The days of ‘ayes’ and ‘nays’ may soon be over in the House of Reps

The Federal House of Representatives is set to adopt a modern electronic voting pattern and dump its age long voting system of shouting ‘aye’ and ‘nay’ in approval and disapproval, respectively.

The House is set to introduce a full scale e-parliament, and the Punch reports that Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, has agreed to the e-voting platform.

According to the Speaker’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Turaki Hassan, “the implication of the new system is that records of each member’s punctuality and voting patterns can easily be accessed by his/her constituents and members of the public.”

“According to details of the Legislative Agenda as adopted by the 8th Assembly early in its life last year, the 8th House commits to the use of Information and Communications Technology in the daily conduct of legislative activities of the House. E-parliament and e-voting platforms will be made a regular feature of the House.”

“E-voting will be used regularly during voting to properly reflect voting records of members and parliamentary accountability. The House shall collaborate with relevant stakeholders to achieve the goal of an e-parliament.”

But then, there’s a challenge for the new system, a vast majority of House members are not computer-literate.

What a downer.

“These members cannot operate a computer. As a matter of fact, this has been the main factor delaying the introduction of e-parliament by the National Assembly”, a senior lawmaker was quoted to have said.

“As we speak, their offices are equipped with computers and Internet facilities, but can they operate the systems? No.”

“They will face tough times and may likely oppose it or find a reason to ensure that the manual system continues.”

“There is even a computer mounted in front of the Speaker’s seat as he presides over proceedings.”

“None of the Speakers preceding Dogara ever operated system. Dogara himself has hardly been operating it since he assumed office on June 9, 2015.”

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