Political scholars and analysts strongly warn the National Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) against any move to manipulate the 2027 presidential election in favour of the ruling party and the incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, arguing that behind the coup d’etat ravaging the West African subregion in the recent times are election manipulation and bad governance
By Our Correspondent
They did not mince any words. Their message is perfectly clear and direct: “The judgement day is fast approaching”. This is the message of many political scholars and pundits who are appalled by the deliberate plot of the Senate to skew the Electoral Act Amendment Bill in favour of clauses that can give room to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which is being accused of lacking independence, to manipulate the 2027 general election in favour of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other candidates of the APC.
Opinion leaders have carpeted Senators for failing to adopt the compulsory transmission of election results, real time, from the poling units to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV), in the amendment bill. These analysts opined that the resistance by Senate to allow the clause sail through, was because more than 80 percent of the members of the upper legislative chamber does not possess the credibility to win in a free, fair and credible election. Hence, the Senate has been resisting the real-time electronic transmission that can guarantee transparency in the country’s electoral process.
Towards the end of last year, 2025, the House of Representatives had amended the controversial Section 60(3) of the Electoral Act 2022 which gave INEC power of discretion to use either the manual or electronic transmission of results. In its place, the lower house inserted the clause that mandates INEC to use only the electronic transmission of election results, and passed the Bill, waiting for the Senate to pass its own version.
The Senate would not pass its own version of the Bill for no definite reason till February 2026, after a coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) mounted pressure by way of protests. On Wednesday, February 4, 2026, the upper chamber passed its own version, but inexplicably retained what analysts referred to as the dubious discretion of INEC to deploy either the manual or electronic transmission.
As public outcry trailed the passage, especially when over 72 CSOs began to protest, the Senate was to insert a conditional electronic transmission of results to replace the contentious Section 60 (3) of the 2022 Electoral Act.
The Senate’s revised clause read, “Results shall be transmitted electronically from each polling unit to the IReV after the prescribed form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and party agents who are available at the poling unit.
“Provided that where the electronic transmission of results fails as a result of communication failure, the result contained in Form EC8A, signed by the presiding officer and/or countersigned by poling agents, shall in such case be the primary source for collation and declaration of results”.
The Senate also set up a 12-member Conference Committee to harmonize the Senate’s version of the Bill with that of the House of Representatives.
The Senate’s dual results transmission model has not sunk down well with the masses who are calling on the Conference Committee to adopt the House of Representatives compulsory transmission of results, because according to them, the Senate’s argument that there are about nine states where communication network is low, does not hold water. Analysts stressed that at present, there is about 90 percent network coverage across the country. They insisted that the INEC’s Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machine commonly referred to as the BVAS, works like the mobile phone which can store messages where there is no network, and can deliver it when it gets to where there is network.
They also argued that partial electronic transmission of results will lead to manipulation since the INEC allegedly tilts to the dictates of President Tinubu and the ruling APC. Political pundits also alleged that the glitch that occurred during the 2023 presidential election was orchestrated by the Mahmoud Yakubu-led INEC because it saw that Peter Obi was allegedly winning the presidential election. The analysts argued that if there was real glitch, what actually happened to the INEC server? The cause of the server failure to accept uploads from the BVAS, they argued, has been hidden from the public.
Again, another argument by experts in technology is that since the BVAS can retain information fed on it offline until there is network, why didn’t Yakubu wait for the period of time the Electoral Act allows for uploads before announcing result of the presidential election dead in the night?
Consequently, many scholars have called on the National Assembly harmonization Committee to adopt only the electronic transmission of results to avoid consequences, because according to them, the Senate has mischievously adopted the dual clause to cause confusion and give the APC another room to manipulate the 2027 general election.
They also warned that any act to rig another presidential election in favour of the APC and Tinubu come 2027 would spell doom for the country because election manipulation and bad governance, analysts argued, are the major causes of coups in Africa. Dr Austin Maho, a newspaper analyst argued that in 2022 prior to the general election of 2023, Yakubu had at a media briefing stressed that the BVAS machine and the IReV would be the game changer in the 2023 general election.
Maho revealed that the then INEC boss confessed that in areas where there is low network coverage, the BVAS can still receive election results fed into it and retain it till it gets to where there is network coverage.
Dr Sam Amadi, a public affairs analyst reminded the Senate that in 2022, all APC Senators had rejected the electronic transmission of results. He argued that when INEC procured the BVAS and IReV in 2022, it never said the Commission could not deploy them effectively. Amadi said in a recent interview, “Free and fair election makes military coup impossible. Senators want to destroy the IReV and they have to be very careful. Coups come as a result of the conspiracy of the elite to destroy credible elections.
“Most Nigerian politicians can’t win free and fair election. So, they must make sure that they dig in to make sure that electronic transmission of results is not included in the Bill”.
Another commentator, Clement Nwankwo, said what the Senate passed as Electoral Bill, “Is the view of those who have the power to hit on the gavel”. Nwankwo warned that election chaos would be expected in 2027 because of the Senate’s dual results transmission model, if the harmonization Committee adopts it.
A former Chairman of the Intra-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), Peter Ameh, accused the Senate of trying to trick Nigerians by passing dual transmission models. “We need credible and transparent election in 2027. It can’t be achieved without electoral reforms. The Senate thinks Nigerians will not understand its tricks. Electronic transmission will eliminate Collation Centres manipulation. Collation Centres are criminal centres, as they move from one centre to the other, results are being manipulated.
“How can anyone trust INEC? INEC cannot be trusted especially when the Act gives it a choice.
“The Supreme Court said the National Assembly must make sure that electronic transmission must be included in the Electoral Act. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), the Organized Private Sector (OPS) all agreed that electronic transmission must be included in the Electoral Act. The decision of the Senate is to scuttle the election and write results for themselves”, Ameh said in a recent interview.
