Don’t play with fire… adopt clause on real-time transmission of election results – Ezekwesili tells Senate

Obiageli Ezekwesili, ex-minister of education, has asked the senate to immediately reverse its recent position on the proposed amendment to the Electoral Act and adopt a clause mandating real-time electronic transmission of election results.

Ezekwesili made the call in a statement addressed to the senate, members of the house of representatives, and the political elite.

She warned lawmakers against retaining dangerous ambiguity in the electoral legal framework, adding that the decision to vote against a proposal making electronic transmission of results mandatory could further erode public confidence in Nigeria’s electoral process if not urgently corrected.

“The wisest and free advice that the Nigerian Senate as well as the House of Representatives can receive from all well-meaning citizens of our country now is to know when to stop playing with fire,” the statement reads.

She accused lawmakers of deliberately maintaining vague provisions in section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022, which leave the method and timing of result transmission at the discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), rather than making real-time electronic uploads from polling units compulsory.

She said the retention of the clause reproduces the same loophole that generated widespread controversy and public distrust during the 2023 general election.

“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), the Senate has once again weaponized ambiguity in our electoral law,” Ezekwesili said.

She dismissed claims by the senate that it did not reject electronic transmission, describing the position as misleading and politically disingenuous.

“Electronic transmission that is optional, discretionary, and unenforceable is no safeguard at all against the systemic electoral fraud that has plagued our country,” she said.

“It was that same clause that created a gap between what Nigerians were repeatedly reassured would happen in the 2023 elections and the fiasco that the law permitted INEC to actually carry out in betrayal of public trust.

“The 2023 elections tested Nigeria’s cohesion. Our country survived not because the system worked well, but because citizens restrained themselves in the face of deep frustration.”

The former vice-president of the World Bank for Africa urged senators to reconvene and pass the exact wording of the proposed amendment requiring compulsory electronic transmission of polling unit results to the INEC result viewing portal (IReV).

“Senators, cancel that emergency two-week break announced today, all return to the Red Chamber of the National Assembly complex, and in a broadcast Plenary Session, unanimously pass into law the exact text of the reform that was proposed to the clause on electronic transmission of results,” she wrote.

“It is not wise to play with fire. Transparency is always better.”

There has been an uproar over the senate’s decision not to make real-time upload of polling unit results mandatory.(The cable)