At that time, it was direct or indirect primaries and how much influence political appointees should have in the electoral process. Today, it is the live transmission of results. The issues may have changed, but the pattern has not. Every election cycle, Nigeria’s electoral law becomes a battleground where the convenience of the ruling party quietly shapes the rules of the game.
On Wednesday, February 18, President Bola Tinubu enthusiastically signed the Electoral Act 2026, an amendment to the 2022 Act, into law at the Aso Rock Villa. It was barely 24 hours after both chambers of the National Assembly passed the bill.
As I watched the footage of the signing, pictures of a similar event came to mind. Four years earlier, former President Muhammadu Buhari reluctantly signed the 2022 version after declining assent about five times. Even then, he immediately asked the National Assembly to delete Section 84(12), the clause requiring political appointees to resign before participating in party primaries, arguing it was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court eventually struck out his suit, ruling that a president cannot challenge a law he’d already signed.
Tinubu’s approach was the mirror opposite, a legendary speed with which he removed petrol subsidy. If only he appointed ambassadors with the same urgency.
“The APC’s Bill,” as some call it, was passed by both chambers on Tuesday amid much chaos. Opposition lawmakers in the House of Representatives had staged a walkout that day. Protesters had also stormed the National Assembly complex days earlier, insisting that real-time upload of election results on INEC’s portal must become more than a toggle option.
But there was the argument of the 300-day notice-of-election provision now embedded in the Act. With the 2027 presidential election fixed for February 2027, INEC must publish its notice of election by late April 2026. Any delay in signing, some argue, would have left the commission without a legal framework to issue that notice, potentially throwing the entire 2027 timetable into jeopardy. It is a valid concern. But it is also worth asking, if this deadline was always known, why was the bill rushed through both chambers in a single chaotic sitting rather than debated over weeks, as the Tax Reform Laws were?
The tax laws went through months of public hearings, town halls, revisions, and stakeholder engagements before Tinubu signed them. But the Electoral Act, which governs how 90 million registered voters choose their leaders, only got 24 hours.
Perhaps the most revealing moment came during the signing ceremony itself where Tinubu raised questions about Nigeria’s readiness for the very law he was signing.
“Maybe Nigerians should question our broadband capability. How technically [ready] are we Today? How technically [ready] will we be tomorrow? To answer the call of either real-time or no,” he said. He argued that the credibility of elections depends more on human management than electronic systems; that voters still cast ballots manually; that results are still counted manually at polling units; and what is transmitted electronically is simply the arithmetic accuracy of the manual count captured on the EC8A form.
The president is not wrong. But there is a thin line between letting the law align with present-day reality and allowing present-day realities to determine the accuracy of our elections. The new law approves real-time upload of results while simultaneously allowing polling officers to fall back on the physical EC8A result sheet if “network challenges” prevent electronic transmission.
For many Nigerians who want mandatory electronic transmission as the only safeguard against manipulation, this provision is a trapdoor.
In a country where “network failure” can be manufactured as easily as it can occur, isn’t the fallback clause handing discretion to the very system it was meant to reform?
Overall, the new Act is a beautiful work of art. For instance, voters must now present three acceptable documents to be registered; a birth certificate, a passport, or a National Identification Number. Driving licences and national identity cards have been removed. The Act also introduced a downloadable voter card, allowing Nigerians to access their cards from the INEC website rather than queuing for hours at commission offices. This will encourage voter participation.
The controversial indirect primaries that empowered infamous “delegates” have been scrapped entirely. Political parties must now nominate candidates through direct primaries or consensus only.
The timeline for disbursing election funds to INEC has been halved from 12 months to six months before the general elections. Political parties must now submit their candidates’ lists at least 120 days before election day, down from 180. And INEC must publish its final list of candidates 60 days before election day, replacing the previous 150-day window.
Many of these changes are genuinely progressive. But the manner of their passage has no doubt left a bitter aftertaste. In the end, the Act will be pilot-tested in the Ekiti governorship election in June, the Osun governorship election in August, and then tested nationwide in February and March 2027. We will find out soon enough whether Tinubu’s assent is serving Nigeria’s democracy or merely its politics.
