Olisa Agbakoba, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has called on the National Assembly to urgently amend the Electoral Act to provide explicit statutory backing for real-time electronic transmission of election results, warning that failure to act could deepen Nigeria’s cycle of disputed elections and judicial intervention.
In a statement on Monday, Agbakoba said Nigeria’s electoral framework remains weakened by persistent legal uncertainty, forcing courts to routinely determine election outcomes rather than voters.
According to him, this recurring challenge stems from the absence of strong regulatory processes supported by express statutory authority, noting that despite repeated amendments to the Electoral Act, the country continues to confront the same structural flaws every election cycle.
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He said the 2023 general elections exposed a major gap in the nation’s electoral laws, particularly following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
While INEC deployed IReV for the electronic transmission of polling unit results, the apex court held that the innovation lacks legal force because electronic transmission is not expressly provided for in the Electoral Act 2022, appearing only in INEC’s Regulations and Guidelines.
The court further ruled that IReV serves merely for public viewing and is not admissible as primary evidence in election petitions, effectively rendering electronic transmission optional and legally inconsequential.
Agbakoba said this legal vacuum had created an almost impossible evidentiary burden for petitioners challenging election outcomes.
He recalled the observation of late Justice Pat Acholonu in Buhari v. Obasanjo (2005), where the jurist expressed doubt that a Presidential election could ever be successfully challenged, noting that a petitioner would need to call between 250,000 and 300,000 witnesses, nationwide.
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Even if such a feat were possible, Acholonu warned that the president-elect would likely have completed a full term before judgment, making any eventual victory “an empty victory bereft of any substance.”
Agbakoba noted that the prediction proved accurate as no Presidential election petition has succeeded since 1999, largely because verifying results from over 176,000 polling units within legally prescribed timelines is practically impossible.
Drawing lessons from history, the senior advocate pointed to the June 12, 1993, election as Nigeria’s benchmark for electoral credibility, attributing its success not to technology but to transparency.
He said the Option A4 System enabled immediate and open verification of results at polling units, allowing voters, party agents and observers to confirm outcomes before collation, thereby building unprecedented public confidence.
He argued that real-time electronic transmission would replicate and enhance that transparency in today’s digital era by combining instant verification with tamper-proof digital records.
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The senior lawyer pointed out that the ongoing legislative review process presents a rare opportunity for lawmakers to correct this fundamental flaw before the 2027 general elections.
He warned that without urgent amendment, Nigeria risks perpetuating the same pattern of disputed elections, prolonged litigation and declining democratic credibility that characterised the Fourth Republic.
“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.
“Democracy demands nothing less”, he noted.
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