The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has said lawmakers deliberately removed the requirement for mandatory “real-time” electronic transmission of election results during the clause-by-clause consideration of the Electoral Act amendment bill.
Mr Akpabio explained that the decision was informed by concerns that enforcing real-time transmission could trigger legal disputes if network failures occur during elections.
The senate president spoke at the launch of a book titled ‘The Burden of Legislators in Nigeria.’ The book is authored by former senator Effiong Bob and published by PREMIUM TIMES Books.
“All we said during discussion was that we should remove the word real-time. Because if you say real-time and the network or what I may call glitch failure, and then the network is not working, when you go to court, somebody will say it ought to have been real-time, that was all we said, but we left the burden to those who conduct elections. INEC will determine the mode of transfer or transmission of votes,” he added.
Mr Akpabio compared the potential legal challenges to the 2000 United States presidential election between George Bush and Al Gore.
“If we make it mandatory that we must do it real-time, electronically, go and look at what happened in America between George Bush and Al Gore. By the time the votes came in, Al Gore had actually won the election. But what happened? George Bush was declared while the votes were still hanging during a trans…electronic vote. Even the best of countries are yet to get it right. That is the first war. But they are more civilized than us.
“In Nigeria, civil society would have called out students and everybody to go to the street; that we have discovered a massive fraud. But they were able to protect their country from disintegrating and protect their democracy from being rubbish. So, as we talk, we must have the spirit of what I may regard as patriotism. It is unfortunate.”
Outrage over electoral amendment
In the past two days, Nigerians have been intensely debating amendments to the Electoral Act passed by the Senate on Wednesday.
Although several provisions of the law were amended, public attention has largely focused on one controversial clause, which is the rejection of mandatory electronic transmission of election results from polling units to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IREV).
Public opinion has been largely divided. However, many political parties, politicians, civil society groups and social media users have condemned the amendments and urged lawmakers to reconsider them.
Some civil groups and activists have called for protests at the National Assembly. A group operating under the banner Enough is Enough has begun mobilising supporters using the hashtag #OccupyNASS.
Amid the criticism, some senators in the minority caucus told journalists on Thursday that the Electoral Act amendment does, in fact, accommodate electronic transmission of election results.
The senators were led by Abia South Senator, Eyinnaya Abaribe of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). He said confusion over the provision arose from side conversations during the clause-by-clause consideration of the bill in plenary.
Akpabio addresses critics
Mr Akpabio said while it is democratic for citizens to criticise the legislature, those dissatisfied with the amendment are free to adopt any method they prefer to transmit election results to collation centres, including using bicycles or mobile phones.
“All institutions have the right to express themselves, thank God democracy is in existence. I must state clearly without ambiguity that there’s no fault or insinuation and no midst or misunderstanding. The Senate has acted and when we approve the votes you’ll see that the Senate has not removed anything.
“If you want to use bicycle to carry your votes from one polling unit to the ward centre, do so. If you want to use your phone to transmit, do so. If you want to use your iPad to do anything, do so. If you have network in your area, go ahead with transmission,” he said.
Akpabio queries critics
Mr Akpabio questioned the basis of the criticism, accusing his detractors of convening television panels to attack senators over an amendment process that is yet to be concluded.
He challenged the critics to contest elections and take seats in the legislature if they wish to participate in lawmaking, dismissing them as “mouth legislators.”
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“We’re yet to complete the process, so why are people setting up panels in all television studios and then abusing and then people have become mouth legislators. Go and contest election if you want to talk about lawmaking and go and join them and make the law. None of them have even been elected councillors yet but they are on the television abusing the senators, abusing members of the legislators; but I leave them to God.”
Mr Akpabio said the Senate under his leadership would not be intimidated by criticism and would pass an Electoral Act that reflects the interest of Nigerians.
“We’ll not be intimidated. We’ll do what is right for this country and our expression, our lawmaking will reflect the wishes of the generality of Nigerians, not that of one NGO or somebody who gets money from the European Union to carry senators to Lagos and then ask them for account and then hand over (to) them a paper and say go and pass, that is not lawmaking. Retreats are not lawmaking, retreats are part of consultations. So, why do you think that paper you agreed on in Lagos during retreat is what must be agreed on the floor,” he added.
