When citizens ask for the simple right to see election results as they are declared at each polling unit, they are asking for nothing radical. They are asking for transparency that narrows the space for continued doubt and litigation after elections, and for a public reassurance that the ballot was counted where votes were cast. That was Oby Ezekwesili’s plain warning on Arise TV when she appeared on Friday, telling lawmakers they were “playing with fire” by leaving ambiguity in the amended Electoral Act. She was right to speak bluntly.
The choice the Senate made to retain a discretionary clause allowing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to prescribe how results are transmitted rather than mandating real-time uploads is not a technical quibble but a deliberate action, best suited to their motives. It is a political decision with profound consequences for public trust in government institutions such as INEC and in Nigerian democracy.
Those in favour of the Senate’s approach might argue that discretion enables INEC to adapt to on-the-ground technical realities, given Nigeria’s fluctuating telecommunication network reception. That is a reasonable point in theory. Technical flexibility can help address intermittent power supply, poor connectivity, and the genuine operational challenges of polling-unit-level online transmission across Nigeria’s diverse terrain. Yet the very logic of discretion becomes dangerous when it substitutes for a clear legal obligation after an electoral cycle in which promises of technology repeatedly failed to match expectations.
In 2023, INEC’s own push to modernise procedures raised hopes that were dashed by implementation gaps; the result was suspicion, court litigation, and a lasting hit to the commission’s credibility. Mandates matter because they set political incentives; discretion can be used as cover when election credibility delivery falters.
A statutory requirement for real-time transmission need not be absolutist but flexible. A carefully drafted clause can require presiding officers to upload signed and stamped result forms to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IREV) in real time while also providing for well-defined contingency rules where connectivity or security conditions make immediate upload impossible. However, the clause must be strong enough to prevent electoral fraud. The point here is legal clarity, not a tussle with ambiguity.
Citizens should not be left to doubt legislative measures, as the current state of affairs breeds distrust of their representatives in the National Assembly. When the law speaks plainly, implementation can be planned, execution probed, and irregularities called out. When the law leaves discretion as the dominant default, accountability becomes a matter of good faith rather than enforceable duty. The fact remains that we are still trying to build a culture of trust among enforcement and execution agencies, which leaves discretion when trust is still to be established.
The Akpabio-led Senate’s stewardship of the Electoral Act amendment is thus a test of legislative responsibility. Our lawmakers had an opportunity to close a loophole that many argue undermined confidence after 2023. We already have a history of controversy about electoral credibility; why not fix it? Civil society, youth movements, political parties, and technologists are calling for clear language that would make result transmission mandatory and verifiable. Instead, many Nigerians woke to headlines suggesting the Senate had chosen convenience over clarity, adaptation over obligation. That choice will reverberate into 2027 because public suspicion is a long-lived pollutant in politics: once citizens doubt the integrity of results, restoring trust is far harder than legislating better systems.
Prof Joash Ojo Amupitan, INEC leadership will need secure devices at polling units, a reliable backhaul for connectivity, battery and power solutions, trained presiding officers, contingency procedures, and an independent audit mechanism to reconcile digital uploads with signed paper forms. The Senate could have legislated measures to undergird a mandate: a phased national rollout with pilot states, ring-fenced funding in the national budget for equipment and logistics, and a statutory requirement for independent third-party audits of the IREV system before any general election. By rejecting a firm legal obligation, the Senate missed an opportunity to couple a mandate with the institutional supports needed to make it credible. The rhetoric that citizens are “playing with fire” is not merely ornamental. Low turnout and widespread apathy in recent electoral cycles are symptoms of a democracy in which trust is in deficit. When the people who monitor and count votes are perceived to be the final arbiters without transparent public evidence, legal battles replace ballots as the mechanism of political legitimacy.
Why not spare the court the trouble of entering another endless cycle of election tribunal cases when major cases already lie unattended? This is costly for governance and corrosive for civic life.
Ezekwesili’s recent call for immediate legislative correction, even if it meant returning from parliamentary recess to fix the language, was not shrill. It was a plea to avert a preventable crisis of confidence. What should be done now, weeks rather than years, before voters go to the polls?
The Senate can still act with urgency if it listens to its people’s cries. If we borrowed Abraham Lincoln’s definition of democracy into this context, we could certainly say we are practising what he preaches, because if democracy is defined by the people’s aspirations, then governance must reflect them.
Nigerians are telling the Senate to amend the retained clause to mandate electronic transmission from each polling unit after forms are signed and stamped, while also prescribing narrowly tailored contingencies. They also call on INEC to publish an implementation roadmap with milestones and pilot results from minor elections, such as the Saturday, February 21, 2026, Salted Abuja council elections, and to assess the polls.
Why not secure a dedicated budget line in the national appropriation for equipment and training, and mandate public procurement transparency for new high-speed internet infrastructure devices or services? Expand legal protections for local and international observers and whistleblowers to ensure independent verification and rapid reporting of problems on Election Day. Let’s create a parliamentary oversight task force with civil society representation to monitor implementation and report swiftly during elections.
As we wait patiently for the National Assembly to act, Nigerians are wondering whether a promise of reform was a legislative compromise or a genuine path to electoral integrity. What do you think?
