Nigerians are excited for the presidential election on April 9th. It is shaping up to be an interesting race, with the current president even announcing his candidacy on Facebook.
They are also excited to register to vote using 132,000 direct data capture (DDC) machines – an electronic voter registration process by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that’s new to Nigeria. But just as registrations are getting started, reported of technology problems are starting to come in.
Voter Registration Issues
The Canadian Press reports there are basic registration issues:
At a school on Lagos’ Ikoyi Island, officials argued with each other at a distribution point hours after volunteers should have staffed their locations. When workers finally opened the metal cases containing their laptops, printers and extra batteries, they discovered the electronic equipment hadn’t been charged, in a country where electricity remains scarce.
Then Possicon details the power issue and the problems it presents:
Once election officials sorted out the power issues and found the right passwords, they ran into technology problems with the thumbprint scanner, which is supposed to ensure there is one vote per person.
Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola reports that the Zinox USB Finger Print Reader is not working, because the computer is not loading its hardware driver. Possicon says this is true at Adeye, Rashidi Oyekan and Adenola streets in Ketu, Lagos.
Preparation, Not Technology
Looking at these issues, the root cause is clear, a lack of preparation. The members of Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps, who are staffing the registration points, should have tested their registration equipment and the process at each location before the opening day of voter registrations.
Voter Registration Card with wrong genderThis is a basic rule of any technology deployment: test, test, test before you go live. Do practice runs of the technology itself (laptop, scanner, printer, etc), then test the process by running it with sample fake data, then test it on a real voter, then test it on a group of voters, all long before you actually open the registration station.
If the National Youth Service Corps staffers had done this even the day before the voter registration process started, there would not be so many issues happening on the first morning.
Still, there isn’t an issue everywhere. Akinzo says that once the glitches are worked out, electronic voter registration is a seamless process in Shomolu. The average time to register voters dropped to less than 10 minutes per person, which is impressive considering the lack of preparation.
What’s Next?
Now Bisii brings up a good question about all the Zinox laptops, fingerprint readers, and printers: What happens to INEC’s equipment after this year’s election?
I would suggest that the 132,000 computers (with at least 80,000 Zinox laptops), go to needy Nigeria university students. Let them buy the laptops through a state subsidy, like Kenya’s Wesesha program. This would jump start Nigeria’s ICT future better than free .ng domain names.
Good point about preparation. Registration and final selection of NYSC Corpers for INEC voter registration was just completed last week (that is the week of Jan. 3rd).
Also good point on donating or selling (@ a discount) the INEC laptops to secondary or university students. What is needed for ICT growth/innovation in Nigeria is practical knowledge – you need to take a thing a apart and practice on/with it to know how it works and how to make it better. Less focus on theoretical knowledge – although we need that and practical to drive research, growth, and innovation.
” The big disappointment of today were the finger print scanners from Zinox. It seems that we in Apapa got most of the bad ones, because registration virtually ground to a halt across the local government, and even beyond. Zinox can do a lot better than that. They have just given other local companies a bad name. I hope INEC has a back up plan that can go into effect early tomorrow morning because there is a tremendous amount of expectation and desire among ordinary Nigerians to get involved in the process”
From The RSVP Diares: Episode 1 of a corper involved in the process.
The Nigerian voter registration DDC machine is just a regular laptop computer running ubuntu linux, with a fingerprint scanner, webcam, printer, and external hard drive according to Michael Olafus.
Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo had issues trying to register for the elections yesterday – he was thwarted by the fingerprint scanner on the Direct Data Capture (DDC) machine. It took INEC officials, IT experts, two different scanners, and the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Martins Okunfolami to register the former president.
Still, Obasanjo cautioned Nigerians against castigating INEC over the shaky start of the exercise. According to him, it was normal for a new programme such as the DDC technology-driven voters’ registration to experience challenges at initial stage even though he stated that it was too late to call for extension of deadline for the exercise.
“Whenever you are starting a new programme like this, it’s likely to have hitches until everybody masters it. Today is the second day. I believe that by the middle of this week, both the people who are carrying out the registration, the technicians, the INEC at the highest level will be able to make this work smoothly.”
From Daily Sun: INEC machine rejects Obasanjo’s fingerprints
This is what happens when the emphasis is on the cost of the machines in question. As far as I am concerned and with the training and handling received on this DDC Machines they are certainly not worth the cost. Please Nigerians where on earth does a laptop, webcam, fingerprint scanner and a hp deskjet F1000 series cost a wholping $2000? Mind you this laptop is free Dos o!
Well, for those of you trapped in the ailing process my candid advise is dont just focus on hand washing, the trick with this fingerprint scanner model is this, KEEP THE SURFACE CLEAN – SPIRIT WILL DO THE TRICK AND THEN OBSERVE THAT THERE IS A LITTLE DOT UNDERNEATH THE PLAIN SCREEN. THE TIP OF THE FINGER SHOULD BE PLACED FIRST ON THAT THAT BEFORE RESTING THE REST PART OF THE FINGER ON THE SCANNER FACE, THIS ACTIVATES THE SCANNER AND THEN LEAVE FOR 10-20 BEFORE THE REGISTRANT REMOVES THE FINGER, IN MOST CASES THE (SUB-STANDARD APPLICATION) WOULD HAVE TURNED GREEN.
ALSO NOT THAT THE APPLICATION PRELOADED ON THE LAPTOP REQUIRES U TO PLUG ALL ATTACHMENT – WEBCAM, BACKUP DRIVE, SCANNER AND PRINTER. THE POOR APPLICATION ALSO CUTS OFF THE PRINTER IN THE EVENT OF LAPTOP BATTERY DRAIN SAY TO A FIGURE BELOW 40%. ALL REGISTRANT, WHOSE CARD IS NOT PRINTED IMMEDIATELY ENDS UP WITH duplicate WATERMARKED ON HIS CARD. PLS SEE INEC INSTRUCTION AS TO WHAT CONDITIONS PERMITS THE USE OF SUCH CARDS….we too funny!