By Chisaa Okoye
Local government elections held in Lagos and Ogun states on Saturday amid widespread voter apathy and card reader malfunction.
The exercise, though largely peaceful, witnessed very low turnout of voters in areas visited by ArmadaNews as many residents shunned the exercise and stayed indoors while the voting lasted.
In Lagos, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila experienced hitches at his Surulere ward as the card reader at his polling unit failed during the elections owing to poor network coverage.
“I came in here and unfortunately, in an urban cosmopolitan area, the card reader is not working.
“And I asked the officials what’s going and they said it hasn’t been working all day. And so they couldn’t really use the card reader. I asked why, they said because of network problems. So I had to fill an incident form. “So, it’s almost like we are not there yet”, the Speaker lamented.
The Speaker, who represents Surulere 1 Constituency at the House of Representatives, said the incident was a clear indication that Nigeria was not yet ripe for electronic transmission of results.
He pointed out that the local government elections are more important than other elections because they are at the grassroot level.
“For me, it is more important for obvious reasons: the local government elections are where the grassroots is. And as is often said, any house that is built on sand or shaky grounds will crumble.
“You have to have solid ground to build a solid foundation to build a proper house. And that’s where the local government comes to play. These are the people of Nigeria. This is the vote that is closest to them”, Channels Television quoted the Speaker as saying.
He further added: “Many of us in the National Assembly want progressive elections and that includes electronic transmission of votes,” he said.
“But many are also acutely aware of the problems they have in their constituencies, where some people believe there is no network coverage. And that has come to play here today in practical terms.
“It is one thing to theorise and say we want electronic transmission, which is what I want and what many of my colleagues want. But it’s another thing to actually see it in operation.”