Poor technology penetration in Nigeria as alibi for electoral fraud, and beyond the ‘jangolova’ in Woro

For many Nigerians, the Senate seems to be pooling a wool over their eyes. Are the federal lawmakers being smart by half? Is their decision born out of genuine intention to serve their fatherland? Are they innocuous? There are many questions, only those who are at the centre of the scheme can give the real answers. But for Nigerians, “once bitten, twice shy.”

What new efforts must the Nigerian security authorities make to end the orgy of blood letting in the country? The massacres have become a national embarrassment. Need for urgent action, please!

Senate in self-indictment gambit

The drama around the amendment of the Electoral Act 2022 is a clear indication of high level of trust deficit in the polity.

Confidence in the government has continued to erode as the masses do not seem to positively feel the impact of government in their individual lives. What they hear is government communication in the form of repeated promises and claim of what has been achieved.

The 10th National Assembly, unfortunately, has been viewed by many Nigerians as a rubber stamp in the hand of the Executive arm, and as a result, the public does not take the federal lawmakers seriously.

So, even when the National Assembly says something or takes action that is innocuous, people do not take them seriously. They have since lost the trust of the people and it seems very difficult to change the mindset.

Moreover, the people have seen lots of manipulations and electoral fraud that any promise of credible election does not move a needle.

As it is being said in the local parlance “Nigerians have seen the politicians finish.”

What many Nigerians see in the Senate are a clique whose sleeping and waking thoughts are how to leverage their positions for self-enrichment or position elongation.

Ordinarily, the country does not need to have the serious headache and time-wasting debates on Electoral Act amendment if not for the inordinate ambition of politicians.

Do we need to engage in hair-splitting argument on simple matter as election management if our motives are right? Overtime, Nigerians have learned to “shine their eyes” because they have been bitten so many times, hence, the aphorism, “once bitten, twice shy.”

It is not celebration time even though the Senate, Tuesday, bowed to pressure from Nigerians to revisit the contentious aspect of the Electoral Act 2022 as amended.

The leadership of the Senate considered it convenient to de-market the country before the international community by claiming that Nigeria was still living in the Dark Age.

By trying to find a convenient reason to back its plan to make provision for electoral malfeasance, the “distinguished” senators said technology penetration in the country was so poor that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would not be able to transmit election results across the country, real time.

Nigeria touts itself as the ‘giant of Africa” yet, the elite members of its highest law-making body are promoting backwardness.

Credible election is a sine-qua-non for people-oriented governance in any democracy. But the Senate is laying mines against credible election in 2027. In their own opinion, political gain is simply when elections favour them and not what the country and the people benefit from the government at any given point in time.

A Senate worth its salt should be mounting pressure on the relevant ministries, agencies and parastatals (MDAs) responsible for technology penetration to ensure that the stage is set for seamless election and result transmission in 2027.

Watching some senators on national television saying that their own country was not ripe for electronic transmission of result, one wonders what manner of leaders they are.

Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, who has been representing Ebonyi North central senatorial district since 2023, was on Channels Television Wednesday, smiling timidly, and unashamedly saying that there was no network in his area in Ebonyi State. This is self-indicting!

What is such an individual doing in the Senate if his people cannot make calls and receive calls, even with their “big and influential son” in the Senate?

There are many of his ilk in the Senate. Many of them do not touch base with their constituents at home because they won election in processes that were not organic. This is why they are insisting that the INEC lacks the capacity and the wherewithal to transmit election results “real-time.” They are merely hiding behind a finger!

Yakubu Mahmood, immediate past chairman of the INEC, repeatedly told Nigerians that network was not a problem in result transmission. He said this at many fora. The current leadership of INEC has not come out to say it cannot conduct elections across the country because of poor network. Why must the Senate be weeping more than the bereaved?

During the Tuesday emergency session, the senators made a new proposal, that presiding officers may transmit election results electronically to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, if there is no network failure. But where there is network failure, the Senate moved that “the duly signed Form EC8A by the presiding officer and party agents (where available) would then be the primary source of election results.” But many Nigerians have said no, citing instances of mutilated EC8A forms that were used to declare many politicians victorious in 2023.

The decision has been described by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as being “smart by half.”

The new battle front is the decision by the Senate that the presiding officer should proceed with the manually-collated result as captured in Form EC8A.

Read also: Senate bows to pressure, adopts e-transmission of election results

Those not comfortable with the Senate’s recommendation are saying that to remove every vestige of manipulation or predetermined outcome of results by resorting to manual method, and claiming that the network was bad, the Electoral Act should explicitly state that in the event of network issue, election in the affected polling unit (s) should be cancelled.

Those who argue on this front pointed to the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) where it states that “BVAS is the sole accreditation device. If BVAS fails or is bypassed and votes exceed BVAS – accredited voters, INEC must cancel the result- no discretion.”

So, the major area of controversy is the retaining or complete removal of the area in the Electoral Act, Section 60(5) where the final decision is at the discretion of the INEC.

“The presiding officer shall transfer the results including total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot in a manner as prescribed by the Commission,” Section 60(5).

On the face value, it would seem that the Senate heeded the voice of Nigerians by stepping back on their earlier decision, but observers have since screamed “treachery”!

Ufuoma Nnamdi-Udeh, executive director of Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, said: “The Senate’s ‘cosmetic’ amendment to the Electoral Act is nothing short of a calculated insult on the intelligence of the Nigerian people. By creating a convenient ‘network failure’ escape clause, they have essentially legalised electoral fraud.

“This is not the reform Nigerians demanded, protested for, and deserve. We will not accept half-measures that preserve the same loopholes that made 2023 a credibility nightmare.”

The argument is that since Nigeria is not at the moment doing electronic voting and electronic collation, the INEC must preserve the sanctity of the manual method of voting and collation to make the outcome believable. Doubts arise where there is an obvious mutilation of the EC8A as to suggest electoral fraud.

Before the introduction of BIVAS, the major challenges the elections had were ballot stuffing, thugs invading polling units and carting away ballot boxes or destroying the ballots already cast, but the new challenge with the arrival of technology has been the mutilation and manipulation of the EC8A Form.

EiE Nigeria believes that the “network failure” escape clause legalises non-transmission despite 93 percent network coverage (INEC-NCC data).”

It also noted that “Removal of ‘real-time’ requirement preserves manipulation windows, and that the permissive language makes transmission optional, not mandatory.”

In a country where on a daily basis, youths are being arrested for hacking sensitive individual and corporate documents, the Senate should not be crying wolf over nothing. High level meetings should be going on between the government, INEC, NCC and telecommunication companies to get things ready before 2027.

The Upper Legislative chamber should align with the House of Representatives that has, since December 2025, recommended real time and simultaneous transmission of the results during the collation process.

Nigeria must not sustain the unfortunate situation where “those who vote decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything.” (Joseph Stalin Soviet dictator). This is the crux of the agitations against manual collation and time lapse, between when votes are counted and when results are declared.

Woro: After the ‘jangolova,’ what next?

Everyone with blood flowing in his or her veins must be touched by the high level of massacres going on in the country in time of peace, not war.

The mindless killings, almost on a daily basis, agitate the minds of many. From Kaduna to Niger; from Jos to Benue; from Kwara to Zamfara; from Adamawa to Katsina, and to Borno State, the news is all about killings.

All the time, the pains are localised. After the state and federal governments must have issued statements condemning the killings and dispatched troops, which is always medicine after death, those who feel the pain ultimately are the families whose members were massacred.

In the attack on Woro, Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara State, some families had about two, three or four members that were brutally killed, some abducted and are still with their captors. Everybody has gone there to sympathise and empathise; the question is, after all the ‘jangolova,’ what next? Everybody seems to have gone back to maintain status quo ante. The soldiers deployed to the communities will not be there indefinitely. Burying over 70 villagers in a single swoop is not an event that can be forgotten in a hurry.  On January 11, 2018, following attacks in the Guma and Logo Local Government Areas of Benue State, 73 people were given a mass burial at the state capital in Makurdi. Before that sad episode, in March 2016, there was a massacre in Agatu, the same Benue State. Despite a welter of assurances by the government, blood has continued to flow in communities around the state. If the promises and assurances helped, the Yelwata incident on June 13 and 14, 2025 that reportedly claimed about 150 lives could not have happened.

The internet is filled with reports about killings and abduction of Nigerians by terrorists, making the efforts of government appear insignificant.

Many citizens are being abducted on a daily basis. Many are being killed on a regular basis. Are there some steps that relevant agencies need to take more to end this nightmare?  “Anything worth doing is worth doing well,” please.

My heart goes out to the families across the country that have lost some members to the bloody campaign of some criminals. To those, who are in anguish over their members in kidnappers’ or terrorists’ dens, we say, courage.