Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has said Nigerians are right to be angry with the Senate over its handling of the ongoing debate on the electronic transmission of election results.
Ezekwesili spoke on Friday during an interview on Arise Television’s Morning Show, where she criticised lawmakers for rejecting a proposed amendment to the Electoral Act that sought to make e-transmission of results compulsory.
The Senate had on Wednesday voted against changes to Clause 60, Subsection 3, of the Electoral Amendment Bill, a move that dashed hopes of mandating the Independent National Electoral Commission to electronically transmit election results in real time.
Reacting, Ezekwesili said the core problem with the review of the Electoral Act was the Senate’s decision to retain provisions of the INEC Act, particularly Section 60, Subsection 5, which she said had become controversial because of the discretion it gave the electoral umpire.
According to her, the section created loopholes that weakened public confidence in the electoral process, as it failed to make real-time transmission of results mandatory, leaving citizens with little room to demand accountability.
She said Nigerians had welcomed the opportunity to reform the electoral law in order to remove ambiguities and limit discretionary powers available to INEC, but lamented that the Senate chose what she described as a “let sleeping dogs lie” approach.
Ezekwesili added that the widespread outrage among citizens was understandable, insisting that the Senate’s action had undermined the collective effort to strengthen transparency and credibility in Nigeria’s elections.