By Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko
The past few weeks have seen frenetic and combative social advocacy by hundreds of protesters who gathered at the entrance to the imposing National Assembly complex to demand that the amendments to the electoral Act must not be completed without the insertion of a clear, unambiguous and explicit provision to mandate compulsory electronic transmission of election results from the polling units to the central server.
The essence of this advocacy campaign by Nigerians is a way of denouncing past actions of the election managers who had capitalised on the lacuna in the electoral Act to mismanage the transmission of the results of the presidential election electronically even when the results of the National Assembly poll conducted in 2023 simultaneously with the presidential election were transmitted electronically without any issue.
At the election petition tribunal that followed the controversial 2023 presidential election, INEC blamed technology glitches for the failure to upload the results of the presidential election the same manner as was done with the results of the National Assembly election that happened at the same time.
INEC then promised to strengthen the legislative framework for the conduct of subsequent polls. Amendments to the previous electoral Act were submitted. This National Assembly did not deliberate on these changes for many months and waited until the eleventh hour to the next election before beginning to work on the suggested amendments. The delay and timing were strategic for the ruling political party which has used all kinds of unorthodox tactics to win over elected and serving legislators and governors of the opposition parties to enlist in the All Progressives Congress with a general plot to ensure that the incumbent president gets a second terms by every means.
The decision of activists to mount these pressures angered the leadership of the National Assembly because they are under the directive of president Tinubu to return the status quo and mandate manual transmission of election result which was the same way the results of the 2023 presidential poll were collated and widely discredited by the unethical steps adopted by INEC.
The Senate President Mr. Godswill Akpabio sounded absolutely appalling by reducing the peaceful agitation of the people for the real time electronic transmission of results of election as a direct confrontation against the legislators. Akpabio who maintained that the lawmakers wouldn’t be intimidated by the protesters, dismissed the agitation as noise making. Akpabio is wrong because the constitution recognises the people of Nigeria as the owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria who donate the legitimacy to exercise governmental authority by elected public office holders.
So, to dismiss the peaceful agitation of the people of Nigeria for a transparent and real-time transmission of election results as warmongering, amounted to an incurable fallacy by Godswill Akpabio who is a lawyer and should know much better than he had sounded combative against the peaceful demands of the people of Nigeria for a free and fair election.
The National Assembly went ahead to force through the passage of the crooked version of the amendments which provides for both electronic transmission or manual transmission.
This deceptive marriage of a dubious provision in the amended electoral Act, has already been dismissed as a death sentence to a free and fair poll especially with the alacrity that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the controversial version of the amended electoral Act in less than 24 hours.
Question was asked how the president could have signed a bill passed the same day even without enjoying the benefit of reading through what was placed before him on his table, understanding the details before appending his signature. Then again, did his Attorney-General and Minister of Justice had the privilege of reading through the bill before Tinubu hurriedly appended his signature? Your guess is as good as mine.
Then again, the interpretation of the jet-speed endorsement of the amended version of the electoral Act which is the guidebook for the conduct of next year’s poll tells a distinctive story of the deeply entrenched lust for the manipulation of the next presidential poll and to reach a predetermined aim: to return president Tinubu for a second term by hook or by crooked means. It must be stated that the election managers have now been given the crooked law to aid and abet the electoral crime of stealing the results of next presidential election.
The speed of lightening with which president Tinubu signed the electoral bill, shows that what was passed is definitely what the president sent to the National Assembly and is something like garbage in, garbage out.
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has graciously summed up the key items in the new electoral Act. She wrote in a Facebook post as follows: “As President Tinubu signs the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2026 into Law, citizens should note the following 7 major changes:
1. Voter registration: Documents required for voter registration are narrowed to 3 : a birth certificate, a Nigerian passport and a National Identification Number (NIN).
2. Downloadable voter card: Voters can download their voter card from INEC’s website.
3. Electronic transmission of results: Electronic transmission to IReV is compulsory.
However, if it fails, the physical result sheet (EC8A) becomes the primary source of collation and results declaration.
4. Mode of party primary election: The new bill adopts direct primaries and consensus as the only methods for political parties to nominate candidates.
5. Disbursement of funds to INEC: Election funds must be released to INEC at least 6 months before the general election. Previously: 12 months.
6. Deadline for submission of candidates’ list: Political parties must submit candidates 120 days before election day. Previously: 180 days
7. INEC’s final list of candidates; INEC must publish candidates’ list 60 days before the election. Previously: 150 days.
Except for the provisor in Section 60 (3) which holds that upon network failure inhibiting electronic transmission; form EC8A becomes the primary mode of collation and result transmission . I’ll say the other amendments are fine, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan asserted.
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan also charged Nigerians as follows: “The people MUST follow the money and question every kobo of the ₦873 billion to be released for the 2027 elections.” She also encouraged Nigerians to go to court to seek the invalidation of any provisions of the newly signed electoral Act. The question for Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is which court should the people go to? Is it these same courts already captured by the executive arm of government and the judges are open to bribery and corruption? The truth is that Justice in Nigeria is bought and sold by a lot of corrupt minded judges. There is a red flag in the new law which I will show subsequently.
I have had the advantage as a commoner to have moved round amongst the good people of Nigeria of diverse origins, to sample their opinion on the new passed and signed electoral Act vis-a-vis how they think the next election would look like in less than eight months.
I must say that I am absolutely gutted by the outcome of my deliberations with a vast array of people on the streets and in the market places of the Federal Capital Territory. The general summary of my finding is that people are disappointed that the lawmakers and the president kicked against real-time and transparent electronic transmission of the results of the election that would hold henceforth.
The people feel that the openings for manipulation of results of election which were inserted in the previous electoral Act were all retained and there is the general feeling that allowing INEC to decide whether to transmit electronically or manually, is a direct licensing of election rigging because the people I spoke with said, bribes to be dolled out to INEC by the ruling political party, would sway the decision and ultimately, the election managers would opt for manual transmission of results which would allow them to change the original results if they don’t favour the candidates of All Progressives Congress.
These people then dismissed the coming election as a charade since according to them, the government controlling the overwhelming commonwealth of Nigerians,would use the public funds to buy the election. These people said their votes wouldn’t count. Mind you, majority of the people I discussed with hold at least a first university degree or its equivalent. These are well-enlightened people and not just mere proletarian.
This growing apathy towards the next presidential election is not a good development.
This is because election apathy can only serve the interest of the powers- that- be and allow the government to fix the results of the next presidential and National Assembly election. The ball is now in our court and that of the political office seekers of other political persuasion other than the All Progressives Congress.
The political opposition parties especially, are busy fighting internal wars inflicted on them through the actions of some saboteurs embedded within their parties but who are suspected to be in the payroll of the All Progressives Congress to destabilise the other strong opposition parties.
These political opposition politicians must understand that election apathy is widening and the reason for this sudden spike in election apathy is the signing into Law of a crooked electoral Act that opens the way for the manipulation of the election results by INEC.
What must be done now is to roll out strategy to get the people to exercise their democratic voting right and to insist that their votes must count.
The opposition parties must begin these mass mobilisation and enlightenment campaigns in all nooks and crannies and the people must insist from now going forward, that INEC must respect their electoral decision or risk setting the nation on fire.
*EMMANUEL NNADOZIE ONWUBIKO is the founder of the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).
