The recent proposed electoral amendment has sparked discussions on how to ensure fairness in Nigerian elections.
Many Nigerians have told the National Assembly that real-time electronic transmission of election results must be compulsory to prevent manipulation at collation centres. This process involves Presiding Officers transmitting results from polling units to IREV.
While this debate is positive, Nigerians must think further. If the National Assembly mandates real-time transmission of results from polling units after manual counting, signatures, and observations, it would significantly improve the electoral process alongside manual collation. Beyond electronic results transmission, Nigerians should also push for laws that make transmitted results admissible in court as evidence of irregularities. This would differentiate between transmission and credible evidence, crucial for court judgments on election integrity.
Ideally, IREV should provide not only an overview of election results but also reliable evidence for establishing victories or irregularities during collation, ensuring the integrity of the process winners.
Results from Irev may not be accepted as evidence in court, Nigerians should push further to seek clarification on this. There should be a need to make an Irev collation mandatory as well to reduce irregularities. I have seen as a journalist where opposition party agents were chased out of the collation centre and the results were altered to favour their chosen candidates. There are lots of issues with the collation of election results. The only solution I see there is the need for IREV collation of results independently and the Electoral Act must recognise it. Elections are serious business for politicians. They believe in vote-buying rather than performance. The penalty for vote buying should be something equating to a criminal offence to discourage such an act. If the politicians do well, people will re-elect them. But if electoral reform paves the way for the blockage of irregularities, our country will be better for it.
Nigerians should insist that the Independent National Electoral Commission,.INEC, establish a dedicated collation officer for each election—be it state Assemblies, House of Representatives, Senate, Governorship, or Presidential—to promote transparency. INEC could also enhance this by appointing or hiring ad hoc staff to conduct an independent collation separate from the official collation at centres. This would improve credibility and provide an accurate picture of the polling units’ outcomes, especially considering past instances where ruling party agents have expelled opposition agents to manipulate results in favour of their preferred candidates.
As citizens, we must strive to ensure our lawmakers lay a strong foundation for a credible electoral process that features free, fair, and transparent elections. The time is right to remove barriers and establish procedures that clearly communicate election outcomes—whether one wins or loses.
Moving forward, the National Assembly should prioritise expanding access to telecommunications networks across the country. INEC could learn from the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board, JAMB, which conducts the UTME exam annually with minimal network failure issues. Similarly, banking services allow Nigerians to transfer and receive funds easily, demonstrating that reliable connectivity is achievable. I am confident INEC can do the same. BIVAS has been instrumental for nearly two decades, reducing multiple voting.
Furthermore, the National Assembly should clearly define penalties and sanctions for political parties involved in re-election campaigns and publicity. It is unfair that, more than a year before elections, politicians are already campaigning and soliciting support with flags and banners.
