Presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke, has called for a technology-driven electoral system that would allow every Nigerian to cast, verify and track a ballot, declaring that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has failed to inspire confidence in the country’s elections.
‘INEC has failed. It is a monumental failure. There’s no gainsaying about it,’ Duke said during an interview.
He said widespread distrust of election results had discouraged millions of Nigerians from voting because they believed their participation would not influence the outcome.
‘The results you get from the polls often don’t reflect the views of the people.
‘So there’s disenchantment with the system, both by the contestants and the public. Most people don’t vote because they believe their votes don’t count.
‘And in a world where technology is so advanced, it’s a shame that we couldn’t devise a system that makes your votes to count,’ he said.
Duke added that available technology could ensure that every ballot was counted and independently verified, questioning why Nigeria continues to use an electoral process susceptible to manipulation.
‘The system in the world today, the technology that is available, can ensure that each vote is not only counted but verified,’ he said.
‘Technology exists. People are going to space and all that; we’re still doing this manual thing that can be manipulated. There’s no excuse for it.
‘The sincerity of purpose is not there.’
He contrasted the continued reliance on manual elections with the ease with which Nigerians transferred money electronically to people living in distant communities.
‘Technology is so advanced. We send money around to our villages, to our relatives in villages, and they get the money. But when it comes to voting, it is not safe anymore. What are we talking about?’
The former governor recalled INEC’s postponement of the 2019 general election only hours before voting was scheduled to begin, describing it as an assault on the resources and integrity of Nigerians.
‘I had to write to Professor Yakubu, the immediate past chairman, when, four hours to voting, the elections were postponed. Prior to that, he had said he was ready for the elections, that the papers, the materials, everything was in the state capitals.
‘How do you explain postponing an election four hours to voting?,’ he asked.
Duke said political parties had already deployed agents to more than 180,000 polling units and committed billions of naira before the postponement was announced.
‘You know that all the polling agents have been given allowances running into billions. There are over 180,000 polling units across the country.
‘You’re going to probably have two polling agents per booth. So, you’re talking about more than 300,000 people involved. You’re not going to give each one of them less than N10,000.
‘So you’re postponing four hours to it. Only the party in power has the muscle to raise that sort of money for a rerun.’
He stated further that last-minute election postponements were not peculiar to the All Progressives Congress (APC), recalling that a similar shift occurred under a previous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration.
‘Now, this is not unique to the APC. It was under an APC government and they appointed the chairman. The PDP did it, but theirs was better; I think it was a week to the elections that they postponed it.
‘It was for the same flimsy excuse of harmattan. Harmattan occurs every year at the same time. Bad roads have been with us.
‘But you, the chairman, had said specifically that the ballot papers and election materials had all been fully distributed and were at the various state capitals.
‘So it is so nonsensical. In fact, it’s insulting to the integrity of Nigerians to make that sort of statement.’
Duke said an unreliable electoral system had weakened democracy, encouraged voter apathy and handed incumbents an overwhelming advantage.
‘We don’t have a system of government that ensures that your vote counts. So we don’t have a democracy. We are pretending democracy,’ he stated.
He warned opposition presidential aspirants that they could not defeat an incumbent while pursuing separate ambitions.
‘Do you think you can defeat the incumbent, with all its power and its known application of power, while being divided?’ he asked.
Duke urged opposition leaders to identify and support the candidate best equipped to deliver good governance, rather than allow personal ambition to destroy their collective objective.
‘We all can’t be president. I have dreams of what it would be like for me to be president, but only one person is going to get there.
‘So I’m better off being part of a team than not being there at all. I’m tired of gripping from outside. I don’t want to be the spectator in the stands watching the field.
‘I want to be on the field and say: let’s play together.’
He described the 2027 election as pivotal and warned that Nigeria could not sustain its present trajectory for another four years.
‘There’s a future if we want it, and there’s business as usual if we also want it,’ Duke said.
‘It’s in our hands. We can determine if we want to go forward or remain as we are. If we remain as we are, we’re not going forward; we’re regressing.’