If Criminals Can Stream Their Crimes, Why Can’t Nigeria Transmit Election Results?

 By Jude Obuseh

In today’s Nigeria, the contradiction is stark and unsettling. Armed groups in remote forests upload videos in real time. Kidnappers broadcast proof-of-life clips within minutes. Terrorists circulate propaganda across multiple platforms with ease. Yet, when it comes to elections—the very foundation of democratic legitimacy—citizens are repeatedly told that electronic transmission of results is “not always feasible.” 

The question therefore forces itself into the national conscience: if bandits can transmit their crimes live, why can’t the Nigerian state transmit election results electronically? This is not a debate about abstract technology. Nigeria has over 120 million internet subscribers, according to data from the Nigerian Communications Commission, and mobile network coverage extends to over 85 percent of the population. Banks process millions of electronic transactions daily.

Real-Time e-Transmission: ‘Technical Glitch’ In 2027 Will Unsettle Nigeria

 By Olu Fasan

The vexed debate over the Senate’s refusal to guarantee “mandatory” and “real-time” electronic transmission of results in the electoral law ignores two fundamental problems. The first is Nigeria’s utterly weak state capacity; the second is the total lack of institutional independence.

*Tinubu signs Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2026 into law

Even if the electoral act provides for mandatory and real-time transmission of election results, “mandatory” will not be mandatory and “real-time” won’t be real-time. Furthermore, INEC and the courts can’t be trusted to be above board in discharging their duties. Both problems discredited previous presidential elections in Nigeria and look likely to undermine the 2027 poll. 

Why We Must Insist On Real Time Transmission Of Results

By Nick Dazang

Following outrage at its rejection of electronic transmission of results from polling units to the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IReV, real time, on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, the Senate convened an emergency session on Tuesday, February 10, 2026.

But rather than to restore real time transmission of polling units results, and thus align itself with popular clamour and the bill already passed by the House of Representatives, namely that:

 “The Presiding Officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IReV Portal real time and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and/ or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling unit”, the Senate pussy- footed and made a mess of the 2026 Electoral Amendment Bill.

It not only expunged “real time upload of results” from clause 60(3), it provided a clumsy caveat to the bill. The Senate’s whimsical adjustment reads thusly: “…That results shall be transmitted electronically from each polling unit to IReV.

“And such transmission shall be done after the prescribed EC8A has been signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and party agents who are available at the polling unit.

“Provided that if the electronic transmission of result fails as a result of communication failure, the result contained in Form EC8A signed by the Presiding Officer and/ countersigned by the polling agents, shall, in such a case, be the primary source of collation and declaration of results.”

By its long and winding adjustment, the Senate visited more ambiguity and confusion where clarity and precision were needed to make the bill watertight.

Whereas, at first blush, the Senate appears to be providing a backup and paper trail, on closer scrutiny, it is taking us back to manual collation, which is susceptible to manipulation, and from which hold,   we intend to liberate ourselves. The adjustment, which is dilatory, also cleverly seeks to create room for manoeuvre for those who may wish to take advantage of, or subvert our elections. Pray, how could the Commission be transmitting the results electronically and collating them manually at the same time?

If what all Nigerians are demanding is electronic transmission of results, real time, and the distinguished Senators are the true representatives of these Nigerians, why are they averse to bowing to their wishes, especially when they are not proffering compelling or superior arguments?

But anyone who has avidly followed the Commission’s sundry attempts to introduce technology to our elections with a view to adding more transparency to them, and the designs of politicians to torpedo them, should hardly be surprised.

The introduction of the Permanent Voter Card, PVC, and the Smart Card Reader, SCR, met with stiff resistance. The naysayers and those opposed, galvanised by prominent politicians and their cohorts, argued strongly then that the SCRs would not work in our rural backwaters. They cited lack of electricity to adequately charge them. They argued, speciously, that our rural folks were going to be overawed and overwhelmed by such a technology. To knock the bottom out of these arguments, INEC test-ran the SCRs in rural areas and across the six geopolitical zones. The SCRs, contrary to the claims of the naysayers, worked seamlessly. What is more, they were well received by a majority of rural folks to the enduring shame and chagrin of the naysayers.

It is possible that the Senate may have provided the caveat, of a recourse to the use of Form EC8A as a primary source of collation and declaration of results, on account of poor network and internet coverage, particularly in our rural areas which are not muscularly served and on an abundance of caution. After all, our rural areas enjoy only 23 per cent access to the internet, while our urban areas enjoy 57 per cent access.

But this abundance of caution is deliberately feigned. Also, consideration of poor network and internet coverage being adduced fly in the face of the facts. Ahead of the 2019 general elections, and in its determination to transmit polling unit results, real time, and subject to the enactment of an enabling law, INEC, in 2018, engaged with the Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC. It has had a long standing partnership with the NCC. This engagement led to the establishment of the INEC/NCC JOINT TECHNICAL COMMITTEE ON ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION OF ELECTION RESULTS. This Committee, which included key Mobile Network Operators, MNOs, discovered, to its delight, as at then, that mobile networks adequately covered 93 per cent of INEC polling units across the country.

It is on the basis of this finding that INEC, subsequently, in 2021, in its POSITION PAPER(No 1/2021) stated that “it believes that it has developed adequate structures and procedures to successfully transmit election results electronically; the technology and national infrastructure to support this is adequate.”

Besides, between 2018 and 2026, the NCC and the MNOs have brought about some upgrade of our telecommunications infrastructure. From 3G, we have morphed to 4G. We are at the verge of transforming to 5G. This is not to add other safeguards such as Access Point Name, APN, and Virtual Private Network, VPN, which the NCC and the MNOs can deploy in the service and support of electronic transmission of results, real time.

It would also be a win-win for the telecommunications industry and INEC. The three, NCC, MNOs and INEC, will, in the event of electronic transmission of election results, real time, be challenged to up their games. They will be spurred to improve and improvise on their operations to the glory of their fatherland.

We have seen these improvements with technology introduced by INEC, particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS. At first their deployment and usage were chaotic. But with time, INEC Staff became more hands-on and proficient, thereby reducing the time taken to carry out accreditation and to forestal rigging. In fact, in the POSITION PAPER referenced, INEC had further stated thus: “Electronic transmission of results will improve the quality of election result management and our engagement with stakeholders shows that the Nigerian public support it”.

By removing transmission of election results, real time, from the polling unit to the IReV from the Electoral Amendment Bill, the Senate has denied the telecommunications industry and the Election Management Body, EMB, the golden opportunity of honing their skills and deploying such skills in the service of transparent elections. It also says clearly that the Senate is imbued with a mindset that is negative, entrenched in antiquity and which pays little premium on excellence. Instead it thrives on the mediocre and garden variety.

Electronic transmission of election results, real time, from the polling unit to the IReV is possible. It can be done. This is adjudged and supported by INEC.   It is what Nigerians demand. And this is attested to by the national outrage that greeted the Senate’s rejection of real time transmission of election results, the protests that followed and the attempts to occupy the National Assembly by civil society organisations.

Nigeria’s progress should not be hobbled by distinguished Senators who set store only by perpetuating themselves in office at the expense of transparent elections and deferring to the wishes of their constituents.

*Dazang is a commentator on public issues

Electoral Act Amendment: Appraising Real-Time Electronic Transmission

By Femi Falana

Nigeria stands at a defining electoral moment. The ongoing amendment to the Electoral Act presents not merely a technical legislative adjustment but a historic opportunity to consolidate democratic transparency and institutional credibility. At the heart of this debate lies the issue of the real-time electronic transmission of polling unit results, a matter that has generated controversy, misunderstanding, and policy uncertainty.

*Falana

Let us begin by clarifying the issue. Nigeria does not operate electronic voting. Ballots are cast manually. Votes are counted manually. Results are recorded manually on Form EC8A. The debate before the nation is not about transmitting digital votes. It is about whether the scanned copy of the duly completed and signed polling unit result sheet should be electronically uploaded directly from the polling unit immediately after counting and signing.

Elections: Is Anyone Still Listening To Mahmoud Yakubu?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Obviously, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmoud Yakabu, must be in love with the sound of his own voice. That is why he keeps blabbing even when no one is listening. 

*Yakubu 

He is, once again, playing the game he knows how best – lying to himself and taking Nigerians for a ride. In doing that, he probably thinks he is fooling the people. 

But he never reckons with the admonition of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, who once said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” 

2023 Polls: Is Nigeria Beyond Redemption?

 By Clement Uzoanya

Whatever has a beginning is said to have an end. But it seems that the deplorable Nigerian situation keeps reinventing itself, thus robbing citizens of the dividends of democracy. Is this God’s will for Nigeria and Nigerians or have Nigerians failed repeatedly to actualise God’s plan for a country that is rich in virtually every ramification? 

Many Nigerians looked forward to the 2023 General Elections for many reasons, among which were: the large number of youth population involved and interested; the fact that the elections were not the traditional two-horse race; the repeated assurances from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); the signing of the 2022 Electoral Act which contained the deployment of technology; and the increasingly depressing state of the economy. So, the build-up to the elections was one filled with a nostalgia of anxiety, apprehension, hope that the time had come for us to get things right. But did we? 

2023 General Elections: Is Nigeria Beyond Redemption?

 By Clement Uzoanya

Whatever has a beginning is said to have an end. But it seems that the deplorable Nigerian situation keeps reinventing itself, thus robbing citizens of the dividends of democracy. Is this God’s will for Nigeria and Nigerians or have Nigerians failed repeatedly to actualise God’s plan for a country that is rich in virtually every ramification?

Many Nigerians looked forward to the 2023 general elections for many reasons, among which were: the large number of youth population involved and interested; the fact that the elections were not the traditional two-horse race; the repeated assurances from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC; the signing of the 2022 Electoral Act which contained the deployment of technology; the increasingly depressing state of the economy, among others. So, the build-up to the elections was one filled with a nostalgia of anxiety, apprehension, hope that the time has come for us to get things right. But did we? 

Yakubu Mahmood’s INEC Fooled Nigerians

 By Charles Okoh

For a lot of Nigerians who had looked forward to using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) technology in the presidential and National Assembly elections of Saturday, February 25, it was a huge disappointment to see that that was not to be. Well, maybe, except for those who conspired to see that the device, which the INEC chairman Yakubu Mahmood and his team had touted as the game changer, did not work.

*Yakubu

The BVAS, it was expected, will help deepen our democracy by removing as much as possible human intervention in the process. Opportunities were provided by INEC for manipulation, thereby exposing to the world their insincerity. In the end it was a total waste of the time of the voter and the resources of a nation whose revenues have continued to dwindle.

Buhari Promised Credible Presidential Poll, But Delivers A Sham

 By Olu Fasan

President Muhammadu Buhari said, ad infinitum, that he would leave a legacy of credible elections. Last year, at the 77th session of United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, Buhari told world leaders: “I would leave an enduring legacy of free, fair, transparent and credible elections.” Yet, last week, he delivered the worst and most corrupt presidential poll since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999. 

*Buhari 

Buhari gave Nigerians false hopes and pulled the wool over the people’s eyes. Last year, he signed into law an electoral bill that introduced two key technologies expected to make elections credible. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, used for digital voter accreditation and electronic transmission of results, was seen as an antidote to election rigging. The INEC Results Viewing, IReV, portal would enable the public to view uploaded results from polling units, ensuring transparency.

Democracy Without Democrats, Leadership Without Honour

 By Owei Lakemfa

In Geneva, Switzerland, an acquaintance once apologised that he was some minutes late for our appointment because he went to vote that morning. Everywhere and everything appeared normal. There was no indication of voting going on. I reflected that back home, elections even at state level are emergencies in which curfew is imposed, movement restricted and the army, police, intelligence and other security services turned out on the streets.

In November, 2021, I was an observer at the elections in Venezuela. It was a Sunday because the Venezuelans would not allow a disruption of their normal activities, including on Saturdays when a lot of trading goes on. Sundays are their rest days, so they can afford an hour or two.