2020 is another year for the Nigerian Bar Association General Election. Being a year for the general elections, we are sure that very soon, campaigns will begin at almost all branches of the Bar. Indeed, the cyberspace is also flooded with the profiles and images of prospective contestants for the upcoming election.

While some have already indicated interest for offices they wish to vie for, others are yet to make their stand known on which office they eye for the ballot. Although some have started making their preparations against the day, it is worthy of note that only an up-to-expectation election can attract a seasoned eulogy for the current administration which has it as a task to deliver.

The 2018 General elections was not without hitches. None has. It could be recalled that the NBA employed the services of Chams Plc as the ICT partners to handle the online electronic voting of the NBA. The Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) was called upon to rescind its contract with Chams after it was discovered that its chairman, Dr. (Mrs) Ajoritsedere Josephine Awosika is a member of the management board of Access Bank Plc, a company who had one of the presidential aspirants (as he then was), Paul Usoro SAN, as its director. Apart from the call, there were other hitches that were experienced with the ICT giant which made many to doubt the readiness of Chams to handle the task before it, and that led to the engagement of Crenet, another ICT ninja to take over from Chams.

Among others, there was the issue with the verification of members who were qualified to vote. Very close to the election, TNL learnt that the numbers of voters verified were not up to twenty percent (20%) of the number of voters registered. This was just very close to the election. This issue lingered until it was eventually addressed and sorted out. Also, there was the issue of lack of security in the verification aspect of the process, being that any other person using a different email and phone number could easily verify and steal the code of another person. In all, the system was believed to be slow and not too friendly for bar men to access.

During the process of addressing some of the challenges confronting the elections, then, it was suggested that an independent auditor be employed to collate the available data and be sure of the list of members qualified to vote. This was to include a Pre election Audit of the entire process. Not only this, it was also suggested that another independent Post election Audit, be carried out. The abovementioned challenges are some of the issues that were experienced during the 2018 elections.

As the 2020 election approaches, it is expected that the Paul Usoro led administration look into some of the issues raised then and see how they can be addressed and worked on. This means that the ECNBA needs to be constituted as soon as possible within the prescribed constitutional framework to start preparation. NBA branches need to be put on the red-light to do their collation of eligible members to vote and forward same within time. An ICT partner or maybe two should be engaged to start gathering the needed data, and work to create a strong and more secured verification mechanism to ease the verification process. A strong and user friendly website need be maintained to enable members to get verified. The need to start working is necessitated by the fact that verification is time consuming. NBA needs to maintain a mentoring team of experts to assess the voting process and see to it that the process is free and fair. As a matter of fact, an independent ICT ninja should be engaged so that the case of Chams will not repeat it. Furthermore, a pre election and post election audit process should be carried out to ascertain the accuracy of vote cast at the poll.

The NBA must understand that it is an eye of the society. It is indeed a good thing that the organization has led the stage for online voting. More need to be done to make people believe more in the system, and the earlier the hitches of 2018 are addressed, the better.

TheNigeriaLawyer Editorial