The Global President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Prof. Benjamin Okaba, has taken a swipe at the Senate over its stance on the electronic transmission of election results, describing the move as a blow to accountability and transparency in Nigeria’s electoral system.
In an interview on Friday, Okaba said the decision by the Red Chamber showed an unwillingness to protect the integrity and finality of votes cast by Nigerians. He noted that lawmakers rejected a straightforward but critical safeguard meant to ensure that results announced openly at polling units remain the same throughout the collation process.
“What the Senate opposed was the principle that a vote cast openly by a citizen should be the exact vote counted at the end of the election,” Okaba said.
According to him, the decision has shifted the burden of ensuring credible elections from the legislature back to voters, party agents, and civil society actors at polling units and collation centres nationwide.
“The fight for credible elections has been pushed from the Senate chamber back to the streets and polling units,” he added.
Okaba stressed that the debate was never about technical issues such as servers, internet access, or the cost of technology, but about political will.
“The real issue was whether Nigeria is prepared to decisively curb the deeply rooted culture of electoral fraud that has haunted our democracy for decades. Unfortunately, the answer was no,” he said.
He described the Senate’s action as a step backwards at a crucial moment, accusing lawmakers of favouring opaque processes over transparency. Rather than strengthening democratic institutions, he argued, the Senate chose to protect entrenched political interests.
“This outcome may not be surprising, but it is deeply disappointing. The Senate had a clear choice between strengthening democracy and preserving the old order, and it chose the latter,” Okaba said.
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He explained that making electronic transmission mandatory would have ensured that once polling unit results were signed and announced, they would be instantly uploaded to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), creating a permanent public record and preventing manipulation during collation.
“The goal is to dismantle the corrupt practice of altering results at the ward, local government, and state levels,” he said.
Instead, he noted, the Senate retained discretionary transmission, leaving the process vulnerable and largely dependent on the discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“This was deliberate. By making transmission optional, the law provides no real protection,” he added.
Okaba said the decision has wide-ranging consequences, describing it as a serious governance failure and a missed opportunity to boost electoral credibility. He referenced concerns raised by civil society organisations, including Yiaga Africa, warning that the move weakens safeguards established by the 2022 Electoral Act and erodes public trust.
He also pointed out that opposition parties such as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party have criticised the decision as retrogressive and tilted in favour of entrenched political interests.
“They are right to say it shields the powerful and sustains the system of rigging,” he said.
Responding to claims by Senate President Godswill Akpabio that the Senate did not reject electronic transmission, Okaba described the explanation as misleading.
“They didn’t have to reject it outright; they weakened it. Retaining the wording while stripping it of legal force is not a defence, it is an admission,” he said.
Looking ahead to the 2027 general elections, Okaba warned that Nigeria is heading into another election cycle under weak legal provisions that have already damaged public confidence.
“This decision deepens voter apathy, especially among young and reform-minded Nigerians. It sends a clear signal that the system is unwilling to change,” he said.
He added that without strong legal backing, the credibility of future elections will depend largely on the leadership of INEC and the vigilance of party agents and observers nationwide, an arrangement he described as fragile and unsustainable.
