Nigeria up to the time Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was in power was a very lovely and peaceful country that enjoyed enormous global respect.
It was the real giant of the African Continent. It was a pride of the Black race, piloted by leaders of conscience. Leaders who led by example and protected the sovereignty of Nigeria with their blood while standing their ground for a better Nigeria no matter whose ox was gored. Those were leaders respected for their integrity and nationalism and patriotism.
Some were knighted by the Queen of England in appreciation for their service and nationalistic struggles for the stability of Nigeria being a former British colony, and member of the Commonwealth of Nations. How we emerged at where we are today remains worrisome. We are forced to tolerate looters and clowns as leaders without conscience.
More annoyingly, they shamelessly masquerade as leaders in the absence of desirable leaders.Penultimate week, the robot Senate President Godswill Obot Akpabio led rubber stamp Senate was in the news for its stand against credible elections in Nigeria.
That never came as a surprise to many going by the antecedents of Akpabio as onetime Akwa Ibom State Governor, Minister and now serving as a Senator by imposition.
A man once slapped and reduced to nothingness by his former permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs before the public. He is a man who lost shame and decency right from the time of birth when his umbilical cord was being buried.
He subscribes more to anything dirty including dating married women and possibly even women of easy virtue for game.He is a man who smiles clownishly, behaves primitively, talks carelessly and carries sycophancy and boot locking to the highest level of governance. The Nigerian Senate under that same Akpabio penultimate week voted vehemently, possibly on directives of those who imposed him on the Senate to reject anything to do with compulsory electronic transmission of election results as an acceptable decision; it was a true confession and submission to fear and a declaration of priorities despite the ray of defections, to the party Akpabio belongs.
In a country where electoral malpractice has long been normalized, the decision was more than blocking over transparency, and elite convenience over public trust.At the heart of every credible election is a simple principle: voter intent must be verifiable quickly and beyond human interference.
Electronic transmission achieves exactly that.By sending results directly from polling units to a central server in real time, the system prevents the chain of human interference, removes opportunities for altered tallies, and ensures that outcomes are anchored in reality.
Those who win cleanly have nothing to fear from verification; they welcome and celebrate it. Only those who rely on manipulation dread it in totality. The Senate’s decision, therefore, exposes a bitter truth: they fear that transparency will expose what they cannot secure otherwise.
This fear is not hypothetical. Even before votes are cast, reports of widespread buying of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) emerge, revealing that parts of the election are already rigged in advance. PVC buying is not a minor infraction, it is preemptive monumental fraud. When individuals or groups acquire voter cards of others, they create an artificial advantage, undermining the very foundation of free and fair elections.
Electronic transmission is the tool that can neutralize such APC planned manipulation.
Once polling-unit results are uploaded digitally, any discrepancy between registered PVCs and actual votes becomes immediately traceable. Deliberate ambiguity, the lifeblood of vote buying and ballot mutilation, is effectively eliminated against the manipulated plan of Akpabio’s party, APC.Resistance to electronic transmission is therefore, not about technical feasibility; it is about preserving opportunities for manipulation.
Critics often cite internet instability or power failures as reasons to reject electronic transmission. These arguments, however, collapse under scrutiny. Modern electronic systems allow votes to be recorded offline and uploaded later with cryptographic verification that preserves integrity. a brief network outrage cannot erase or alter results as claimed. Several Nigerians rely on digital systems in high-stakes contexts: mobile banking, biometric verification, online education, and national examinations all function under the same infrastructural realities supposedly deemed “too fragile” for elections.
This is regardless of the trillions of naira voted for this in previous exercises and the ongoing preparations for 2027. If technology can be trusted with identity, money, and academic certification, it can equally be trusted with verification of votes.
Moreover, manual transmission is far more prone to failure than electronic systems. Physical movement of results exposes them to theft, ballot box snatching, and other violent interference. Internet or power outrages have never stolen ballots; people have.
And that’s what Akpabio and his docile Senate support.Electronic systems fail transparently, while manual systems fail conveniently for those with evil motive and means.
Even when power is intermittent, devices used for electronic transmission can function on batteries, power banks or solar backups. Excuses about infrastructural fragility are, therefore, selective and revealing.
It is not fear of technical failure that drives the ruling party APC; it is that of exposure of a manipulative plan to rig elections.By voting against compulsory electronic transmission, the Senate has made transparency optional, which is no transparency at all. It signals that opacity is acceptable in APC style of governance since it suits powerful interests.When safeguards are deliberately weakened, suspicion is rational.
Citizens have every reason to believe that elections are already compromised when the process allows results to be altered at multiple points.Democracy erodes not only when votes are stolen, but when the mechanisms designed to prevent theft are deliberately dismantled.
The Senate’s decision came at a time when preemptive manipulations, including PVC buying suggest that the machinery of rigging is already set in motion by the cowards in power.
This is no longer a theoretical debate about that of technology. It is a concrete example of the stakes at play. Those engaged in manipulating the system know that once results are verified digitally from the polling unit, their advantage diminishes completely.
They cannot easily substitute, alter, or fabricate results to be of any value.Akpabio and his 10th Senate opposition to electronic transmission, therefore, aligned not with improving elections, but bastardizing elections.
Nigerians must recognize the urgency of this moment. Electronic transmission is not a reform to negotiate; it is non-negotiable safeguard of true democracy at variance with the APC model of democracy that must not be allowed a stay.
Civil society, media organizations, religious institutions, professional bodies, opposition parties and the electorates themselves must demand one simple thing unmistakably: results must be verifiable digitally from the polling unit, without exception.
Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God!The fear driving resistance must be named openly. PVC buying and other preemptive manipulations should be treated not as isolated incidents, but as evidence of a system already rigged in favor of those with influence and looted funds.
Silence allows bad faith to masquerade as technical concern. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must also be held accountable. Its constitutional duty is to protect voter intent, not to accommodate the interests of their masters in political offices and sadistic politicians.
The Law should not allow Akpabio and his gang to choose between transparency and convenience for Nigerians.
Anything short of that, the end result may be unknown!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
