"Know When To Stop Playing With Fire' – Oby Ezekwesili Warns.

Oby Ezekwesili & Godswill Akpabio.

The wisest and free advice that the Nigerian Senate, as well as the House of Representatives, can receive from all well-meaning citizens of our country now is to know when to stop playing with fire.

Nigerians mostly see the Senate as an ignoble and withering institution that delights in deliberate betrayal of public trust. Our lawmakers at large are well known for consistently prioritizing personal and partisan interests over constituent welfare: blocking or watering down reform legislation (electoral reform, anti-corruption measures, constitutional amendments for devolution of power); their selfish custom of inflated budgetary allocations for the legislature while public services collapse; a pattern of confirming clearly unfit nominees for executive positions in exchange for political favors; and several other perfidious actions at the public expense.

The Senate yesterday voted against a proposed amendment to make electronic transmission of election results mandatory in the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill and then proceeded to try to deceive Nigerians by claiming that it “did not reject electronic transmission.”

What the Senate did yesterday is worse, and their denial is disingenuous. Let us dispense with euphemisms and doublespeak. What the Senators did in that opaque Closed Plenary Session yesterday was retain the critical clause- Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022, specifically subsection (5) with the current wording: “the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”

By deliberately retaining the vague language that leaves the method and timing of transmitting election results to the discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), rather than requiring real-time uploads from polling units, the Senate has once again weaponized ambiguity in our electoral law.

The brazen actions of the Senators were neither an innocent choice nor some sort of technical oversight. It was also not a neutral legislative compromise of “letting sleeping dogs lie,” because there must surely be a few of them who know better, as they are daily in touch with our public reality and the extremely angry mood of the majority of impoverished citizens who are exhausted by corruption and bad governance.

Calling a spade a spade, as I am wont to do, the Senators took a calculated decision despite their full knowledge of recent history. No reasonable Nigerian is fooled by the shenanigans of the Senate. Every Nigerian who paid attention to the 2023 general elections knows that the exact clause the Senate deliberately reaffirmed yesterday is the same discretionary loophole that was at the center of the crisis that terribly eroded public trust and fatally damaged the integrity of our democracy.

Real-time electronic transmission from polling units was promised in practice but not enforced in law. When it failed, Nigerians were told to accept “procedural explanations” instead of verifiable outcomes.

It was that same clause retained by the Nigerian Senate at their sitting yesterday that created a gap between what Nigerians were repeatedly reassured would happen in the 2023 elections and the fiasco that the law permitted INEC to actually carry out in betrayal of public trust. It was that clause that offered a badly compromised judiciary the opportunity to pronounce a judgment which created confusion, distrust, national tension, and delegitimized the government that was sworn into office.

That gap nearly pushed the country into turmoil.

For the Senate to now deliberately preserve the same ambiguity, after witnessing its consequences, is an act of grave irresponsibility. When lawmakers reject clear, enforceable safeguards and instead cling to ambiguity, they are not protecting institutions- they are protecting a predetermined outcome.

Adding salt to injury, the Senate’s statement that “we did not reject electronic transmission” while refusing to make it mandatory is political sleight of hand. Electronic transmission that is optional, discretionary, and unenforceable is no safeguard at all against the systemic electoral fraud that has plagued our country with a long history of electoral manipulation and weak institutional trust.

The Senate knows that “discretion” does not reassure citizens. That is why Nigerians see this Senate vote against a legal mandate for electronic transmission of results for what it is- a willful and deliberate refusal to close the door that was abused in 2023. This action sends a clear signal to Nigerians that lessons from 2023 have been ignored, that transparency is negotiable, and that those in power prefer plausible deniability to democratic certainty

No one is deceived. The Senators must never again insult the intelligence of Nigerians by pretending this is about “INEC’s independence” or “operational flexibility.” Institutional independence does not require opacity, and flexibility should never be a cover for unverifiability. Every serious democracy hardwires clarity, transparency, and compulsion into its electoral laws precisely to protect the system from bad actors- especially those in power in the case of Nigeria.

The 2023 elections tested Nigeria’s cohesion.

Our country survived not because the system worked well, but because citizens restrained themselves in the face of deep frustration. If future elections are again disputed under the cover of discretionary loopholes, responsibility will be clear.

It will lie with those who saw the danger, understood it fully, and chose to plunge Nigerians into it anyway.

I am certain that by now the Senators have heard the unified stance of Nigerians on electronic transmission of results since the news of their unpopular decision was published yesterday and will therefore avoid plunging the country into crisis.

I am therefore certain that the Nigerian Senate now knows what it must do immediately.

Senators, cancel that emergency two-week break announced today, all return to the Red Chamber of the National Assembly complex, and in a broadcast Plenary Session, unanimously pass into law the exact text of the reform that was proposed to the clause on electronic transmission of results.

For avoidance of any confusion, here is the exact text of the key proposed provision from the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill: “The presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in real time, and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and, where available, countersigned by candidates or polling unit agents.”

Simple.

It is not wise to play with fire. Transparency is always better.

Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili

Founder, SPPG- School of Politics, Policy and Governance

February 5, 2026