Nigeria’s main opposition figures converged at the nation’s capital Abuja on Thursday demanding a comprehensive and immediate amendment of the Electoral Act 2026, just signed into law.
Leaders from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) who were the key personalities at the meeting during a press conference aft the meeting, calling on the National Assembly to initiate a fresh legislative process to amend the act ahead of in-coming elections.
At the meeting Lagos/Osun Hall of Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, included a former Senate President, David Mark, who is the national chairman of ADC; former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and NNPP chieftain Buba Galadima;
Also in attendance were the ADC National Secretary, Rauf Aregbesola; former Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi; and the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi.
Others included former Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke; Sen. Dino Melaye, and former ADC National Chairman, Ralph Nwosu, as well as other critical stakeholders.
They noted that not only opposition political parties but Nigerians across various divides have expressed their discontent with the anti-democratic provisions of the Electoral Act, 2026 at the various public hearings and protests at the National Assembly grounds.
“We consider several provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 signed into law with such contemptuous haste by President Tinubu as a major offensive by the APC administration to subvert the will of the people in the 2027 general elections.
“This joint briefing and other collaborative efforts that would follow are therefore designed by the opposition parties to save our democracy, and more importantly, to save our country from political crisis that may follow if the will of the people are subverted yet again.
“We therefore state unequivocally that the new Electoral Act is anti-democratic, and its implementation will undermine electoral transparency and sanctity of the ballot which are fundamental to free, fair and credible elections and the bedrock of participatory democracy.
“This obnoxious Electoral Act, 2026 is without doubt enacted to undermine democracy in Nigeria and it is part of the on-going design by the Tinubu-led APC to disorganise and weaken opposition, corrupt the electoral system, compromise democratic institutions and foist a totalitarian one-party rule on Nigeria.
“Therefore, we, as patriotic leaders, standing shoulder to shoulder with Nigerians, reject the new Electoral Act”.
They stated that the introduction of the proviso in Section 60(3), which allows wide and undefined discretionary powers to the presiding officer, overrides and negates the purpose of introducing electronic transmission of election results from polling units.
“This negation is unambiguously intended to provide a blank check to those who seek to manipulate election results by delaying the electronic transmission of results from the polling units to the IREV on the pretext of network failure.
“The premise of the proviso in Section 60(3) is the unavailability or possibility of network failure. We find this premise dubious and inconsistent with reality.
“The immediate-past INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, stated on record that the BVAS equipment, which operates offline, had worked with over 90% success rate across the nation, and in the event of network failure at the point of transmission, the transmitted results would be delivered successfully whenever network is available.
“This position has been further confirmed most recently by the former INEC Commissioner, Festus Okoye, as widely reported, that every polling unit in Nigeria has internet access.
“Indeed, these statements by those who have been in a position to know provide counterfactual to the lies that are being fed to the Nigerian people by a government that has lost respect for reason and reality.
“The testimonies of these two principal officers of INEC have also been strongly supported by publicly available data.
“According to the Nigerian Communications Commission, as at 2023 Nigeria had achieved more than 95% 2G coverage, which is more than sufficient for transmission of election results from polling units.
“And by that same period, Nigeria already had more than 159 million internet subscribers, and more than 220 million telephone subscribers using 2G network.
“It is also noteworthy that Nigeria’s satellite organisation, NICOMSAT, has the capacity for 24 hour coverage of the entire country.
“This goes to show that denying mandatory real-time transmission of election results from the polling units on the basis of lack of communication network is not supported by evidence.
“Fortunately, millions of our people who transact business daily with various financial platforms even from the remotest parts of the country know that the no-network arguement is fraudulent and is merely part of the APC game-plan to rig the election in 2027.
“Indeed, we find it quite ironic, that the same APC that strongly agitated for electronic voting only a few years ago is now opposed to the use of technology for mere transmission of results. The game at hand is very clear”.
The opposition also frowned at the amendment to Section 84 of the Act, limiting political parties to direct primaries and consensus for the purpose of selection of candidates, describing such as an overreach on the constitutionally guaranteed autonomy of political parties in the exercise of their internal affairs.
“The National Assembly cannot hide under the provision of Section 228(b) of the Constitution to restrict political parties to only two methods of nomination.
“There is nothing undemocratic about indirect primaries, which create an electoral college for the selection of candidates in an objective, transparent and orderly manner”.
Despite of the passage of the new electoral act and “hasty assent into law by President Bola Tinubu”, the group commended the opposition lawmakers, “who despite intimidation and harassment stood firmly against anti-democratic forces in both chambers and in defence of democracy.
“We demand that the National Assembly immediately commence a fresh amendment to the Electoral Act 2026, to remove all obnoxious provisions and ensure that the Act reflects only the will and aspiration of Nigerians for free, fair, transparent and credible electoral process in our country”.
They equally made allusions to “blatant rigging of the FCT election as a wake-up call,” saying, “we have learnt important lessons from this experience. We have given the new INEC Chairman the benefits of the doubts.
“The FCT election was his litmus test and from what we have seen, he has failed to convince us that anything would change under his watch, therefore telling us that we can only trust in our capacity and determination to protect our votes”.
They also condemned in strongest terms the attack of some members of the opposition leaders in Edo State on Wednesday February 24, as well as similar attacks in other parts of the country.
“We reiterate that no political grievance can justify the use of violence, the shedding of blood and the killing of citizens. We, and all compatriots, as well as those who cherish the institutionalization of democracy in Nigeria will therefore never accept a return to the days of politics based on violence,” they said.
They alluded to what they called “weaponisation of the judiciary “, stressing that “the judiciary must stop being complicit in undermining our democracy”.
