Wireless CCTV, a workable tool for overcoming security challenges during elections in Nigeria

Abstract

There have been upheavals in areas where elections have been conducted lately in Nigeria. The latest being in Ekiti and Osun States where there were cases of ballot box snatching, electoral result fraud, sporadic shootings and killings which call for electoral security carefulness and concern. The government of the day has done well in trying to computerize the electoral process by introducing BVAS in all polling units, but has failed to implement a non-human monitoring mechanism which could watch over electoral conducts and support result collation in all voting points without loopholes, intricacies and injuries to members of the voting communities. Wireless Close Circuit Television (CCTV) is an electronic monitoring system that combines network Software and hardware subsystems which are installed with Wireless channels and other monitoring mechanisms to cover and record activities in a particular domain. Data recorded in this device are immediately transmitted from the remote database in real-time, to a cloud-based central server where all happenings and events are stored for future retrieval and decision making. This paper looked at various reports on security challenges and happenings in Nigerian elections for eight (8) years and recommended that all polling units in Nigeria should have a Wireless CCTV system installed before the 2023 presidential election, irrespective of the cost, instead of the always compromised human monitors. Data were gathered using the author’s lens as a Supervisory Presiding Officer (SPO) from 2011 to 2019, and from related literatures.