*Decry non-utilization of NPC, NIMC database
*Advocate INEC, NCC, NIGCOMSAT, Galaxy backbone collaboration
By Prince Osuagwu, Hi-Tech Editor
After a three-day national workshop on election infrastructure organised by the centre for Cyberspace studies, Nasarawa state university, Keffi, top Information and Communications Technology, ICT professionals have raised more fears that the 2023 elections may not happen without foreign interference.
The fears, according to them became necessary, considering the election would largely be technology- dependent.
Two major anchors of the event, Dr Uche Mbanaso, an Associate Professor and Executive Director, Centre for Cyberspace, NSUK and Mr Chris Uwaje, a frontline ICT expert known widely in the sector as Oracle of ICT industry, captured mood of participants and laid out bottlenecks and possible solutions to a smooth tech-based national election both in 2023 and in future elections.
For the participants of the workshop, possible hacking of election results may not be ruled out because “currently, the nation is faced with the challenges of stable and reliable broadband internet connectivity across the country to support effective digital electoral processes.
“The interoperability challenges in synchronizing the legacy internet protocol IPv4 and the modern version, IPv6 networks remain unresolved and the cybersecurity posture of the nation has avoidable gaps, especially in the area of capacity building to create a pipeline of cybersecurity workforce that is very knowledgeable and skilled to protect national cyberspace.
“As a result there are fears of foreign interferences especially, the potential for foreign supply chains to leverage on vendor trust to infiltrate digital election infrastructure unnoticeably”.
The stakeholders were persuaded that owing to the expansive functions under its enabling Act, as amended, INEC is overstretched, hence unable to fully discharge its functions like effective voter education and control of election offences.
This is even when the use of proprietary ICT products from vendors located in foreign countries as part of Nigerian election infrastructure increases the surface vulnerabilities that foreign adversaries may exploit to compromise the integrity of Nigerian elections.
They queried why the data collected by statutory bodies like the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and the National Population Commission (NPC) were not utilised to evolve a seamless voter register, arguing that by her mandate, the NPC, for instance, maintains a record of births and deaths, and so, should know which citizen has come of voting age or is deceased.
Communique
However, it was not all about problems as participants also outlined things that could give INEC and the electrical act more teeth and integrity to host a free and fair election.
“To ensure hitch-free elections, INEC should work closely with the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), Galaxy Backbone, NigComsat, and other private internet broadband providers to improve broadband connectivity, to deploy and protect robust seamless network infrastructure capable of extending reliable connectivity to remote areas.
“The NCC and NITDA should facilitate full implementation of IPv6 and ensure timely synchronization with IPv4 to enhance interoperability of digital infrastructure elements”.
They also charged the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) currently in charge of Cybersecurity to designate some tertiary institutions as Centres of Excellence (CoE) in Cybersecurity to advance capacity building, research and development (R&D) as coordinated and measurable measures to improve national cybersecurity posture.
For them, “these will buttress the urgent need for a pipeline of cybersecurity workforce that is very knowledgeable and skilled to enhance the protection of national cyberspace”.
Part of the recommendations are that INEC should streamline functions into to create complimentary Election Management Bodies to allow it focus on the conduct of elections.
Such bodies should include: Electoral Offences Commission to handle issues of electoral misconduct and crimes; Digital Election Technology Infrastructure Commission to continuously research, design, develop and deploy home grown digital election components to be used for elections; Voters Education and Awareness function currently under INEC should be transferred to the National Orientation Agency (NOA) which has more established structures for mass mobilization and education in all local governments areas in Nigeria.
They believe that separating these related duties in the management of Nigeria’s elections will improve efficiency and bequeath to the nation a more reliable, effective, transparent and efficient electoral process.
They challenged the federal government to empower NITDA to improve its local content development mandate to reduce the dependence on imported ICT products and solutions by INEC and mitigate possible foreign interferences in the nation’s digital space.
NITDA can achieve this by using tertiary institutions for the domestication of Open Stack Architecture products and solutions to enhance the cybersecurity of products and solutions deployed to critical national infrastructure.
“On potential foreign interferences, there is the need for effective collaboration and synergy between the INEC Cybersecurity team, and security and law enforcement agencies in the area of cybersecurity intelligence sharing, vetting of foreign vendors, and protection of digital election infrastructure.
They also want government to strengthen the NPC and NIMC, and if possible, merge the two organisations for effective citizens’ database management systems that will enhance the effectiveness of 2027 election.
The post 2023 Election: ICT stakeholders fear hackers may tamper with process appeared first on Vanguard News.
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