Over the last fortnight I have received messages from many concerned and respected stakeholders. The content of their messages is virtually identical. Overall, he basically sought clarification on the Senate's decision to retain Section 60(3 and 5) of the Electoral Act, 2022 in the ongoing reform of our country's electoral governance framework.
Sadly, I couldn't respond to any of these messages for at least two reasons. Firstly, I was on a national assignment outside my fatherland when I received the messages. Due to the importance of the work, I was short of time to reply to the messages one by one. Second, the messages largely reflect the mood of the citizens as we prepare for the 2027 general elections. Therefore, I have come up with this intervention to collectively address the concerns of our constituents across the country.
Then what was the real issue that gave rise to public debate? This debate is based on the National Assembly's resolve to redesign an electoral governance framework that reflects the harsh realities of our fatherland. As a result, the Senate ruled against section 60(3) of the Elections Bill, 2026. This section virtually mandates the Presiding Officer to “transmit the results from each polling unit electronically on the IReV portal in real time and such transmission shall be made after the prescribed Form EC8A is signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available in the polling unit.”
As Nigeria's foremost democratic institution, the Senate recognizes the strength of this section. It recognizes its potential to strengthen the integrity of our electoral process. It equally believes that this segment has high potential to deepen confidence in democratic institutions, particularly the National Assembly and INEC. With all these possibilities, Section 60(3) of the Electoral Bill, 2026 is an initiative that any legislature or parliament globally would typically adopt. But this is just one side of the segment. We have a tradition of taking decisions based on discussing both sides of the coin. It is this tradition that inspired our curiosity in the other side of the section because its impact in the future could exceed 237 million.
Further inquiry brought up an inevitable question. What pitfalls may arise or may we have to face if we make real-time electronic transmission of election results mandatory? To solve this question we have to separate emotions from practical things, facts from fiction or reality from emotions. As a result, we broadened our consultation and engagement to ensure that we did not take any decision that would further undermine public confidence or that would plunge our fatherland into deeper crisis.
As pragmatically as we could, we sought an empirical answer to this question by involving key actors from the communications and electricity sectors. In the end, we came up with useful findings that guided the Senate's decision. Firstly, we noted that the Electoral Act 2022 already guaranteed the transfer of election results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV). This is evident in section 62(2), which established the National Electronic Register of Election Results. The introduction of section 60(3), which obliges all presiding officers to transmit election results electronically to the IREV in real time, is no longer necessary because we have not fully accepted electronic voting.
This finding highlights the need to separate electronic transmission of election results from electronic voting. Electronic transmission of election results does not mean that Nigerians will vote electronically. It only suggests that after the polling is over and the results are declared in the polling units as per the provision of the Election Act, the Presiding Officer will transfer or transmit the election results to the IREV through the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). In other words, it means that we are voting manually and the election results will be counted manually. After the complete process, the election results will be transferred or broadcast to IReV before all stakeholders in each of the 176,974 polling units across the country. This is the system we have been using since 2020, and it has significantly improved the integrity of our election process,
In contrast, the latter precisely calls for the use of electronic technologies to assist or manage the casting and counting of ballots. This system basically allows voters to use an electronic device to make and record their ballot choices. In Nigeria, to date, we are not at this level considering the state of communication infrastructure. Even though we have not achieved this stage, it is a system that we all aspire to adopt in the future when the power and communication infrastructure of our country is developed to such a level that we can guarantee uninterrupted operation of the electronic voting system.
Second, we found that the capacity of our power infrastructure would not efficiently support real-time electronic transmission of election results across the entire federation. We have a very large population spread throughout the federation. Compared to our population, official data shows that at least 85 million Nigerians still do not have access to grid electricity. This figure is approximately 43 percent of the population. This shortage speaks volumes about the state of our power infrastructure. Even though our generation capacity is approximately between 12,000 and 13,500 MW, our distribution and transmission capacity is extremely limited. As we all know, it can deliver only 4,500 MW of power to homes across the country.
With this state of our power sector, can we guarantee stable power supply across the country during election days? Like most technologies, BVAS rely on batteries to function. If such devices are used continuously for a long period of time, their batteries will automatically drain, no matter how powerful they are.
It will then be necessary for the devices to be charged before they will work again. Can we guarantee stable power supply across the country during election days? If we cannot guarantee stable power supply across the country, why should we make real-time electronic transmission of election results mandatory? I think we should be careful with our choices lest we create unnecessary problems for ourselves during and after the 2027 elections.
Consequently, to avoid a situation that would further add to the problems of our country, it would be better if we make it discretionary as Section 62(2) of the Elections Act, 2022 has already established the National Electronic Register of Election Results. The section states that the registrar “shall have a separate database or repository of voting unit results by voting unit, which shall also include aggregated election results.” This provision mandates presiding officers to transfer or transmit election results to IREVs in polling units. Therefore, the use of ‘real time’ in section 60(3 and 5) of the Electoral Bill, 2026 is nothing but an incitement to intractable crisis. We must now avoid such a slippery path in the interest of national peace and security.
Does this shortage indicate that the federal government is not addressing our power sector problems? We have achieved a lot in the last four years. For example, in 2022, the National Assembly reviewed the 1999 Constitution and removed electricity from the specific legislative list. The implication is that electricity is now under the concurrent legislative list. This means that the Houses of State Assembly can make laws on electricity. We have also amended the Electricity Act, 2025 to accelerate decentralization of the power sector by strengthening the power of subnational governments to generate, transmit and distribute electricity. This reform is truly profound, and there is no doubt that it will open our doors to greater investment that can support real-time electronic transmission of election results in the future.
The third finding directly depends on the coverage of our country's broadband infrastructure. This is another fundamental consideration in every conversation that touches on electronic transmission of election results and electronic voting systems. Currently, as official data shows, our broadband coverage is steadily increasing, although very weak by global standards. As shown in our 2020-2025 National Broadband Plan, we aim for 70% national coverage by 2025. But we're meeting that goal, even though we're making real progress. Our broadband coverage is now 50.58%. Furthermore, as the NCC showed, 4,834 communities with a population of 21 million still do not have access to basic mobile connectivity. This shows that 49.42% of the people of the Federation still do not have access to the internet network which we need to enable real-time electronic transmission of election results across the country.
This search is not limited to our broadband coverage. Our level of access to Internet access offers some lessons that we cannot ignore when making laws. Right now, our internet user penetration is equally weak, i.e. 44.53 per cent of our population.
This shows that a large number of our people do not have access to the internet. This may actually seem irrelevant at the level of improvement. But this could be a spark that will become an inferno in the implementation phase. To me, this is a highly consequential factor that cannot be ruled out for a republic of our size if election results must be broadcast in real time because any delay, failure or hitch in delivery or broadcast in real time can create public suspicion, and public suspicion can create unrest because now we are all more interested in who rules our fatherland than at any other time in our history.
Beyond these realities, comparing Nigeria with other countries further reveals the state of our communications infrastructure. Speedtext Global Index, a global leader in connectivity intelligence, provides empirical data that further guides our decision making. For example, in 2025, the index ranked Nigeria 85th out of 105 countries. Our mobile network reliability was 44.14 megabits per second. This is extremely low compared to the UAE, which has 691.76 Mbps; Qatar with 573.53 Mbps; Kuwait's 415.67mbps; Bahrain's 303.21 Mbps and Bulgaria's 289.41 Mbps. The index placed Nigeria well below average with respect to the reliability of our mobile networks.
Nigeria's rating in terms of internet connection speed is quite troubling in terms of fixed internet broadband. Out of 150 countries, Nigeria ranked 129th with only 33.32 Mbps. In this rating, Singapore came first with 410.06 Mbps, followed by UAE with 382.35 Mbps; France's 346.25 Mbps, Chile's 348.41 Mbps and Hong Kong's 345.25 Mbps. These ratings are not where we were decades ago. We have made significant progress. To strengthen the reliability of our broadband and mobile network infrastructure, we have launched various legislative initiatives that will attract much-needed investment in our digital economy and develop world-class communications infrastructure that can support the efficient deployment of e-governance to manage our public affairs.
All these empirical data guided the Senate's decision before upholding Section 60(3$5) of the Electoral Act, 2022. They speak directly to the harsh realities of our federation, not sentiment or sentiment. We recognize that making law on a global scale comes with great responsibilities. As representatives of the public, we cannot make laws based solely on public sentiment or sentiments. These are enormous responsibilities that the Constitution places on all of us, and we cannot discharge our responsibilities by harming citizens, for any reason.
In a democracy, law making is at the heart of public governance. In fact, it is its life stream which flows freely in the veins of all public institutions. It does not respond to mere sentiment or sentiment, but to facts, evidence or realities that may define or distort the future of our political system. If our law does not capture the realities of the federation, it is a script for anarchy or a ploy for instability. This cut guided the Senate's decision to redraft section 60(3 and 5) with a caveat, as well as address the concerns of our people across the country. The caveat, in this case, is to completely remove 'real time' from the section so that we do not end up with an electoral governance framework that cannot respond to the harsh realities of our fatherland.
. Senator Bamidele, CON, is the Leader of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
