CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
OF STUDY
Democratic societies as observed are founded
on the principles of elections and on opinion expression capabilities. Given the fact that elections are the major
pillar of leadership selection and governance legitimation in liberal
democracies, constant and un-seizing effort for the reformation of the electoral
process is an imperative in all countries that are democratizing (Beetseh and Akpoo, 2015).
Elections are a critical component of any
democratic society. As such, Nigeria’s return to democratic rule and engagement
with the democratic process led to the conduct of its general elections in
1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. General elections are elections conducted in
the federation at large for federal and state elective positions (The Electoral
Institute 2014).
For these elections to be actualized, an electoral
system exists to provide the electorate with opportunity and the right to
choose their representative and maintain contact with them. Hence, for an
electoral system to be democratic, it must provide for equal electorate and the
freedom by that electorate to make a real and meaningful choice devoid of
intimidation (Eminue, 2005). One of the
fundamental challenges truncating and aborting elections in Nigeria is election
rigging, not just any kind of rigging but the manipulation of results to favor
a particular political party.
This situation has forced many to see
elections in Nigeria as a mirage or a mere ‘selection’; selection in the sense
that the electorate are left out of the entire system, owing to the fact that
elections are conducted with or without the full participation of the
electorate, who are supposed to choose those who rule over them.
The system operates in a way that suggests a
total disregard and misapplication of democratic ethos. Thus, the outcome has
always been manipulated in favour of candidates of the powerful few.
The manipulation of elections begins from the
voter accreditation and up to the last stages of counting of votes and filling
of result sheets. Olaoye (2007), submitted that during the Second Republic, the
rigging of elections was even worse than the abrupt First Republic where
rigging of elections occurred from the casting of votes up to the stage of
counting of votes casted.
Concerned about the massive electoral fraud
witnessed in past general elections in Nigeria, INEC deployment of the card
reader during the 2015 general elections was aimed at ensuring a credible,
transparent, free and fair election. This was expected to deepen Nigeria’s
electoral democracy. However, the use of the electronic device in the 2015 Presidential
election generated debate among election stakeholders at the time of the
elections (Alebiosu,
2016).
The
card reader which is a technological device was designed to authenticate
and verify on the election day a Permanent Voter Card (PVC) issued by INEC. The
device uses a cryptographic technology that has ultra-low power consumption,
with a single core frequency of 1.2GHz and an Android 4.2.2. Operating System
(INEC, 2015). In other words, the INEC card reader is designed to read
information contained in the embedded chip of the permanent voter’s card issued
by INEC to verify the authenticity of the Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) and also
carry out a verification of the intending voter by matching the biometrics
obtained from the voter on the spot with the ones stored on the PVC
(Engineering Network Team, 2015).
However, after elections, industry
stakeholders hailed INEC for the introduction of card readers in the 2015
Presidential election, which they said, helped in no small measure in reducing
election fraud across the country, despite the challenges that came with it.
According to them, the card reader technology did not only reduce election
rigging and snatching of ballot boxes from polling units, but also enhanced
speedy and accurate electoral processes during accreditation of voters. The use
of card readers for elections is highly commendable because it has helped
reduced election fraud like multiple registrations and multiple voting (This
Day Live, 2015). With the card readers,
the true identities of card holders were matched with the details contained in
their permanent voter’s cards (PVCs), during accreditation and the process
helped in reducing fraudulent accreditation that marred electoral processes in
the past,” (Ekuwem, 2015). This
study therefore is seek to examine the effect of Card Reader on election
credibility in Nigeria using the 2015 Presidential election as case study.
1.2
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Oftentimes, elections in Nigeria are usually
attracted by violence which is as a result of malpractices experienced during
election. Credible elections has been a herculean task to Nigerian as
Presidential elections in the past were done through the use of manual
accreditation which created massive manipulation of election results by the
ruling party, which leads to poor governance with little or no developmental
efforts recorded. It was against this backdrop that the Independent Electoral
Commission (INEC) introduced the use of Card reader which was used in the 2015
Presidential election which seem to have provided some credibility in the
electoral process. It is in the light of the above, that this study seek to
examine the effect of Card Reader on election credibility in Nigeria using the
2015 Presidential election as case study.
1.3
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What are the issues
that led to the introduction of Card Reader in 2015 Presidential Election in
Nigeria?
2. What is the effect of
Card Reader on election credibility in Nigeria?
3. What are the issues
experienced while using the Card Reader for the 2015 Presidential Election in
Nigeria?
1.4
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
Broadly, the objective of
the study is to examine the effect of Card Reader on Election Credibility in
Nigeria in 2015 Presidential election. Therefore, this study hopes to achieve
the following objectives:
1. To identify the issues
that lead to the introduction of Card Reader in 2015 Presidential Election in
Nigeria
2. To examine the credibility effect of the Card Reader
in 2015 Presidential Election in Nigeria
3. To elucidate the issues experienced while using the
Card Reader for the 2015 Presidential Election in Nigeria
4. To profound solutions to the issues experienced while
using card readers for 2015 Presidential Election in Nigeria
1.5
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study is
on the effect of card reader on election credibility in Nigeria. The study will solely cover the 2015
presidential election as other elections in the 2015 poll will be exempted. Likewise,
the study will only focused on the use of card reader on credibility of the
poll and not the general overview of other happenings that influenced the
election credibility which has an impact on the outcome of the election.
1.6 JUSTIFICATION
OF STUDY
One of the central
issue in the 2015 general elections in Nigeria was the use of the card reader,
which was a critical component in the election. It was used for the first time
in the electoral process of Nigeria and it remains one of the greatest
technological innovations of the 2015 general elections. The card reader is a
technological device set up to authenticate and verify, on election day, a
permanent voter card issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The fundamental
basis for deploying the technological device was to ensure a credible,
transparent, free and fair election and thereby to deepen Nigeria’s democracy.
However, the use of the card reader generated debate among election
stakeholders before, during and after the 2015 general elections. Some of such
debates were the legality and the reliability of the use of the device for
credible electoral process. This
study therefore, attempts to examine the effect of card reader on election
credibility in Nigeria.
The justification of this
study is unquantifiable as it will serve as a major source of resource to
researchers and scholars that are interested in carrying out related study with
diverging views on the outcome of this study. The outcome of this study will
educate the general public on the benefits of the use of card reader for
subsequent general elections in Nigeria which will boost credibility of
elections and as a result consolidates our democracy.
1.7 METHODOLOGY
This study adopts the content analysis
approach, using survey literature to generate relevant information in
justifying the effect of card reader on election credibility in Nigeria (A case
study of Presidential election 2015). The sources include journal articles,
INEC bulletins and pamphlets, Newspapers, interview conducted with INEC
stakeholders, magazines among others.
1.8 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This research adopts the Rational Theory in
explaining the research topic. The rational theory of decision making
originated from the field of economics because many economists use this theory
to evaluate consumer or investment choices (Mas-Colell, 1995). This theory
explains how a decision maker looks at every minute detail of information
regarding the issue at hand before finally arriving at a decision such as its
advantages and disadvantages, viability and acceptability. INEC had the
problems of electoral rigging and polling unit politics at hand after critical
thinking, consultations and research subscribed to the aggressive voters
education to dismantle polling unit politics and deployed Card Reader to
checkmate the fast rising case of election rigging and over inflated votes.
However, before the Card Reader was introduced, INEC had painstakingly worked
out the modalities of this sophisticated device including switching to the
manual method of accreditation and resetting the Card Reader in case of any
anomaly associated with the device and also analysed its merits and demerits.
INEC on the other hand went on serious voter’s education campaign both on the
mass media and also on road campaigns to demonstrate to voters not to engage
themselves in election related offences (Vanguard News, 2015). Surprisingly,
the electorate also applied this theory even before the day of election and
that was why there was low level of violence recorded during the 2015 general
elections. Again some unknown party agents after being frustrated with the
deployment of the Card Reader by INEC resulted to the purchase of PVC so as to
tactically disenfranchise and cripple voters, a move that was opposed by many
political advocates. Likewise, the electorate had made up their minds to resist
any acts of intimidation and at the end of the secondary elections good news
began to pour in regarding the success of the Card Reader and also the conduct
of voters at the polling units.