The Labour Party caucus in the House of Representatives has condemned what it described as the hurried assent granted to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2026 by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday.
The plenary of the House was on Tuesday turned into a rowdy session over the bill, as opposition lawmakers teamed up against their All Progressives Congress counterparts in demanding, among others, the electronic transmission of election results without a proviso.
Despite their rejection of the altered version, which recognised both electronic transmission and manual transmission in the event of the failure of technology, the APC lawmakers had their way, forcing the opposition to stage a walkout.
Reacting to Tinubu’s assent to the legislation, leader of the caucus, Mr Afam Ogene, wondered why the development took place “at the speed of light.”
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Anambra lawmaker said, “It is quite interesting that, even before the ink with which the parliament crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s on the clean copies of the bill dried up, the President has gleefully put his imprimatur on the bill, leaving Nigerians to wonder if, indeed, the executive had ample time to look through the document.
“Gone with the signing are the genuine concerns of apprehensive Nigerians regarding what the new Act portends to the integrity of the country’s future elections.
“In fact, Nigerians and indeed the world must now begin to see the clear difference between campaign promises and actual motives of political players. While it is convenient outside the confines of power to oppose incremental increase in the price of petroleum products, it is convenient to pronounce ‘subsidy gone’ when they have the opportunity.”
He continued, “While it was right to advocate electronic voting in 2013, it has become obtuse, 13 years after, to even canvass a fragment of it: electronic transmission of results.
“While it was convenient to ask a sitting administration to quit on account of an alleged inability to halt the spread of insecurity, today, under their watch and allure of office, insecurity of multivarious forms has become an insistent byword.
“For emphasis, on January 13, 2013, the National Publicity Secretary of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had in a statement said, ‘We assure INEC of our full support towards using electronic voting in 2015. We also appeal to all other political parties, civil society organisations and indeed all Nigerians to join us in pushing for a system that will eliminate the role of thugs and sideline vote thieves during our elections, in addition to making our elections free, fair and credible.’
“Today, 13 years afterward, neither Mohammed, who moved on to become Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture for eight years, nor his principal, who is now our country’s current leader, sees anything worthy in electronic transmission of results, much more electronic voting.
“Now that they have had their way, we call upon Nigerians not to despair. On the contrary, the battle for our country’s redemption has only just begun.”
He pledged the readiness of the LP House of Representatives caucus to mobilise Nigerians to reject any compromise of the electoral system.
“As an opposition bloc, we certainly have our job cut out: the mobilisation of fellow Nigerians to reject, at the polls, those who specialise in asking them to do only as they say, instead of living by their own creed,” he added.
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