It is recalled that the NBA President, Augustine Alegeh, SAN, had on Friday, August 29 2014, in Owerri, Imo State stated that he would press for e-voting within the electoral system in the NBA. He further announced that in line with Section 9 (4) of the NBA Constitution (Amended and adopted at the Annual General Meeting held in Ahuja on 27th August, 2015), the Election into National Offices Shall be by universal suffrage and Electronic Voting as set out in the Second Schedule.
Giving its reasons for recommending e-voting for the forthcoming NBA election, the De Carba Tetengi (SAN) led NBA Constitutional Review Committee stated that “this will encourage transparency and widespread acceptance of the outcome of ‘the election and obviate needless controversies which tend to distract from the standing of the NBA as a leader in the fight against electoral malfeasance. Instructively, the efficacy of e-voting has now been eloquently demonstrated by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).
Lawyers view:
There are contentions. While Some lawyers, argued that poll should done via Internet others are in disagreement with this new development. Below are the views of some lawyers.
The Former Chairman of Human Rights Commission: Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, is of the view that the mechanisms for electing the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) are outdated, scandal-prone and liable to whimsical capture. He further held as follows: the pay offs for E-voting will be far reaching. They will transform the way we govern our Bar, give the Bar greater legitimacy in monitoring public affairs and ensure better revenues for the NBA.
Previously, the NBA elected its leadership by a system of delegates drawn from the 100 branches of the Bar with each branch entitled to 10 delegates. If a branch has 100 members or more, it gets an additional delegate for every one hundred members. Also entitled to vote as delegates are the elected officers of the NBA (13 of them), all living lawyers (excluding judges) who are members of the Body of Benchers, Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) and all members of the expanded National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Association.
In all, this electorate at its optimal is less than 2,000. The idea of suffrage for delegates alone was intended to reduce the expenses and uncertainties involved with universal suffrage at the Bar. That diagnosis, with the benefit of hindsight, was quite wrong. The problem was not the numbers but the fact that the governance of our Bar was too dependent on government and the elections into leadership at the Bar were too prone to manipulation. These two problems have remained unaddressed.
The flaws inherent in the old method are many. For instance, the NBA’s bi-ennial election conference is a four-day jamboree. On the first day, delegates travel to and arrive at the venue in Abuja. On the second day, the delegates are accredited and addressed by the candidates in a “Manifesto” night. Voting takes place on day three, followed by counting and declaration of results. On the fourth day, most travelling delegates return home. There is no excuse for this arrangement. For most lawyers in single or two-person practice, the delegates’ conference is a waste. The risks of road travel are also enormous. Most delegates travel long distances by mini-buses from their respective branches. Many of these buses are inadequately insured, if at all. Elections at the Bar are one car crash away from being hostage to avoidable tragedy. No amount of “God forbid” or “It is not your portion!” should be allowed to diminish the size of this risk.
In all, there is no reason why the Bar should spend four days in organizing elections in which there are fewer than 2,000 voters. If it continues this way, the Bar loses any standing to criticize the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its well-advertised inefficiencies. Returning credibility to our Bar requires that this situation be reformed urgently. To do so, the NBA must set a target for leadership selection based on universal suffrage; this they have taken a step. The idea of gathering all voters in one place is Mediaeval and must end. In the current security context that we have in Nigeria, it is plainly unsafe. Instead, voting processes at the Bar, including accreditation and balloting, can and should be de-centralised. Current ICT capabilities make this easily manageable.
Bar Monday Onyekachi Ubani , Legal Practitioner, and Former Chairman of NBA Ikeja Branch:
The NBA E-voting election is novel and historic. The success of this exercise is dependent on the managers of the system (law pavilion), the network providers and the willingness of legal practitioners to embrace this new change. Many legal practitioners do not have email addresses and many are not on WhatsApp and when you inquire why and their ready answer is that they are Analogue Lawyers. How will someone without email address be eligible to vote in this election? Impossible! Those with email address and who have their names as voters are yet to comply with simple accreditation process. My view therefore is that we should not expect perfect process this time around. It may get better as the years go by but not at this initial process.
However, the transparency and sincerity in the entire process by all concerned will go a long way in ensuring a process that may be termed free and fair by and large. I wish the NBA a huge success in this historic event. If we get it right, I foresee the INEC coming to borrow the ingenuity from us. We can, if we believe and work towards it!
Mouka, Esq., immediate past Chairman, NBA Lagos:
E-voting is a very welcome innovation and the right way to go in our professional association’s elections. It is transparent and inexpensive…and devoid of human manipulation. It has been used successfully in many other associations in Nigeria and has become accepted.
Lagos lawyer Emeka Nwadioke:
He asserts that while the introduction of universal suffrage and electronic voting is a welcome development, “implementation has thus far been challenging, to say the least.” He further argues that there is seemingly insufficient preparation prior to rolling out the process, “leading to a situation whereby the election itself is being conducted essentially as a dummy run which ought to have been concluded long before now.” He says the jury is still out yet on the competence of the ICT Partner to carry through the process “in the light of many challenges confronting the elections,” adding that while according them with good faith, “as things stand, one just has to wait and see how the entire process unfolds.”
He adds that the argument that Internet voting lacks the necessary safeguards to guarantee free and fair elections “must not be dismissed with a wave of hand,” noting that the worry is based on empirical evidence, experience and the quest for global best practices in election management. His words: “I doubt that there is any Nigerian lawyer who does not support universal suffrage and electronic voting. However, I also doubt that any lawyer that desires that in doing away with the mischief occasioned by the now rested collegiate system, we breed a worse monstrosity.”
Otokinie O. Wokoma Esq., NBA PH:
The e-voting is a welcome development. Some persons have their fears but I prefer to give the NBA leadership the benefit of doubt. We tend to forget that over many years we lost the right to elect our national officials, therefore lets us give it a try then we can further reviews.
Silas Joseph Onu, MICMC. ACIArb (UK), the Immediate Past Publicity Secretary, Nigerian Bar Association, Abuja Branch:
The 2015 NBA Constitution in Article 9 (4) provided for Universal Suffrage and Electronic voting. In the second schedule to the Constitution, details of the Electoral process were outlined. It is important to state here, that Article 9 (4) of the 2015 NBA Constitution is a transformative provision that shattered the glass ceiling in NBA’s recent political history. It has brought power back to the people and made provision that will ensure that the exercise of the newly acquired franchise is not made impracticable by providing for electronic voting system. Article 2.4 (c) of the second schedule to the 2015 NBA Constitution made allowance for the Electoral Committee (referred to as ECNBA) to choose a place, platform and time for election. It also allows them to deploy the use of available technology availed information Technology infrastructure of the Branches in order to afford all registered voters the opportunity to vote.
Recently, a member of the NBA who is strongly tied to the old ways of NBA business took the entire Bar and the Electoral process to court. He asked that the Court orders NBA to revert to manual voting in clear contravention of our Constitution. His grouse is that the Constitution provided for Electronic voting and not Internet Voting. I have made frantic effort to search for the meaning of Internet voting. The word Internet in itself is an abbreviation for ‘International Network’ which has effectively made the world a smaller place thus giving individuals or groups access to a world of real-time information and interaction. The Internet is, in itself, an electronically based information technology infrastructure that is deployed to grant access to any particular piece of data.
On the other hand, I also did some findings on electronic voting and discovered that it encompasses the use of Internet or intranet. That is to say that electronic voting may be online or offline. It is online when Internet infrastructure is deployed and offline when it is not. Therefore, Internet voting and electronic voting are synonymous, with one being part of the other. The ECNBA is well within the purview of the NBA Constitution to have chosen a website (the NBA website – mentioned many times in the Constitution) as a place and platform for the forthcoming election to hold.
I commend the ECNBA and the Alegeh led EXCO for making it possible for lawyers to easily be an integral part of the forthcoming election. Members are enthusiastic already and this election will go down in history as a great achievement for the Bar Association. We are joining this league very late. It is still not too late to be up to date with current technological advancement. One of the key conditions for qualifying to run for a National Office is that a person must be in private legal practice as envisaged by the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners. Any person who is private or public legal practice is also required by the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners to compulsorily obtain a lawyers stamp and Seal for the purposes of affixing same on all legal documents prepared by such a legal practitioner.
A person who claims to be in private legal practice but has never applied for or obtained a stamp and Seal for legal practitioners in two years, is seriously a joker and should be investigated whether he is not even a fake lawyer. The man who sued NBA over the use of Constitutionally Mandatory Electronic voting system and his proper disqualification has never applied for any stamp and Seal since the inception of the effective implementation of the policy. He claimed to be in private practice but has not explained how he has been practicing for two years without a Stamp and Seal.
Bayo Akinlade Esq. Ikorodu Branch:
I believe people should cast their votes in the branches and have the results released per each branch….so where internet fails they can go to the branch for support and cast their votes.
Ariyo Odole, NBA Lagos:
E-Voting is a great innovation and like the adult suffrage, will mark a departure from the corrupt delegate system. The application is very light and I find the process of records update very easy, fast and seamless. It is on record that some organisations have used it successfully in Nigeria in the last five years. The Bar cannot afford to remain stagnant while the rest of the world is moving on. We must sustain such advanced technology and improve on it.
Ifeanyi Agwuncha: Ahead of the elections coming up soon, regardless of our affiliations, the general consensus is that the Electoral Umpire should get their act right, let the Lawyers constituting the Electorates decide. No lapses can be excused.
The e-voting is novel, it is making his debut now, we hope it will be a smooth sail and that the controversy surrounding the INEC Card readers wont befall it.
At the end, we have our integrity on test, we can’t be advocates and a vocal/focal part and parcel of the civil society, condemn things at secular politics and falter at our task.The Bar is being watched by all and sundry; we dare not fail!.
Bar Inibehe Effiong:
I have always favoured technological innovations in the electoral process. There are fears in some quarters that the NBA leadership has sinister motives for introducing the E-voting. However, since the matter is already before the court, I will await the decision of the court.
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Criminologist & Graduate of Security Studies:
He is a professional friend of NBA with expertise in Criminal Justice and Security: This is a welcome development and I am happy that the NBA is no longer slumbering in matters of ICT and electronic jurisprudence and has resolved not to be heading back to cave when others are restlessly quickening their steps to Global Village through electronic navigation and expedition. Days are gone by when law firms are flooded with heaps of paper files and newspapers, sharing uninvited and unsolicited neighborhood with cockroaches, mice and maggots. One laptop powered by internet and backed with few back-up disks are more than enough to capture all the case files, sophisticated books on jurisprudence, celebrated decided cases and updates on burning socio-political happenings.
Though many lawyers are still victims of compuphobia, but they must be made to migrate from their world of born before computer or BBC to ICT expedition. The process should therefore be taken beyond the level of E-Voting in NBA elections and extended to all NBA institutions and establishments including the Council for Legal Education, LCE, which management and top decision makers are presently dominated by BBC lawyers.
