The new technology evolving and being deployed for electoral exercises in Nigeria must begin to take into considerations issues of the environment.
This was the proposal by the Regional Director of Ford Foundation, Dr. Chichi Aniagolu-Okoye at the annual conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) which held in Lagos on Thursday.
Aniagolu-Okoye, who spoke about some of the new technologies enumerated by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahood Yakubu, said the electoral body must begin to take cognizance of the impact of huge printings of electoral materials which she regretted always ended up as wasted immediately after the electoral exercise.
The INEC boss had disclosed that a huge 571million ballot papers will be printed for the purpose of the 2023 general elections.
But Aniagolu-Okoye raised concerns over the impact on the environment saying that the implication is that a lot of papers would be required leading to forest depletion and generation of massive wastes after the election.
The INEC Chairman just spoke about the electoral materials which the commission is going to be printing. And that takes us to the issues of the environment. Majority of those will end up as waste. That is a whole lot of papers. That is a whole lot of woods to be cut down.”
The Ford Foundation boss told the INEC boss to begin to examine ways to manage the country’s elections without necessarily printing too much papers which in turn become burdens in the environment.
This was just as the Ford Foundation boss also joined GOCOP in the clamour for fights against fake news adding that the implications for the society are grave.