Auta Nyada, the chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Legal Education Committee, says Nigeria is not ripe for diaspora voting.

Mr Nyada said this at the Multi-stakeholders’ Forum on Youth Electoral Reform Priorities on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said that although many groups had recently proposed diaspora voting, the electoral system was not mature enough to accommodate it.

Mr Nyada advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to address the loopholes observed in the 2023 general election and the other off-cycle elections rather than delve into diaspora voting.

“Diaspora voting is actually a good idea, but for me, I don’t think that Nigeria has reached the stage for diaspora voting. Introducing diaspora voting will require a lot of effort to be successful.

“Nigeria is still struggling with the operation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and people are talking about diaspora voting.

“We are witnesses to the malfunctioning of the BVAS in the 2023 general election. I think we should work toward rectifying the problem instead of talking about diaspora voting,” he said.

Mr Nyada said Nigeria must use watertight technology before considering diaspora voting.

“So many foreigners are getting the National Identification Number (NIN) in spite of the stringent regulations by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

“If you introduce diaspora voting today in Nigeria, all black people in the world could decide to vote as Nigerians. We don’t have a watertight security system to identify genuine Nigerians from others. I think diaspora voting is for the future and not now,” he said.

Mr Nyada also called for the amendment of the Electoral Act to ensure that all election matters were terminated before elected officials were sworn in.

“You can’t expect me to have control over the state power apparatus and still expect me to lose an election case in court. It is really impossible,” he said. 

(NAN)