Human rights activist and former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has claimed that the vast majority of federal lawmakers and other elected officials in Nigeria would not retain their seats if elections were conducted transparently.
Sowore made the assertion while reacting to the controversy surrounding proposed amendments to the Electoral Act, particularly provisions relating to the electronic transmission of election results.
According to him, many lawmakers are hesitant to pass reforms that would entrench full electoral transparency because such measures could jeopardize their political futures.
He dismissed claims that poor network coverage in some parts of the country justifies the retention of manual collation of results, describing the argument as a mere excuse.
“This excuse that there is no network in some states is just another balloon air on the part of these guys. They don’t want transparent elections because if elections are transparent, 90 per cent of them will not make it to the National Assembly — and of course the presidency and other elected positions, they know that,” Sowore said.
The activist further described the Senate’s decision to retain manual collation of election results as “clever by half.”
He argued that the provision was deliberately inserted to create room for what he termed a return to the “hardcoded way of reporting elections,” a system he claimed has eroded public trust in Nigeria’s electoral process.
The debate over the Electoral Act amendment has continued to generate public reactions, with political stakeholders and civil society groups divided over the implications of electronic transmission and the integrity of future elections.
