President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has signed into law the newly amended 2026 Electoral Act, passed to him by the National Assembly that finished work on it less than 24 hours after Tuesday’s rancorous deliberations by both arms.
The development follows the passage of the legislation by the national assembly on Tuesday after months of debate, review and amendments by both chambers.
The signing ceremony took place at the State House around 5:00 pm on Wednesday, with top national assembly leaders present.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, witnessed the occasion.
On Tuesday, the Senate and House of Representatives harmonised the electoral amidst opposition from minority lawmakers.
Earlier, Akpabio had said President Tinubu was expected to sign the amended Electoral Act into law this month.
Akpabio said this during an emergency plenary session where the lawmakers constituted a committee to harmonise its version of the bill with the one passed by the House of Representatives amid the backlash triggered by some amendments to the Act.
“I believe that if you are able to conclude within this, in the next few days or one week, the President should be able to sign this amended Electoral Bill into an Act of Parliament within this month of February. So I wish you a worthy deliberation with your colleagues,” he had said.
Speaking shortly after signing the bill into law, Tinubu commended the National Assembly for the “solid brainstorming discussions” aimed at strengthening national development and safeguarding democratic stability.
“The essence of democracy is to have very solid brainstorming discussions committed to national development and nation building, the stability of the nation,” he said.
The President noted that beyond the historical significance of the legislation, the priority is ensuring that the electoral process is managed in a way that prevents confusion or disenfranchisement.
“What is crucial is the fact that you manage the process to the extent there will be no confusion, no disenfranchisement of Nigerians; and we are all going to see democracy flourish,” he said.
Tinubu noted that confidence in the system must be rebuilt, arguing that no electoral framework, however technologically advanced, can function without human integrity.
“No matter how good a system is, it’s managed by the people, promoted by the people, and result is finalised by the people,” he said.
“For final results, you are not going to be talking to the computer. You are going to be talking to human beings who announce the results.”
Addressing debates around real-time electronic transmission of results, the President urged a realistic assessment of Nigeria’s technological capacity, particularly broadband infrastructure.
“When you look at the crux of various agreements, maybe Nigeria should question our broadband capability. How technically are we today? How technically will we be tomorrow?” Tinubu asked.
He emphasised that the voting process itself remains fundamentally manual, adding that voters will continue to appear in person at polling units, receive ballot papers, thumbprint their preferred candidates and cast their votes without interference.
Ballots, he added, are sorted and counted manually, with only the arithmetic results entered into official forms.
“Essentially, the transmission of that manual result is what we’re looking at, and we need to avoid glitches,” he said, warning against unnecessary interference in an era of heightened digital scrutiny.
Expressing optimism about the country’s democratic future, Tinubu said Nigeria would continue to nurture its democracy toward achieving prosperity and stability.
“Nigeria will be there. We will flourish. We will continue to nurture this democracy for the fulfilment of our dream for prosperity and stability of our country,” he added.
The Senate had reconvened for an emergency plenary on Tuesday and rescinded its earlier passage of the bill to allow amendments affecting the 2027 election timetable.
The lawmakers said the adjustment became necessary after further review of the bill revealed that the 360-day notice requirement in clause 28 could result in the scheduling of the 2027 presidential and national assembly elections within the Ramadan period.
There had also been debates over the electronic transmission of election results in the bill.
The Senate had initially rejected compulsory real-time electronic transmission of election results, triggering public outrage.
As a result, protesters stormed the national assembly complex to demand live transmission.
Following a reconsideration of a controversial provision during its February 10 plenary, the senate approved the electronic transmission of election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s result viewing portal (IReV), while allowing manual collation to serve as a fallback where technology fails.
