No doubt, ICTs have fulfilled Marshall Macluhan's prophesy about three decades ago, that the world would become a global village where the gap created by distance would be greatly bridged.
The Federal Government last week approved the sum of N136 million for the procurement of optical magnetic forms for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which is the firts official step in the bid to introduce electronic voting in the country. THISDAY gathered that non-availability of the forms had hindered INEC from electronically revalidating the voters registers. Against this backdrop, it is curious to understand how an Electoral Commission that has a general election to conduct in less than 12 months from now and is yet to revalidate voters register still toys with the idea of electronic voting system.
The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology in Nigeria desires to develop an effective and efficient communication infrastructure. This is in line with resolutions and conclusions on the development of information and communication technologies, infrastructure particularly in developing countries and having fully realized the potentials of ICT as a global tool for a knowledge-based economy.
NeGSt's supervising agency, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), gave the approval following a board meeting of the former on February 16, where it was ratified that the company was ready to deploy some of its solutions commercially. Internal crisis among some top management staff had slowed down its activities even though the solutions were long ready.
Agunloye who is being probed by the EFCC over alleged economic crimes committed against NeGst maintained his hands were clean.
But EFCC sources insisted that the charges against Agunloye were well documented and had merit.