by force, intimidation, bodily harm and murders that many voters stayed away from performing their civic duty. BVAS will only capture persons who presented themselves to vote and its contents can only be used by disaffected candidates to contest disputed results. BVAS cannot do anything about thousands and millions of potential voters who were denied access to vote. There will be no need to talk about BVAS that were carted away and destroyed by thugs in the perceived strongholds of opposition candidates and parties.

Yes, BVAS was a potential game-changer for Nigeria’s troubled elections. But we did not reckon that Nigeria will happen to it. And nothing that Nigeria happens to ever remains the same. Lagos, Imo, Delta and some other states proved beyond any iota of doubt that BVAS can be bypassed and rendered useless in Nigeria’s quest to deliver free, fair, transparent and credible elections. The template is now available for those who are minded and adept at rigging elections to copy. Here, there are no consequences for bad behaviour The price for disenfranchising citizens is low voter turnout which will be acceptable as long as it only adversely affects the opposition. The manipulation of elections by those entrusted with the responsibility in brazen collusion with security agents, which now appears incurable, is a story for another day. But one thing is certain: Nigerians are the greatest problem to elections in Nigeria. Innovations and tech will only take us so far if we fail to cure the toxic human factor.

AUTHOR: Ugo Onuoha

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Articles published in our Graffiti section are strictly the opinion of the writers and do not represent the views of Ripples Nigeria or its editorial stand.

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