Senate’s rejection of mandatory live results transmission: Ezekwesili warns ‘stop playing with fire,’ Utomi adds: ‘you’re making violent change inevitable’
By Ishaya Ibrahim
Former Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili has warned the Senate to stop “playing with fire” in its retention of the 2022 Electoral Act’s provisions instead of adopting the proposed amendment that would mandate real-time electronic transmission of election results immediately after the close of voting.
In a post on her X handle addressed to the Senate, titled “Know When to Stop Playing with Fire,” she lamented that the Senate’s deliberate preservation of ambiguity in the electoral law—after witnessing its consequences—is an act of grave irresponsibility.
She said the wisest and freest advice that the Nigerian Senate and House of Representatives could receive from well-meaning citizens is knowing when to stop playing with fire.
Ezekwesili stated: “The Senate yesterday voted against a proposed amendment to make electronic transmission of election results mandatory in the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill and then proceeded to try to deceive Nigerians by claiming that it ‘did not reject electronic transmission.'”
She added that what the Senate did was worse: “What the Senators did in that opaque Closed Plenary Session yesterday was retain the critical clause—Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022, specifically subsection (5)—with the current wording: ‘the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.’
“By deliberately retaining the vague language that leaves the method and timing of transmitting election results to the discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), rather than requiring real-time uploads from polling units, the Senate has once again weaponized ambiguity in our electoral law.”
Professor of Economics and chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Pat Utomi, warned that the Senate’s rejection of mandatory real-time electronic transmission of election results was an invitation to make violent change inevitable.
He stated: “Those who make peaceful change difficult make violent change inevitable. Nigeria’s senate seems to have drawn the battle lines in their war against the people with vote on transmission of election results. It is clear they are inviting the Nigerian people to the barricades.”
A joint statement by major opposition political parties also castigated the Senate’s rejection of the realtime electronic transmission of results.
The major parties including ADC and the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), said the action of the senate was anti-people and anti-democratic.
It adds: “We are concerned that the APC-led Senate may have set Nigeria’s democracy back by many decades. It is therefore not surprising that it has deservedly attracted widespread opposition and condemnation from Nigerians across all divides.
“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. We therefore harbour no doubts about the intention of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is in firm control of the two chambers of the National Assembly. They know Nigerians are fed up with them. They are aware of the rejection that awaits them at the forthcoming polls. A free and fair election has therefore become a threat to them. This is why they have to preserve and protect any loopholes that could aid the manipulation of the electoral process to their advantage.”
