The Arewa Young Lawyers Forum has Charged the Nigerian Bar Association to Abolish E-voting and bring secret ballot system.

In the memorandum dated 31st October, 2020 addressed to the Chairman, NBA Electoral Reform and Audit Committee and personally signed by the Chairman, Arewa YLF Mr O. D Jimoh, the forum strongly proposed the abolition of electronic voting stating that same is susceptible to manipulation and that their is a wide belief from members that the data uploaded to the site is always programmed and preconfigured to achieve predetermined results and as such has always given undue advantage to few candidates.

Read the full recommendations below

The Chairman,
NBA Electoral Reform and Audit Committee,
Abuja.

Dear Sir,

RE: MEMORANDUM IN RESPECT OF NBA ELECTORAL REFORM AND AUDIT

The above subject matter please refer.

The Arewa Young Lawyers Forum ( ” Arewa YLF”) most heartily congratulates the leadership of the Nigeria Bar Association (” NBA”) on the giant stride taken in the direction of reforming the association’s elections, as a way of promoting transparency and fair play in subsequent NBA elections. This, we hope, will not only serve to assuage the genuine concerns of those who felt short-changed in the wake of the previous Elections, specifically the 2016, 2018 and 2020 elections of national officers of the NBA, but it will also reaffirm the already waned confidence of the public in the capacity of the NBA to set the pace in terms of leadership and electoral reforms as seen in the glorious past of the NBA.

The Arewa YLF commends the NBA for the innovations replete in its electoral process especially with the introduction of universal suffrage, which has in no small measure, imbued all lawyers regardless of years of call with a clear sense of belonging and ownership of the NBA Project. This is a far cry from what was in existence until the recent past. However, despite the wide acceptability of the innovations thereof, the issue of electronic voting has remained the bane of the NBA electoral process. Though electronic voting was introduced to engender transparency and fairness in the electoral process of the NBA, there is a wide spread belief that it has done more harm than good going by the tension, acrimony and dissatisfaction it has generated. Significantly, the opinion on its incapacity to produce a credible and legitimate leadership has continued to be a vociferous one, the last of which almost tore the NBA apart.

There is no gainsaying the fact that electronic voting, though the way to go especially given the trend in the world as a global village has only succeeded in promoting mutual distrust and ill will as candidates after elections in the previous NBA electoral process have handed down strictures even as they have noised their dissatisfaction with the process. One of the serious concerns raised in that regard is the fact that the data uploaded to the site is always programmed and preconfigured to achieve predetermined results, so as to unjustly favour an anointed candidate at the detriment of others, regardless of the popularity or otherwise of the anointed candidate. This issue more than any other has made mockery of the gamut of the NBA electoral process; thereby casting doubt on the honour and integrity of the association.

It is in view of the foregoing that the Arewa YLF considers it a desiratum to proffer its most humble contributions to the current discourse on the way forward with regards to the NBA electoral process as currently being spearheaded by the NBA Electoral Reform and Audit Committee.

After a thorough deliberation and a dispassionate reflection on the 2016, 2018 and 2020 elections of the NBA as conducted by the various Election Committees of the Nigeria Bar Association ( “ECNBA”), Arewa YLF is of the firm position that only a most sincere efforts on the part of the leadership of the NBA in terms of electronic reform can midwife a viable association all and sundry will be proud of. It is on this same footing that we make the following recommendations:

1. The Arewa YLF strongly proposes the abolition of electronic voting. This is because experience has shown that this mode of voting is highly susceptible to manipulation as many believe the data uploaded to the site is always programmed and preconfigured to achieve predetermined results and as such has always given undue advantage to few candidates.

2. The Arewa YLF supports secret ballot system of voting with the NBA national elections to be conducted at NBA branches and results to be forwarded to the NBA headquarters for final collation after same have been placed on a server created for the purpose of the election by the NBA.

3. The Arewa YLF proposes an ECNBA to be constituted by seven members appointed by the NBA President at the national level and another three members for each branch as members of the ECNBA to conduct national election at the branch level.

4. Further to the aforesaid, the Arewa YLF proposes that each candidate for the national elections should be allowed to appoint agents at every branch to monitor the conduct of the national election at the branch level.

5. The results of election conducted at the branch level should be forwarded to the NBA headquarters for final collation.

6. The Arewa YLF proposes that universal suffrage be retained as all legal practitioners are equal and critical stakeholders in the NBA.

In conclusion, we sincerely believe the foregoing recommendations have the potency to address the challenges associated with the innovations introduced in the course of the 2016 NBA elections which have surreptitiously become the bane of the NBA elections.

Please accept the assurances of our highest regards.

Signed:

O. D. Jimoh Esq.,
Chairman Arewa YLF.
29/10/2020.