To Build a Nation (TBAN), the nationwide non-partisan citizens movement founded by Professor Kingsley Moghalu, a presidential candidate in the 2019 general election and a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has announced the kick-off of its campaign for one million signatures to a petition to the National Assembly for fundamental electoral reform in Nigeria.
In separate letters addressed to Senator Ahmad Lawan, President of the Senate, and Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Moghalu stated: “As a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and with the understanding of my constitutional role and duty as a citizen, I am writing to petition the National Assembly on the need to immediately ensure the fundamental reform of the legal framework governing our electoral process in order to safeguard our democracy and to strengthen our democratic institutions.”
All Nigerians who desire a deep reform of the legal framework for the country’s electoral system are enjoined to download and sign a copy of the petition, which is available on TBAN’s website: www.tobuildanation.org.
The petition calls for electronic accreditation of all voters, electronic collation of all votes, electronic transmission of votes from polling units, and the legal empowerment of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to adopt electronic and digital voting in pilot phases by 2023 and fully by 2027. The petition also calls for eligible Nigerians in the diaspora to be allowed to exercise their political franchise by voting digitally in Nigerian elections by 2023.
Prof. Moghalu, who is a former senior official of the United Nations and a Professor of Public Policy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, USA, was the presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in the 2019 elections. He ran a strong campaign that influenced a shift in Nigeria’s political narrative and increased awareness of alternative possibilities for effective, 21st leadership in Africa’s most populous nation.
