Akpabio defends Senate over electoral act amendment, says process not yet concluded

Senate President Godswill Akpabio has dismissed criticisms trailing the Senate’s amendment of the Electoral Act, saying commentators and civil society actors are misjudging the legislature based on an incomplete legislative process and misunderstanding of parliamentary procedures.

Akpabio spoke in Abuja as special guest of honour at the unveiling of a book, “The Burden of Legislators in Nigeria”, authored by Senator Effiong Bob, in Abuja.

Speaking on the controversy surrounding the removal of the phrase “real-time” electronic transmission of election results, Akpabio said the Senate had not concluded work on the bill and that public debate was premature.

“The Electoral Act amendment is incomplete. We have not completed it, but they are already on television. They don’t understand lawmaking.

“They don’t even know that what is in the Senate is not completed until we look at the Votes and Proceedings,” he said.

Akpabio explained that the Votes and Proceedings stage allows senators to correct, amend, or clarify decisions taken on the floor before final approval, stressing that only after that process could the Senate’s position be considered final.

“When we bring out the Votes and Proceedings, any senator has a right to rise and say, ‘On clause three, this was what we agreed upon.’ That is the only time you can talk about what the Senate has done or not done,” he said.

He criticised commentators for what he described as “abuse” of the legislature, accusing some civil society actors of attempting to impose their views on lawmakers.

“People have become mouth legislators. Go and contest election if you want to talk about lawmaking and go and join them and make the law. Retreats are not lawmaking; retreats are part of consultations. So why do you think that the paper you agreed in Lagos during a retreat must be what is agreed on the floor?” he asked.

Akpabio insisted that the Senate did not remove electronic transmission of election results, clarifying that lawmakers only questioned the requirement for real-time transmission.

“I must state clearly, without ambiguity, that the Senate has not removed any means of transmission. If you want to use a bicycle to carry your votes from one polling unit to the ward centre, do so. If you want to use your phone to transmit, do so. If you want to use your iPad, do so,” he said.

He said the concern was that mandating real-time transmission could lead to legal disputes if network failures occurred during elections.

“All we said was that we should remove the word ‘real time,’ because if you say real time and there is grid failure and the network is not working, when you go to court somebody will say it ought to have been real time,” he explained.

According to him, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should determine the mode and timing of result transmission within the framework of the law.

The Senate President warned that insisting on real-time transmission could invalidate results in areas with poor connectivity or insecurity.

“Real time means that in over nine states where networks are not working because of insecurity, there will be no election results. Nationally, if the national grid collapses and no network is working, no election results will be valid,” he said.

He cited a Supreme Court ruling which, he said, acknowledged Nigeria’s inadequate infrastructure and emphasised that electronic transmission is only supplementary to the statutory collation process.

“The result is in Form EC8A. It will be carried from the polling unit to the ward centre, from there to the local government collation centre, to the senatorial collation centre, to the state collation centre, and finally the national collation centre,” he said.

Akpabio stressed that the amendment bill had not yet completed the bicameral legislative process and that a conference committee would reconcile differences between the Senate and House of Representatives versions before final passage.

“It is only when we have finished that that you will now say the National Assembly has passed any amendment to the Electoral Act,” he said.

He urged critics to allow the process to run its course, warning against attempts to “rubbish the process” before its conclusion.

Akpabio said electoral reforms must be grounded in legal and institutional capacity, warning against imposing technology beyond the country’s infrastructure.

“We insist that electoral reforms must be anchored in law, guided by capacity, secured against abuse and applied uniformly across the nation. Technology must serve democracy; it must not endanger democracy,” he said.

He added: “You stay in a place that has no wire, no light, and you want to put in the law ‘real time.’ Progress must not bring about injustice.”

The Senate President warned that mistrust of institutions without understanding legislative processes could weaken democracy.

“When people do not understand their legislature, democracy is at risk. Democracy is measured not by passion alone, but by principles,” he said.

He also recalled that the current Electoral Act enabled competitive elections in 2023, including losses by the then ruling party in key states.

“This same Electoral Act made the incumbent party almost lose millions of votes. We lost in places like Lagos and Kano. New parties won whole regions with the same act, whether real-time electronic transfer or not,” he said.

Akpabio concluded that laws must be made for posterity rather than partisan advantage, adding: “You don’t make law for an individual or for opposition. You make law to outlast you, for generations unborn.”

Earlier in his opening remarks, the National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and former President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, who was the chairman of occasion, urged the National Assembly to pass the Bill and not to speak for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“What the ADC is saying is, pass the law. Let INEC decide whether they can do it (real-time electronic transmission) or not. Don’t speak for INEC.

“The stand of ADC is clear; pass the bill and let INEC decide on what it will do with it”, Mark said.

Several speakers at the event, including Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, and the book reviewer, Professor Maxwell Gidado SAN, praised Senator Bob’s courage in writing the book to bring to light the challenges the Nigerian legislator faces in the course of performing his duties.

The author Senator Bob enumerated some of the challenges, saying that they included electoral battles, conflict with governors/godfathers, the judiciary through cancellation of victory, addressing the private issues of the electorate and self-inflicted challenges.

“The courage to defend democracy is in the legislature and the legislators”, he said.

END