Prof. Legend Asuelime, Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC) in South Africa, says it is high time for Nigeria to embrace electronic voting for a robust and more inclusive electoral system.
Asuelime stated this during an interaction with journalists on Sunday in Benin.
According to him, the role of the Diaspora members in shaping the political direction of the country cannot be ignored.
Nigerians in Diaspora, he said, were involved in electoral processes beginning from the campaign to balloting.
Hee said they were aggressively engaging in campaign for e-voting, saying he had interfaced with Dr Abike Dabiri, who is the Chairman of the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission on the matter.
He expressed the hope that President Bola Tinubu, whom he referred to as a diaspora before he ventured into politics, would work to actualise the dream.
Asuelime said he formed part of the presidential campaign council that prosecuted the success of President Tinubu at the last election.
“The Diasporas do come home for elections. We were here in the last election. We came here to vote.
“We also came here to mobilise; we mobilised people from the Diasporas, we chartered flight and we came.
“I will tell you one thing for each Diaspora that is abroad, he has a lot of family members at home, and he is their bread winner.
“So they control certain rooms and they can tell them the direction to vote. So we brought the whole lot of them and they were here in the country to vote and to also mobilise others to vote.
“We also participated during the campaign period. We formed part of the Presidential Campaign Council.
“We should understand that the president also had a series of town hall meetings across the world in the UK and South Africa. I hosted the South African meeting,” he said.
He, however, noted that identifying true Nigerians in Diaspora was one of the major challenges.
“I think the first thing we need to get together is to ensure that the means of identification for Nigerians is actually finalised.
“For instance the National Identity Number (NIN) and Nigeria’s Identity Card will become automated that wherever you are, if you swipe it your vote go in.
“So it will become a point in Nigeria when the voter’s card will not be different from your national identity card.
“This will also curb double voting because once you use your national identity card once, it records that this person has voted,” he said.
On European Union’s (EU) report, the APC chairman said there was an agenda behind the report; hence Nigeria should not bother about it.
On the 2024 governorship election in Edo, the APC chairman said the most interesting thing to him was to ensure that APC returns to power in the state.
This, he said, was more important to him than his personal ambition.
He called on the state chapter of the party to take the members in Diaspora serious and understand their role in changing the narrative of politics in the state towards the governorship election.
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