By Aliyu M. Aliyu
A two term Zamfara state governor and Presidential aspirant, Senator Ahmad Sani Yariman Bakura has expressed support for digitizing the nation’s entire electoral process, saying the time has come for electronic voting and transmission of election results.
Senator Yarima, a former Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate was speaking during a media interface in Abuja, he however kicked against agitations for zoning of the Presidential ticket ahead of the 2023 general elections, saying only political illiterates or mischief makers are angling for such.
Said he:-“I support electronic voting. I think that when we were queueing to register (accreditation) without the card reader what was happening? People will just sit down and write names and say we have so, so number of people. By the mere introduction of card readers, the whole thing has changed. You can see that you have your fingerprint and look at what is happening now, registration of voters online. The world is changing, Nigeria has to follow. We need to use technology as much as possible. As far as I am concerned one day we are going to go for electronic voting”, he stated.
On the position of Southern Governors on zoning, Yarima said; “You see we are Nigerians and I believe citizenship is very important. I pray that one day we will become like America, United Kingdom UK, France where citizenship overrides all other considerations; ethnic, religious, tribal. All these things are because we don’t take that citizenship as we are supposed to take it.
“Voters are supposed to determine not me, not you, not any regional Governor. Voters will determine who they want to elect. Every Nigerian citizen should come out with something that he is going to offer to the people, sell himself. This is what I have for education, housing, infrastructural provision and so on, human development and then they will compare and see between Mr. A and B who is supposed to be our President. It is not regional.
“Let me ask you one question: let’s say now we zone to Rivers State, even within Rivers you see people saying that is Ijaw, that is this and that. Is it politics? Constitution is very clear, people are politically illiterate because they don’t read the constitution even if they read, because of personal and selfish interests, they want to acquire power by allocation. It is not done in politics.
People should be allowed to go and contest, present themselves, offer what they want to offer to the nation and Nigerians will decide and see who is going to be our best President. So it is not by allocation, zoning or no zoning that is not an issue. As far as I am concerned, it is democracy and democracy have some principles and practices that have to be followed”, he added.