THE battles for the amendment of the Electoral Act 2010 to ensure the electronic transmission of results from the polling units to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, headquarters were protracted.

The ruling political forces fought it because direct electronic transmission would cut off the collation centres where figures were falsified under heavy security cover.

Some elements in the ruling party had argued that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, used that “advantage” to dominate our politics for 16 years and were determined to “benefit” from the same malfeasance for as long as possible. Indeed, President Muhammadu Buhari had rejected assent to the Bill a record six times before finally signing it on February 26, 2022.

Nigerians breathed a sigh of relief that at last, we now stand a good chance to put malpractices like ballot snatching, thumbprinting of fake ballots in the private homes of politicians, kidnapping of electoral officials and forcing them to change results, falsification of results and gunfights at the collation centres behind us for good.

However, we need to bear in mind that the newly-approved electronic transmission of results will not automatically curb the desperation of Nigerian politicians. According to Chinua Achebe, Eneke the bird says that since hunters had learnt to shoot without missing, it has decided to fly without perching.

Our politicians will most likely respond to the new electoral law by focusing intense violence at the polling units. Using violence to beat down the votes of opponents and potentially depriving them of their victories is an old trick. It had been used serially to deny people from freely expressing their franchise in the past.

Politicians are likely to arm thugs with dangerous weapons or bribe police, security and military personnel to protect their loyalists’ zones while attacking areas populated by their opponents’ loyalists. If this problem is not addressed now, future elections might turn into gun wars fought right at the polling units and environs.

This will, of course, lead to widespread fear and voter apathy. It might escalate to situations of “mutually-assured destruction” and unhinge the system into a state of anarchy. The political season of 2023 requires extra-careful handling because whichever party loses the presidency and governorship in many states would likely be sidelined from power for eight years.

For us to have free, fair, peaceful and credible elections in the future, the Federal Government must commit law enforcement agencies to adopt the patriotic neutrality of 2015 rather than their partisan involvement of 2019 in approaching their assignment in 2023.

Otherwise, the euphoria over the presidential assent of the Electoral Act amendment will turn into a nightmare.