The Ijaw National Congress (INC), the umbrella body of the Ijaw ethnic nationality, which was founded in 1991, just got a new leadership through a novel electronic voting system, the first of its kind by any pan ethnic nationality. The stakeholders, including the new National President, Professor Benjamin Okaba, the Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, and a host of others have expressed delight over the innovativeness the E-Voting process brought to the INC elections.

Kristina Reports spoke with the originator of the idea that has now placed the Ijaw National Congress (INC) head and shoulders above other pan ethnic nationalities in terms of election management. He is Isaac Zeb-Obipi, who is a Professor of Management at the Rivers State University (RSU), Nkpolu Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, and as well the Ogulacha II of Ogoloma in Okrika Local Government Area, Rivers State.

Chief Zeb-Obipi is currently the Dean of Student Affairs (DSA) in the state-owned University, a position which puts him in charge of student elections. In 2016, he introduced electronic voting to the Student Union Government (SUG) of the institution where he had served as Governing Council Member, and seven months after taken over the mantle as DSA.

The process which has been the selling point of student elections in the university, marked by peace and vast Inclusiveness of electorates has been held hitch free for six consecutive times for the school’s SUG and taken further to host two successive elections of the Post Graduates Student election. As the Chairman of the INC Sub Committee on E-Voting in the 2021 polls, he did not hesitate to bring it to the table for integration with a view to achieving a paradigm shift in the trajectory of progress of the INC yearned for across Ijaw land.

In this interview where he was engaged by Kristina Reports’ Associate Editor, Boma Waribor, Prof Zeb-Obipi made clarifications on how the concept was developed and processes of getting the INC stakeholders to approve of it, among other issues. It is vintage Prof Zeb-Obipi in his elements. Enjoy the excerpts!

We hear the INC election has just been conducted and was done through e-voting, tell us the motivation behind the method of voting and the milestones that were intended.

Elections in Nigeria are often trailed by rigging, violence, non-conclusion, disputation of outcomes and sometimes loss of properties and lives. Even the resort to delegates’ voting has not prevented these negative phenomena. Such were the experiences in student union’s elections in the Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworokwu, Port Harcourt, Rivers State and the 2019 Elections of the Ijaw National Congress; hence, the introduction of Internet-based Electronic Voting alias E-voting.

It comes with universal voting as anyone in our database can vote from anywhere in the world using a given URL, speed as an average of 80 votes come in per minute, convenience as a voter can vote at his convenience and place of choice (office, home, vehicle, on the road, etc.) within the period specified, transparency as only votes that meet predefined parameters can come in, and auditability as every vote can be tracked to the second it was cast; even by the voter long after voting.

To what extent would you say your background as DSA in RSU played in achieving this feat?

When I became the Dean of Student Affairs in 2015, I initiated Electronic Voting for Universal suffrage to prevent the negative phenomena associated with physical voting in 2016. Since then we have used it to conduct six SUG Elections and two PGSA elections. So, when I was invited to be a member of the Electoral Committee (ELECO) to conduct elections of officers into the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), I suggested the use of E-voting.

There were initial fears by most members of the ELECO. However, given that the Secretary of the ELECO who is the Vice Chancellor of Niger Delta University (NDU) had experienced its use in his University thrice, it wasn’t difficult to convince the ELECO to accept and adopt it as the mode of voting for the 2021 INC NEC Elections.

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How was the electoral committee able to convince INC Congress to take this e-election route given that it’ is novel and most of INC members may be advanced in age and may not be so tech compliant?

With the conviction of ELECO, it approached the leadership of the Conference of Ijaw Traditional Rulers and Elders (CITRE). CITRE accepted it being desirous not to have a repetition of the 2019 experience when armed thugs stormed the Ijaw House to disrupt the counting of votes and carted away ballot boxes; resulting in an inconclusive election.

Then came challenges from candidates and delegates. Every conceivable limitations of the system was raised; and these ranged from the competence of the electorates to engage in E-voting to the possibility of hacking the system and compromise by operators of the system. These almost derailed the process but for an interactive session with the candidates on Wednesday, 27th April, 2021. Resolutions from that meeting led to an amendment of the process into a combination of Physical computer-based voting (the primary form of E-voting) and Internet-based voting (the virtual form of E-voting). It was this combination that was used for the elections.

What challenges did the committee encounter on the road to achieving the first INC e-election?

The challenges include: inadequate voter computer literacy, fears and doubts as to the functionality of the system given perceived failures experienced by other organizations that have used it, skepticism and cynicism by those who wouldn’t want it to succeed, desperation, mistrust and suspicion, amongst the candidates, anxiety over activities of hackers, intentions of the ELECO and system-operator biases, and insufficient time to get all stakeholders to understand and accept it.

What lessons are embedded in this particular 2021 INC election?

Several lessons could be learnt from this particular elections. With determination, set targets can be achieved. Patience is required to understand and accept novel systems. E-voting is possible at various levels of elections in Nigeria. The Ijaw Nation has set a pace others can emulate. Skepticism, cynicism, fear, doubt, mistrust, desperation and anxiety could be spoilers of good intentions. Change management requires compromise and “baby steps.”

Tell us about the robustness and reliability framework of the INC e-voting process.

Indeed, I can tell you, our e-voting system itself is very robust and resilient, consisting of five clearly defined and interactive elements: determinants, operators, electorate community, voting platform and outcomes. The determinants are the Ijaw clans and the zones (Eastern, Central and Western Zones) which are the geographical groupings of people of the Ijaw ethnic nationality across some Niger Delta States, stakeholders, candidates and their strategies. The electorate community comprises the delegates that emerged from the clans and zones with diverse dispositions.

We contemplated efforts to hack the system, hence it was modeled to respond to different types of attacks through a dedicated server, sole command, the use of Virtual Pins (Vpins), backups, infiltration isolation and prompt restoration of the process in event of certain attacks. The process was achieved through the utilisation of a customised software, the voting platform, vendored by our technical partners which saw to the reception of trackable votes.

In conducting the election, apart from the electoral committee and our tech partners, traditional rulers, observers, the media, security and key stakeholders as system operators were on hand to drive, and, as well, monitor the process; with vote counts streaming live in real time in the Situation Room at the Ijaw House. The outcome of the election was designed to be marked by, of course, results announcement, votes’ verification, winners and losers, and possible petitions from those that may still have cause to question the process; because you know this is democracy and room must be given for the expression of all voices.