Nigerians must demand e-voting in future elections, Moghalu says
Moghalu, a former presidential candidate, believes voting in Nigeria can be made easier.
Recommended articles
Moghalu finished the February 23 election with only 21,886 votes according to the result announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), a result that he's rejected several times.
One of his most notable problems with the election is the low 35.6% voter turnout, with votes largely shared between winner, President Muhammadu Buhari, and runner-up, Atiku Abubakar.
Moghalu took to Twitter early on Friday, August 2, to point out the disparity between the number of votes during the election (27 million) in relation to the number of votes cast during the 2018 edition of Big Brother Naija (170 million), a reality TV show.
He posted, "We need to get serious about rescuing our country from the doldrums, not just wishing away our reality in reality TV shows. We can view @BBNaija AND vote right in elections!"
Many Twitter users responded by pointing out that it's easier to vote on BBN because it takes place online and is not plagued by the same security concerns and irregularities faced during political elections.
Moghalu said these were just excuses to avoid confronting societal behaviours, noting that Nigerians have failed to commit to taking action against the country's crises.
The former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) then noted that while it's unrealistic to expect Nigeria's electoral process to be as easy as BBN's, e-voting would help.
"I support e-voting and we should demand for it. But we must still go out and vote even with that," he posted.
Moghalu also knocked INEC for failing in 2019, dismissing voting in Nigeria as "an obstacle course".
In April, Moghalu announced his withdrawal from partisan politics to focus on a citizens' movement for electoral reform.
He warned that Nigerians must focus on electoral reform and voter education, two things he said he'll pursue with a non-partisan platform called To Build A Nation (TBAN).
JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!
Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:
Email: eyewitness@pulse.ng