Electoral Reform: Akpabio’s Senate Throws Democracy Under the Bus

By Steve Osuji

EXPRESSO BY STEVE OSUJI

Shunning History: It could never have been otherwise. The Godswill Akpabio-led 10th senate has been remarkable so far only for being cheerleaders and chanting choruses for President Bola Tinubu, than playing their noble roles as mandated by the constitution.

Most Nigerians who know this current chamber are convinced that if the senate has to choose between national survival and their party/personal interests, they would shaft the nation without blinking – not giving a thought as to where they would operate from should they pull down the roof!

Two days ago, the 10th Senate under the watch of Godswill Akpabio shunned history and  threatened to throw Nigeria’s democracy under the bus.

It was of course, a moment of history in which men transmute into  statesmanship. But not so for this crowd. They don’t see history; they don’t care about history. What’s important to them is the next election.

Two days ago, the senate of the federal Republic of

Nigeria claimed they had passed the long-delayed electoral (Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025).

But it all turned out a ruse; Akpabio’s Senate chose to do a dirty job.

While the Senate President, troubled by guilt and  self mutilation, told the press that he  had not removed electronic voting, but instead retained it as contained in the 2022 law.

So if all the senate did was to retain the most offending portions of the law, why have Nigerians been campaigning for reform since after the 2023 election?

But the crux of the matter is that Akpabio’s Senate ruled out a mandatory real-time transmission of election results and retained the provision for electronic transfer of results as provided for in the 2022 Electoral Act.

We say shame on the senate president, shame on the 10th assembly and shame on the ruling party.

Of course this singular action would definitely mar the 2027 election just as it damaged the 2023 outing.

But the truth is that no serious Nigerian expected nobility of purpose from this process. Not under President Tinubu, not under Akpabio, not under INEC as presently constituted by the vile ruling party, APC.

All that the APC seeks desperately is to win the next election by hook or crook. Exactly how they stole the mandate in 2023.

Tinubu is not late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Not by any stretch of imagination. When the venerable Yar’Adua came to power in 2007, he declared in his inaugural speech that the the electoral process which brought him to power was flawed. The patriot he was, he immediately empanelled the Justice Muhammed Lawal Uwais panel. It produced a ground-breaking electoral document which was never fully implemented by succeeding presidents after Yar’Adua died mid term.

The quagmire has remained with us since then with dubious and unpatriotic presidents making sure Nigeria could never achieve electoral integrity.

Let it be stated clearly to President Bola Tinubu, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, the ruling APC and indeed INEC that where peaceful change is denied a people, violent change is being courted.

All notable opposition have of course, spoken in condemnation of the charade called electoral reform.

Atiku Abubakar of the ADC says that, “real-time electronic transmission of results is not a partisan demand; it is a democratic safeguard. It reduces human interference, limits result manipulation, tampering and postelection disputes.”

Atiku noted further that at a time democracies the world over are strengthening their electoral systems through technology, the Nigerian senate has chosen to cling to opacity.

Labour Party described it as a “betrayal of Nigerians.”

Chief Bode George, chieftain of the PDP calls it an abomination, while Chief Chekwas Okorie said the action of the senate is an affront to the sensibilities of Nigerians.

As time runs out on the 2027 election, how this so-called electoral reform would impact the process is yet hanging in the air.

The only thing certain is that the 10th Senate is not a friend of Nigeria’s democracy.

LAST LINE:

ISN’T IT TIME  A STATE OF EMERGENCY WAS INVOKED ON  KWARA STATE?

Consider this Vanguard front page headline for a moment: “Jihadists execute162 in Kwara massacre” – Red Cross.

This  sounds too surreal to be real. Is it possible that in a sovereign nation, a rag-tag group of non-state actors would up and slaughter this number of fellow, innocent citizens in one swoop and disappear into the thin air… Yet the government didn’t declare a state of emergency? Everyone goes about as if nothing happened?

This column suggests that President Tinubu must declare an emergency situation in Kwara immediately. Whatever the range and dimensions it would take. ###