In Nigeria, democracy is just a word: The devil in Nigerian elections is in result collation, not voting. Mandatory real-time electronic transmission of results may not be a silver bullet that can prevent the country’s electoral woes entirely, but for now, it is the only plausible guardrail against electoral malfeasance. The Tinubu-led APC does not want that hence the brazen attempt to manipulate the Electoral Act. Nigerians should not be deceived by the ongoing political hanky-panky in the Senate… As an Igbo proverb says, a bird that flies from the ground onto an anthill, which was what the Senate did on Tuesday with the so-called amendment to the contentious Amendment Bill, is still on the ground. Nigerians are not fooled. The battle for electoral credibility has just begun. If the pseudo-democrats succeed in reducing Nigeria’s democracy just to a word as they are hell-bent on doing, the consequences of their felonious manipulations of the democratic process will be dire. They are the real coup plotters. Whatever it takes, Nigerians must stop this devious plot against democracy and extricate the country from the vice grip of those, who, like the overfed nza bird of Igbo folklore, are challenging their Chi (Nigerian people) to a duel.
Ikechukwu Amaechi
Nigerians love clichés to bits. More often than not, you hear them regurgitate the famous “democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried” quip by former British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.
The idea that democracy is the best form of government is a widely held principle in modern political theory. But what if the political system is just a pseudo-democracy that on the surface maintains its superficial trappings — elections, a constitution, and political parties — but inherently lacks genuine political competition, electoral integrity, civil liberties and equal political status that guarantees one person, one vote?
Now, why does equal political status matter? It is an enabler of credible elections and peaceful power transition. When the people decide who presides over the authoritative allocation of their collective values with their votes, leaders are not only accountable, but also more responsive to their needs.
I have friends who believe that democracy is a farce, a cynical Western construct deployed viciously by those who invented it to wheedle the unwary. I disagree. Is democracy perfect? No! Does it always guarantee the emergence of good leaders? Not at all! But it contains the structural flexibility to fix its own errors and places power in the hands of the people. Simply put, it works where there is sincerity of purpose. But it atrophies where leaders use it to gain legitimacy by manipulating votes and severely limiting options for citizens, as it is the case with Nigeria.
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Democracy is defined by the freedom it affords the people to choose their leaders, without which, there is no difference between those who rig themselves into office and those who seize power by force of arms. Those who rig elections are no less felons than coup plotters.
In his foreword to a 2012 report titled, “Deepening democracy: a strategy for improving the integrity of elections worldwide,” which was launched by the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security, the former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, wrote, “Building democracy is a complex process. Elections are only a starting point but if their integrity is compromised, so is the legitimacy of democracy.”
Annan, who insisted that “elections are the indispensable root of democracy,” further warned: “When the electorate believe that elections have been free and fair, they can be a powerful catalyst for better governance, greater security and human development. But in the absence of credible elections, citizens have no recourse to peaceful political change. The risk of conflict increases while corruption, intimidation, and fraud go unchecked, rotting the entire political system slowly from within.”
It is even worse where uncontrolled political finance, mostly money pilfered from the common till, hollows out democracy by robbing it of its unique strengths. This explains the mess Nigeria is in right now.
In the wake of the controversy over the 2026 Electoral Act Amendment Bill, I have reflected hard on the concept of democracy in Nigeria and came to the inevitable conclusion that elections, most times fundamentally flawed, have become a convenient smokescreen used by Nigerian leaders to wrap themselves in a veneer of democratic legitimacy. As Yiaga Africa, a non-profit civic organisation, noted in its recent report on the state of electoral integrity in Nigeria, “Without electoral integrity, democracy is just a word.”
And that raises a fundamental question. If without credible elections, democracy risks becoming symbolic rather than substantive, as the Atedo Peterside-led GoNigeria noted on Wednesday, why is the Godswill Akpabio-led Senate bent on dismantling the guardrails which most Nigerians agree will guarantee free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria? Why is the idea of credible elections a threat to Nigeria’s political elite?
The answer is simple. In a free and fair contest, they don’t stand a chance. The outcome of the 2023 elections was a rude awakening to them. They know for a fact that they lost woefully. To that extent, they are impostors that don’t represent the people. And they know that technology made all the difference in 2023, not minding that the then chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, wittingly sabotaged the process when it was about to deliver.
This time, they don’t even want to get to that stage. They want the elections rigged long before the first ballot is cast. Knowing full well, as Joseph Stalin, the former Soviet dictator, said in 1923, that “those who vote decide nothing, those who count the vote decide everything,” these pseudo-democrats who find in democracy a convenient ladder to ascend the rungs of power, are working very hard to make a mess of the very laws that will make credible elections a fait accompli.
I have heard some people say that President Bola Tinubu has no hand in the political shenanigan playing out in the National Assembly. How convenient. To them, Akpabio, who is the chairman of the National Assembly, is the architect of the political sleight of the hand.
Nothing can be farther from the truth. Discerning Nigerians who know Tinubu’s political antecedents cannot be deceived. Here is a man whose philosophy is encapsulated in his political power is not going to be served in a restaurant a la carte admonition to his supporters during the build-up to the 2023 general election, where he charged them to “at all cost, fight for it, grab it, snatch it, and run with it.”
That is his abiding power worldview, which explains why even when it seems that he has all the aces on the political chessboard by playing ruthless games that have fundamentally shifted the power equation through deliberate actions in his favour, his camp is still afraid of credible elections.
To be sure, elections in Nigeria have always been a do-or-die affair. But it has become worse since the All Progressives Congress (APC) took over power in 2015. Granted, the rot started with President Olusegun Obasanjo, but his two successors – Presidents Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan – allowed the opposition to breathe. But for a man like Tinubu who does not take political prisoners, even the complete annihilation of the opposition is not good enough. That explains why even when APC now has 31 state governors and overwhelming majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, they are still afraid of free and fair elections.
The devil in Nigerian elections is in result collation, not voting. Mandatory real-time electronic transmission of results may not be a silver bullet that can prevent the country’s electoral woes entirely, but for now, it is the only plausible guardrail against electoral malfeasance. The Tinubu-led APC does not want that hence the brazen attempt to manipulate the Electoral Act. Nigerians should not be deceived by the ongoing political hanky-panky in the Senate.
After much dawdling, the red chamber of the National Assembly finally passed the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill. But rather than assuage mounting anxieties, the Senate’s decision to reject a proposed amendment that would have made the real-time transmission of results from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal compulsory, ignited a hailstorm of a controversy. Rather than doing the needful, as demanded by Nigerians, the lawmakers adopted the wording contained in Clause 60(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022, which provides that the presiding officer shall transfer election results “in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”
On Tuesday, at the emergency plenary to approve votes and proceedings on the Electoral Act amendment, a procedural step required before harmonisation with the House of Representatives can begin, the Senate, rather than hearken to the demands of Nigerians, decided to be clever by half by legislating for a hybrid model that allows both electronic and manual transmission of results. That is sheer political subterfuge.
As an Igbo proverb says, a bird that flies from the ground onto an anthill, which was what the Senate did on Tuesday with the so-called amendment to the contentious Amendment Bill, is still on the ground. Nigerians are not fooled. The battle for electoral credibility has just begun. If the pseudo-democrats succeed in reducing Nigeria’s democracy just to a word as they are hell-bent on doing, the consequences of their felonious manipulations of the democratic process will be dire. They are the real coup plotters. Whatever it takes, Nigerians must stop this devious plot against democracy and extricate the country from the vice grip of those, who, like the overfed nza bird of Igbo folklore, are challenging their Chi (Nigerian people) to a duel.
