2026 Electoral Act: CBCN & Ors v NASS

The signing of the new Electoral Act by President Bola Tinubu has not succeeded in settling the dust raised during the final days of its making in the National Assembly

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The Nation

March 1, 2026·7 min read

The signing of the new Electoral Act by President Bola Tinubu has not succeeded in settling the dust raised during the final days of its making in the National Assembly (NASS). In an obvious attempt to quell the spate of criticisms that attended the bill's harmonisation by the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Reps, NASS called a press conference to highlight the major reforms it purportedly carried out to make polls in Nigeria better. But a school of thought quickly poured cold water on the claim made by NASS. This contending school principally comprises opposition politicians and their diehard supporters as well as several civil society organisations (CSOs).

It's very tempting to dismiss the “We-no-agree” noises being made by the foregoing groups as typical of the changeover syndrome of Nigerian politics characterised by opposition party chieftains crying “wolf” over every Electoral Act, only to enjoy the dividends of incumbency and do nothing or only very little of what they wanted to be done when they gain power, even as it becomes the turn of erstwhile members of the ruling party to play the role of petulant and frustrated opposition megaphones!

But the call by the exiting President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Most Rev Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, on NASS “to respect the will of Nigerians and urgently review its stance on electoral reform to restore public confidence in the democratic process, by ensuring mandatory real-time transmission of election results” has added a new dimension to the national discourse.

The address by Most Rev Ugorji at the opening session of the 2026 First Plenary Meeting of the CBCN held last Sunday deserves to be robustly interrogated in the interest of a balanced debate, as it can be reasonably and logically assumed to reflect the official stance of the Catholic religious fathers. He eerily uttered the very same warning – literally word for word – earlier given by former VP and ADC stalwart, Atiku Abubakar, to the effect that “the steady collapse in voters' turnout poses a disastrous blow to democracy.”

It is on the basis of such a cataclysmic outcome – real or imagined – that those opposed to the insertion of the use of the manual process are demanding that the proviso be expunged in its entirety. But just when, where and how did the clergyman conduct a credible census to so definitively ascertain the “will of Nigerians”? And why do these critics believe that electronic transmission of results by itself is the magic wand that would make Nigeria's electoral woes vanish into thin air? I can categorically state without fear or favour that it won't!

Our challenge vis-à-vis elections in Nigeria is an attitudinal or behavioural one, not a mechanical or procedural one, meaning that we will continue making motions without any positive movement for as long as political actors place their selfish interests and vaunting ambitions far and above the interests of their parties and the nation.

Read Also: Electoral Act 2026: Presidency, APC fire back as ADC, NNPP kick

When one considers the allegations made by INEC that “millions of attempts” were made in 2023 to hack into and manipulate its digital systems, including its results viewing portal (IReV), one can easily understand that the motive driving the “It's either the electronic transmission of results on IReV or nothing” crusade led by known groups of persons is less than altruistic. Perhaps they are now confident that they possess what it takes to triumphantly game INEC systems. Why else would they be investing so much energy and resources on circumventing the Supreme Court's 2023 decision that the IReV is not a collation centre, by forcefully pushing to make it one, regardless of the fact that the only way it can be justified is if electronic voting is legalised?

As for those already thinking ahead and calling for the introduction of electronic voting, let me recall a particular development in the Second Republic, when a similar clarion call was made by opposition party chieftains for the introduction of electronic voting. The iconic and irrepressible Prof Ayodele Awojobi ably demonstrated that “It's the software, stupid!” Awojobi placed an electronic voting machine he had built in the centre of a hall at the University of Lagos, and assembled 100 persons to vote for the party of their choice by pushing the associated buttons that were clearly readable by observers in the hall.

At the end of the exercise, it was noted that 60 voters had pressed the button for Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), 25 for the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and 10 for the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP). Guess what…when the result was printed out, NPP's score remained 10 but UPN and NPN had 12 and 73 respectively! Awojobi then explained to the bewildered and confused voters and observers that he had PROGRAMMED four out of every five votes for UPN to be transferred to NPN! Opposition party chieftains may consequently be making a death wish when it is the government that places orders for electronic voting machines.

There is no doubt that with arguably the exception of the 1993 election, low voter turnout has been of particular concern in Nigeria. But will electronic transmission of results cure that ravaging ailment? I hardly think so. People like Atiku – and now the CBCN – are simply pretending not to know the root of the problem. It is the primary responsibility of political parties to organise and motivate their supporters to turn up at polling booths.

The same visionless opposition politicians cannot blame anyone else but themselves for opting to de-market the country and her institutions to the extent that their supporters believe that it is worthless to exercise their civic responsibility due to the prevailing “evil system.” To begin to shed crocodile tears in this kind of scenario is self-delusional and self-serving.

It beggars belief that any reasonable person of conscience would have any substantial objection over the inclusion of a manual electoral option in a country like Nigeria where network service is so epileptic, resulting in failed electronic fund transfers, such as ATM withdrawals, and dropped calls.

It is our tendency to seek out loopholes in laws we can exploit that poses a seemingly insurmountable challenge, otherwise I don't see a substantial problem with the process whereby votes are counted in public view, entered into Forms EC8 that are signed by party agents, with copies then given to party reps, presiding INEC electoral officers and security agencies, prior to being sent to various collation centres.

Results are then uploaded to IReV from the sheets, meaning that a well-organised political party not only knows the final outcome well in advance by collating copies of result sheets obtained from their agents but can also use the collated results as an unofficial control document to assay the accuracy of the IReV uploads. One is left with no other choice than to believe that there's more to the clamouring to convert the IReV to a collation than meets the eye.

To be fair to the CBCN, its members might be hopefully well-intentioned, but it's an incontrovertible reality that the road to hell is equally paved with good intentions. Permit me to wonder aloud why the CBCN never bothered to submit any memorandum when NASS called for position papers rom strategic stakeholders and interested members of the general public. If they, perhaps, deemed it to be not too important before conception occurred, it's even less important after the pregnancy has been delivered with President Tinubu's assent.

Or do the Holy Fathers deem it appropriate to futilely seek to abort a pregnancy that has gone past full-term? But all hope isn't yet lost. They can preserve the democracy they profess to love so much and assist political parties by using the pulpit to admonish their congregants to take their civic responsibility more seriously.