By Prosper Mene
Former Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili was right there with the protesters today outside the National Assembly gates in Abuja, making it clear she’s not letting this slide. The crowd has been out for days now, pushing hard for the Electoral Act Amendment Bill to lock in mandatory real-time electronic transmission of election results, no ifs, no buts.
Ezekwesili, who’s never one to mince words, told journalists straight up that the Senate is pushing an “ambiguous” clause that basically hands INEC the power to decide when or if results get uploaded electronically. She said: โIf the Senate gets away with a provision that is ambiguous, that gives power of discretion to determine the ifs and the buts, instead of making the clause mandatory, that every vote must count in this country, then we are weakening the core principle of electoral transparency.โ
She’s calling it what a lot of people are thinking: this could open the door wide for manipulation before 2027. The only way votes actually count, she stressed, is if transmission is compulsory and happens in real time from every polling unit straight to the IReV portal.
She wasn’t alone, former Sports Minister Solomon Dalung and activist Omoyele Sowore were also there, along with groups like Situation Room, ActionAid, and labour folks under the Movement for Credible Elections. The protesters want the House version of the bill to win out in the end, because it reportedly keeps e-transmission mandatory, while the Senate seems ready to water it down or make it optional.
This comes right after the Senate already cut the time for INEC to publish election notices and rejected mandatory real-time uploads earlier this month. People are calling it everything from a “coup against democracy” to straight-up “programming rigging into law.”
Ezekwesili put it bluntly: the fight is about whether our votes will count or not. With 2027 not far off, the pressure’s on the lawmakers to sort this out without killing the transparency most Nigerians are demanding.
