By Joshua Omoloye, Abuja
Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VoN), Osita Okechukwu, has said that the newly signed Electoral Act 2022 is an antidote to and the needed vaccine against election rigging in the country.
Expressing confidence that the new Act and other extant electoral laws including the 1999 constitution will henceforth give credibility to elections across board in the country.
He however commended the political goodwill of President Muhammadu Buhari in assenting the Bill, stressing that the President has proved wrong critics of the APC administration and its avowed determination of leaving a legacy of reforming the nation’s electoral process and deepening her democracy.
Okechukwu noted that President has proved them wrong by endorsing the Vote Rigging Vaccine ( VRV). which is crucial piece of electoral legislation and has bequeathed to Nigerians an Electoral Act that empowers deployment of the Smart Card Reader, Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and other technological devices for electoral fidelity.
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“By virtue of the Electoral Act 2022, the VRV offers electronic accreditation and electronic transmission of results. These voters empowerment machine combined to revolutionize free, fair and transparent elections in Nigeria. Electronic Transmission of result is the key element in the Act and will automatically boost voters turn out to 60% in future elections.
“Electronic Transmission is the lofty milestone and indeed, comes as one of the progressive legacies of Mr President who, as a victim of vote-rigging has always craved for law instrument that contains progressive provisions to knock out thuggery during accreditation, voting and collation processes.
“By consolidating the power of votes to count and transparently so counted, President Buhari has finally empowered the people to come out in large numbers to choose their leaders without interference of the dreaded Money Bags.”
Commenting on the efficacy of the new law to seal social contract between political office seekers and the electorate, he said “I am making this bold declaration, because I foresee the great potentials of the Bill. Worthy of note include the democratic efficacy of the Bill with particular reference to sections 3,9 (2), 34, 41, 47, 84 (9), (10) and (11) among others.”
