Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili has cautioned Nigerian senators that they are “playing with fire” by retaining ambiguities in the amended Electoral Act.
This is as she insisted that Nigerians are calling for the real-time electronic upload of election results at polling units.
Speaking on ARISE News on Friday, Ezekwesili reacted to the Senate’s passage of the bill amending the Electoral Act, following hours of debate and controversy over provisions governing electronic transmission of results and the discretion granted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“I think that the fundamental issue is that the Senate retained the INEC 2022 Act Section 60, subsection 5, which actually became infamous for the loophole that it provided for the INEC to not accord Nigerians the basis to trust it anymore,” she said.
She recalled assurances given by the electoral body ahead of the 2023 general election, particularly to young voters, which were not fulfilled.
“The then chairman of INEC kept telling especially the young people of this country that he was assuring them that they would exercise the effectiveness of using online transmission into the INEC results viewing portal,” Ezekwesili said.
According to her, the failure to upload results electronically became the foundation for widespread suspicion and legal outcomes that weakened transparency.
