Insist On Real Time Electronic Transmission Of Election Results Or Nothing
By Lukmon Ojerinde
Nigerians who have remained at the receiving end of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government’s misrule in the past 11 years have been enraged by the Senate’s manipulation of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill which shuts out the inclusion of the much needed mandatory transmission of election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) portal commonly referred to as the INEC Election Results Viewing Portal (IReV), real time, come the 2027 general election. The upper legislative chamber also rejected the inclusion of stiff penalties against election riggers and manipulators, including a 10-year jail term for election offences, in the Bill seeking to amend the 2022 Electoral Act. But the Senate, instead, opted to retain the two years imprisonment, but increased the fine from Two Million to Five Million Naira.
While the Senate made several other sundry amendments which have no deterrent force against the age-long election manipulation in the country, its refusal to align with the House of Representatives to adopt the real time transmission of election results from polling units to the IReV, but rather insisting on retaining the clause that gives the INEC the power of discretion to decide either to adopt the manual or electronic transmission of results, has triggered vicious reactions from Nigerians.
It is the discretionary power of the INEC that ruined the 2023 general election which came under unbridled manipulation in the course of collation at the Collation Centres, many alleged. Recall that the House of Representatives had passed its version of the Bill into law late last year, waiting for the Senate version and the harmonisation of the two before presenting the harmonised version to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for assent. The Senate had sat on the Bill inexplicably until when the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the media began to mount pressure on it to get the Bill passed.
Political and election experts have accused the Senate of deliberately retaining the old discretionary power provision in order to allow APC politicians who are not capable of winning elections without manipulation of results, to continue their illegitimate hold onto power against the wishes and choices of the electorate. The experts alleged that the likes of President Tinubu, Senate President Goodwill Akpabio, Nyesom Wike, Orji Uzor Kalu and many poorly performing governors who have lost electoral value, would have another opportunity in 2027 to use the INEC to rig the election and steal the people’s mandate once again.
Furthermore, the rejection of the mandatory real time electronic transmission of election results, will give rise to INEC choice of deploying what analysts referred to the “criminal Collation Centres” in 2027. Analysts alleged that the Collation Centres, from the Wards, Local Governments, States and National, are where manually collated results of previous elections were manipulated to favour those in power, using security agencies and INEC staff. According to the analysts, at the Collation Centres, opposition parties were shut out by security agencies, while result sheets were rewritten in favour of the ruling party. It is for this reason, many alleged, that the Senate rejected the real time electronic transmission of election results, and why many governors and other politicians are defecting in droves to the ruling APC.
There have been heated debates against the Senate action from across the country since Wednesday, February 4, 2026 when the Senate passed the Bill, with many opinion leaders labelling the upper legislative chamber as the enemy of free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria. But a glimmer of hope appears to still exists for the angry citizens to mount pressure on the National Assembly to do the bidding of the masses and include the electronic transmission of results, real time, in the amendment bill. On Thursday, February 6, the two chambers of the National Assembly set up their joint Committee for the harmonisation of the two Bills before passing it to the president for his assent. The joint harmonisation Committee will look into the areas where there are differences in the two Bills, and agree to adopt a final resolution that will be suitable and acceptable to the National Assembly in the interest of the masses.
Consequently, the CSOs, the media and other stakeholders and interest groups, have since shifted their agitations to the joint Committee, pressuring it to adopt the House of Representatives’ version of the two Bills which contains the real time electronic transmission of election results. These Nigerians are insisting that the masses will not accept anything short of the mandatory electronic transmission of results in the upcoming 2027 general election real time. They have argued that it was the manual collation of results that destroyed the country’s electoral process, and allowed illegitimate persons who are supposed to rot in jail, to be the ones ruling the country.
Stakeholders also argued that the protracted election rigging in the country had given rise to voter apathy, a situation where less than 30 percent of the electorate participate in voting during elections, which is a drawback to the country’s democracy.
These also argued that the technical glitches which the INEC claimed its server developed in the 2023 presidential election when it was compelled to deploy the manual collation process, was a mere ploy to hoodwink the electorate and manipulate the presidential election in favour of Tinubu. Otherwise, they argued, how come that since after that flawed election, there has been no explanation, or investigation into the saga to unravel what went wrong, and nobody has been punished for the charade, regrettably the chief architect of the shambolic election, Mahmoud Yakubu, then Chairman of the INEC, has been rewarded with an ambassadorial appointment.
A coalition of CSOs has threatened to embark on peaceful protest, starting from Monday, February 9, till the end of the seating of the Joint Committee on Harmonisation of the Bills, to mount pressure on it to include the electronic transmission of results in the amendment bill. This is even as Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and 12 other Senators have faulted the Senate for making a U-turn from the much desired real time electronic transmission of election results. In a joint press briefing on Thursday, February 6, with the 12 others, Abaribe clarified that the Senate, ab-initio, never rejected the real time electronic transmission of results, and added that the 13 Senators and numerous others across party divides would monitor the very important provision to the point of transmission for presidential assent.
“To put the record straight, yesterday the Senate did not, I repeat, did not pass transfer of results which was in the 2022 Act. What we passed, and which the Senate President himself said, when he was doing clarification sitting on his chair, is electronic transmission of results”, Abaribe had said.
Also in reaction, three major opposition parties namely the People’s Democratic (Party PDP), the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in a joint press statement signed by their National Publicity Secretaries, Ini Ememobong, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi and Bamofin Johnson respectively, berated Akpabio and the APC Senators for their hard stance against the popular real time electronic transmission of results.
The statement read, “The grave implications of this retrogressive act by the Senate has compelled us as spokespersons of the major opposition political parties to jointly address this issue, which is capable of derailing our hard-earned democracy.
“We are at a loss as to why a party that is currently deploying technology to run an e-registration of their members across the country is averse to using technology to transmit results “.
Meanwhile, political analysts have argued that if the electronic transmission of results is included in the Electoral Act to mandate the INEC to transmit election results real time to the IReV, the general election of 2027 will retire all the alleged corrupt politicians who have been manipulating election results, including Akpabio and his likes, and guarantee a transparent and credible election that can give the electorate opportunity to choose their preferred leaders based on competency, acceptability and popularity, qualities which Akpabio and his co-travellers do not possess, which is why they are opposed to the real time electronic transmission of results.
However, certain questions are pertinent; will Tinubu accept to assent to the Bill if the electronic transmission of results is included, seeing that he will face the wrath of the electorate who are angry at his government? What happens if Tinubu declines assent to the Bill? Can the “Akpabio Senate” override the presidential assent now that the upper chamber is populated by majority of the APC members? Time will answer these posers.
