By BONIFACE AKARAH

Former Minister of Education and founder of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG), Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, has issued a stark warning to the Nigerian Senate, urging lawmakers to reverse their recent decision against making electronic transmission of election results mandatory, describing the move as dangerous and capable of plunging the country into crisis.

In a public memo dated February 5, 2026, and addressed to the Nigerian Senate, Senators, and the broader political class, Ezekwesili cautioned that the legislature must “know when to stop playing with fire,” stressing that Nigerians already perceive the Senate as an institution that repeatedly betrays public trust through actions that prioritise partisan and personal interests over national welfare.

She argued that the Senate’s decision to retain the discretionary wording in Section 60(5) of the Electoral Act 2022—rather than mandating real-time electronic transmission of results from polling units—amounts to a deliberate preservation of ambiguity that previously undermined confidence in the 2023 general elections. According to her, “by deliberately retaining the vague language that leaves the method and timing of transmitting election results to the discretion of INEC, the Senate has once again weaponised ambiguity in our electoral law.”

Ezekwesili further maintained that the lawmakers’ action was neither accidental nor technical, insisting it reflected a calculated choice made despite clear knowledge of past consequences. “No reasonable Nigerian is fooled by the shenanigans of the Senate,” she stated, adding that the same loophole “was at the center of the crisis that terribly eroded public trust and fatally damaged the integrity of our democracy” in 2023.

She criticised the Senate’s defence that it did not reject electronic transmission, describing such a stance as misleading. “Electronic transmission that is optional, discretionary, and unenforceable is no safeguard at all against systemic electoral fraud,” she said, warning that flexibility must never become “a cover for unverifiability.”

Warning of the national consequences of ignoring public sentiment, Ezekwesili said Nigerians had already demonstrated unusual restraint after the 2023 elections and might not remain passive if similar conditions recur. “If future elections are again disputed under the cover of discretionary loopholes, responsibility will be clear,” she said, noting it would rest with those who “saw the danger, understood it fully, and chose to plunge Nigerians into it anyway.”

Calling for urgent legislative correction, she urged senators to cancel their announced two-week break, reconvene in a public plenary session, and pass an amendment mandating real-time electronic transmission of polling-unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal. Describing the reform as straightforward and necessary, she concluded: “It is not wise to play with fire. Transparency is always better.”

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