• ‘DID MIKRODIGITAL RIG 2024 NBA ELECTIONS?’ ASKS AKINBORO

There is palpable anxiety within legal circles as two presidential candidates have raised concerns on the forthcoming of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

In separate letters to the the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) by Messrs Yemi Akangbe SAN and Olumiywa Akinboro SAN, the candidates raised concerns about the appointment of Mikrodigital Connect and Thanelinc Nigeria Limited as Electronic Voting Service Provider and Data Protection Officer respectively for the elections.

While Akangbe urged the ECNBA to reconsider several aspects of the planning towards the election, Akinboro asked the committee to sack both Mikrodigital Connect and Thanelinc as Electronic Voting Service Provider and Data Protection Officer for the elections.

Both candidates highlighted corporate governance issues concerning Mikrodigital Connect, noting that it only regularised its Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) annual returns lately.

It is recalled that CITY LAWYER investigation showed that Mikrodigital Connect paid its six years arrears of annual returns after its appointment as Electronic Voting Service Provider for the elections.

Akangbe stated that “The first concerns the corporate standing, capacity and track record of the entities the Committee has engaged as the Electronic Voting Service Provider and as the Data Protection Officer for the elections. The second concerns a material deviation between what was assured by the ECNBA at the most recent Candidates’ Meeting on voter authentication, and what is now reflected in the published Step-by-Step Electronic Voting Guide. I address each in turn.”

He also stated that “The pattern of payment of annual returns shown above is a serious governance red flag. An entity that has, on the face of the register, been in continuous default of its statutory annual returns for six consecutive years, and which only regularised its position in the hours immediately surrounding the award of a contract of this importance, cannot be said to demonstrate the standard of institutional discipline and regulatory hygiene that a national election service provider must meet. The timing speaks for itself. It will inevitably invite, and deserve, the question whether the appointment preceded basic statutory compliance, or whether basic statutory compliance was an afterthought triggered by the appointment.”

Akangbe raised concerns on the competence of Mikrodigital to deliver on his mandate as Electronic Voting Service Provider, adding that he “caused enquiries to be made and have not been able to identify any prior engagement in which Mikrodigital Connect has independently delivered a secure electronic election at, or anywhere near, the scale, complexity and stakes of the NBA Elections.”

Turning to Thanelic, he stated that “There is no indication on the public record that the company is registered with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission as a Data Protection Compliance Organisation, nor any indication of certification in the specialised domain that the role of Data Protection Officer for a national professional election requires.”

Akangbe warned that “The Committee owes it to the Association and to the membership to be able to demonstrate, on the face of the record, that the providers it has engaged were chosen for their demonstrated capacity to carry out a mandate of this size, not merely their availability or their willingness to bid.”

He stated that the committee had deviated from its commitment to the candidates to add the National Identification Number (NIN) as an additional layer of authentication, saying: “With respect, the difference between what was assured and what has been published is not a drafting omission. It is a substantive change to the security posture of the election.”

According to Akangbe, “Without a unique independent identity layer behind the SCN and the OTP, the framework reduces to a one-factor system in any case where the OTP delivery channel is compromised.

“This is precisely the risk that the integration of NIN was designed to mitigate. NIN ties authentication to a biometrically anchored national identity. A person attempting to vote with another lawyer’s SCN, even if they have somehow received that lawyer’s OTP, cannot easily satisfy a NIN-bound check. Dropping that layer therefore does not simplify the process. It weakens it materially.”

Akangbe concluded as follows: “The matters set out above are not academic. The corporate form, compliance history and track record of the appointed service providers, and the authentication architecture published in the Step-by-Step Guide, will be among the very first matters scrutinised in the event of any post-election dispute. It is far better and wiser that they be addressed now, openly and on the record, than being addressed later in litigation.”

On its part, Akinboro aligned with Akangbe’s concerns on most of his concerns. Describing himself as an “aspirant” (sic) to the office of NBA President, Akinboro however called for “immediate disengagement of the service providers, that is, Mikrodigital Conect and Thanelic Nigeria Limited who have shown no demonstrable competence and capacity to manage the conduct of the election.”

Continuing, he wondered: “Could it be that Shamsuddeen Usman and his Mikrodigital Connect were the unseen hands behind the shadows that determined the outcome of the 2024 national elections. This no doubt calls for a detailed investigation to avoid leaving the elections in the hands of an entity that is not only incompetent but also conflicted.”

The ECNBA is yet to respond to the concerns raised by the two candidates.

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