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Avoid another BVAS saga, audit 2023 census systems – Chima to NPC

A public policy analyst, Chima Christian, has called for multi-stakeholder audits on the systems of the National Population Commission, NPC.

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The exercise will be conducted from May 3 through May 5, 2023, but Chima is wary of malfunctioning like in the case of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS.

The BVAS, developed by the Prof Mahmood Yakubu-led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was one of the flaws of the general elections.

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In a statement on Monday, Chima endorsed Nigeria’s gradual migration to tech-based solutions but expressed concern about the “digitization” of the census.

He pointed out that the systems and processes the NPC will be relying on have not been audited or subjected to integrity tests, warning against a controversial exercise.

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Chima charged Nigerians to prevail on the Federal Government to conduct tests to determine the vulnerability of the commission’s systems as soon as possible.

“If the systems can be tampered with by the individuals operating them, then they cannot be relied upon to produce accurate and acceptable demographic data,” he noted.

The rights activist also urged citizens to join the call for the census postponement until NPC’s systems and processes have been audited and identified lapses fixed.

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