Nigeria’s electoral framework has been suffering from persistent authorized uncertainty, forcing courts to find out election outcomes. This uncertainty stems from a basic failure: the absence of sturdy regulatory processes backed by categorical statutory authority. With each election cycle, we rush to amend the Electoral Act. But we proceed to grapple with the identical challenges, resulting in continued rounds of amendments. This vicious cycle should finish.
The 2023 election uncovered a vital hole in our electoral authorized framework. Regardless of INEC’s deployment of the iREV portal for digital transmission of outcomes, the Supreme Courtroom dominated that this innovation lacks authorized pressure. The Courtroom held that as a result of digital transmission just isn’t expressly offered by the Electoral Act 2022 (showing solely in INEC’s Laws and Tips), it’s not legally binding. And that the IReV portal serves merely for public viewing and isn’t admissible proof of leads to election petitions. The message was unmistakable: with out specific statutory provision, digital transmission stays optionally available and legally inconsequential, irrespective of how clear or environment friendly it might be.
This authorized hole creates an insurmountable evidentiary burden in election petitions. The late Justice Pat Acholonu, in Buhari v. Obasanjo (2005), doubted {that a} petitioner might efficiently problem a presidential election. He famous {that a} petitioner wanted to name roughly 250,000 to 300,000 witnesses throughout electoral constituencies within the nation, and even when profitable, the president-elect would have accomplished the four-year tenure, rendering any victory “an empty victory bereft of any substance.” This prophecy has confirmed tragically correct. No presidential election petition has ever succeeded since 1999. That is exactly as a result of the evidentiary proof of outcomes verification from over 176,000 polling models nationwide is a sensible impossibility inside the quick timelines allowed by regulation.
Historical past affords a confirmed answer. The June 12, 1993, election stays Nigeria’s gold customary for electoral credibility, not due to refined know-how however due to uncompromising transparency. The Possibility A4 system ensured speedy, open verification at polling models, the place voters, get together brokers, and observers might witness and ensure outcomes earlier than any collation occurred. Regardless of totally guide processes, this transparency generated unprecedented public confidence. Each native and worldwide observers acclaimed it as Nigeria’s freest and fairest election. If guide transparency might obtain such credibility in 1993, think about the transformative impression of real-time digital transmission in our digital age in 2026! It will mix speedy verification with tamper-proof digital information, delivering the identical transparency with far higher effectivity, safety, and verifiability.
The present legislative course of represents a monumental alternative for the Nationwide Meeting to resolve this basic problem earlier than the 2027 basic elections. Nigerians want an ideal framework for transparency and to revive confidence within the electoral course of. With out this modification, we threat perpetuating the identical cycle of disputed elections, protracted litigation, and broken democratic credibility that has plagued Nigeria’s Fourth Republic.
The Nationwide Meeting should act decisively to embed necessary real-time digital transmission of leads to the Electoral Act, eradicating all ambiguity and shutting the authorized loopholes which were exploited to undermine the individuals’s will. Democracy calls for nothing much less.
Dr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN
