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Ezekwesili Joins Protest, Demands Mandatory Real-Time Transmission To Protect Nigeria’s Electoral Integrity
Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, on Tuesday joined protesters at the National Assembly, mounting fresh pressure on lawmakers over the Senate’s rejection of mandatory real-time electronic transmission of election results.
The protest follows the Senate’s February 4 passage of an amendment to the Electoral Act, which reduced the timeline for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish a notice of election from 360 days to 180 days. However, the upper legislative chamber ruled out making real-time electronic transmission of results compulsory.
Addressing journalists at the protest ground in Abuja, Ezekwesili warned that the Senate must not be allowed to pass what she described as an “ambiguous” provision that grants discretionary powers instead of enshrining mandatory electronic transmission in law.
“The way that our votes will count is to have this mandatory provision that makes it the core principle of our electoral transparency,” she said.
“No longer shall our votes be subject to the kinds of cancellations of results that we saw in EC8A in previous elections,” she added.
Ezekwesili questioned the resistance to compulsory electronic transmission, arguing that transparency is fundamental to credible elections.
“The only reason they don’t want transparency through the mandatory provision for there to be instant, real-time, electronic transmission of the results is because they want to continue to capture our democracy. The society is labouring under the weight of poor governance that we have seen so far in our democracy, and now the citizens are saying enough.
“There is no reason why people who call themselves democrats hate transparency.
“Why are you introducing extraneous laws? If these people pass any bill that has programmed rigging, we should know that both the executive and legislature have agreed to rig the election.”
Her appearance adds to mounting pressure on the National Assembly to retain a mandatory real-time electronic transmission clause in the amended Electoral Act.
On February 9, Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, led a group of protesters to the National Assembly complex in Abuja over the Senate’s rejection of compulsory electronic transmission of results.
A day later, on February 10, former Rivers State governor and ex-Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, also joined demonstrators in Abuja, demanding that lawmakers make electronic transmission of election results mandatory.
