Failure to mandatorily transmit election results can plunge Nigeria into crisis – Agbakoba

By BASIRAT SHITTU

Agbakoba stated this warning that failure to do so could plunge Nigeria into another cycle of disputed elections and prolonged litigation ahead of the 2027 general polls.

Prominent constitutional lawyer and former Nigerian Bar Association President, Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), has called on the National Assembly to urgently amend the Electoral Act to make electronic transmission of election results mandatory.

Agbakoba stated this warning that failure to do so could plunge Nigeria into another cycle of disputed elections and prolonged litigation ahead of the 2027 general polls.

In a statement titled, “Ending the Cycle – Why Electronic Transmission Should Be Enshrined in the Electoral Act Before 2027,” issued on Monday, Agbakoba said Nigeria’s electoral process has remained trapped in legal uncertainty due to the absence of clear statutory backing for modern voting innovations.

He noted that despite repeated amendments to the Electoral Act with every election cycle, the same structural weaknesses persist, forcing courts to determine election outcomes long after votes have been cast.

“The vicious cycle must end,” Agbakoba said, arguing that the failure to embed strong regulatory processes with express statutory authority has continued to undermine electoral credibility.

According to him, the 2023 general election starkly exposed this weakness.

While the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deployed the Result Viewing Portal (IReV) to facilitate electronic transmission and public viewing of results, the Supreme Court later ruled that the innovation had no legal force because it was not expressly provided for in the Electoral Act 2022.

The apex court held that electronic transmission, being contained only in INEC’s Regulations and Guidelines, could not be treated as legally binding evidence in election petitions.

As a result, Agbakoba said, the IReV portal was reduced to a transparency tool without evidentiary value.

“The message was unmistakable. Without explicit statutory provision, electronic transmission remains optional and legally inconsequential, no matter how transparent or efficient it may be,” he said.

Agbakoba warned that this legal gap places an almost impossible evidentiary burden on election petitioners.

He recalled the late Justice Pat Acholonu’s observation in Buhari v. Obasanjo (2005), where the jurist expressed doubt that a petitioner could successfully challenge a presidential election, given the need to call hundreds of thousands of witnesses across the country’s polling units.

Justice Acholonu had also warned that even a successful petition might amount to an “empty victory,” as the winner could complete the four-year tenure before the litigation concluded.

Agbakoba said this prediction has proven accurate, noting that no presidential election petition has succeeded since 1999.

“This is precisely because verifying results from over 176,000 polling units within constitutionally limited timelines is a practical impossibility,” he said.

Drawing lessons from history, Agbakoba pointed to the June 12, 1993, presidential election as Nigeria’s benchmark for electoral credibility.

He said the election earned widespread acclaim not because of advanced technology, but because of its transparent Option A4 system, which allowed voters, party agents, and observers to openly verify results at polling units before collation.

“If manual transparency could achieve such credibility in 1993, imagine the transformative impact of real-time electronic transmission in our digital age,” he argued.

According to him, mandatory electronic transmission would combine immediate verification with tamper-proof digital records, delivering transparency with greater efficiency, security and verifiability.

Agbakoba described the ongoing legislative review process as a “monumental opportunity” for lawmakers to address the issue decisively before 2027, warning that failure to act could further erode public confidence in Nigeria’s democracy.

“The National Assembly must act decisively to embed mandatory real-time electronic transmission of results in the Electoral Act, removing all ambiguity and closing the legal loopholes that have been exploited to undermine the people’s will,” he said.