Cover Image Source: The Vanguard Newspaper

On Saturday, February 25, 2023, one of Nigeria’s historic presidential elections was conducted. The voter turnout was impressive, with a large majority being the nation’s youth, and the three top candidates garnered votes from their avid supporters.

Social media platforms, especially Twitter, were filled with images, videos, and audio clips showing hired thugs abusing voters, snatching ballot boxes, and, in some cases, disenfranchising people.

The result collation began shortly afterward, and with that started the ruckus. The evidence shared by voters on the internet, pictures of results collated at local polling units, did not tally with those uploaded to IReV, INEC’s viewing portal for the election results.

Most people pointed out that there had been vote-buying in some areas and gross manipulation of the results in general. As a result, many people refused to acknowledge INEC's announcement of the president-elect.

What does Blockchain have to do with this?

Blockchain technology has been widely accepted in most parts of the world and is utilized in Nigeria’s crypto and fintech spaces. It would have provided a more significant benefit to the just-concluded elections.

Below are reasons why Web3 technology (the use of blockchain) would have provided a more transparent election process and a subsequent final result.

Blockchain-enabled e-voting (BeV) is a tamper-proof voting system that has been used in countries such as Namibia, South Korea, Sierra Leone, and Brazil to conduct elections successfully. If it worked in countries with such a large population as Nigeria, it is bound to have the same success rate.

The blockchain network is immutable and decentralized. This means that it is a neutral space where information can be uploaded and stored without being tampered with by third parties. This would in turn remove doubts concerning the number of votes and the authenticity of the uploaded results.

Smart contracts could have been created with blockchain to automate sectors of the election process, such as verifying voters at polling units. This would have been a better option than BVAS, which disappointed its polling agents and voters at the polling units.

Online voting is widely accepted in modern society. It is only right that Nigeria follows this trend. It is useful for reducing the costs of infrastructure and setting up physical polling units.

Considerations Before Adopting Blockchain

Technology has strongholds in Nigeria, but its growth is hindered by certain limitations. This also applies to Web3 technology, to which blockchain belongs. These are factors that would hinder the adoption of this development.

The first is digital literacy.

There is a great divide in Nigeria’s population. Some parts of the county have access to fiber networks and 5G networks. Some are getting used to the 3G network, while some parts have no internet access at all.

Most people do not have access to smartphones or the internet in general.

Smartphones and other related devices can be difficult to use for some people. Most of them are not willing to learn.

The second is the absence of underlying infrastructure.

Despite the large budget allocated, votes are still cast and counted manually in Nigeria. The few technological developments, such as the IRev and BVAS, did not meet their goals.

The IReV site lagged because of high traffic, and officials did not know how to use the BVAS machines.

These issues would prevent most people from participating in the elections if blockchain was enabled. Web3 technology is here to stay, and it is necessary to protect Nigeria’s electoral integrity and reduce the political apathy that has plagued the electoral system.