Opposition Leaders’ Belated Agitation against Electoral Act

It was not surprising that the Presidency described the gathering and resolutions of leaders of major opposition political parties in the country who gathered in Abuja last Thursday as reckless.

The leaders demanded that the National Assembly should immediately commence a fresh amendment of the Electoral Act 2026 to reflect Nigerians’ yearnings, describing the  amended Act as “anti-democratic.”

President Bola Tinubu signed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law on February 18. It was until the bill had been signed that many knew its implications to the 2027 general election.

The National Chairman of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Ahmed Ajuji, who read the speech on behalf of all the opposition parties, said the new Act will undermine electoral transparency and the sanctity of the ballot. He said the opposition parties were concerned over Section 60(3), which grants “undefined discretionary powers” to presiding officers regarding the electronic transmission of results.

Ajuji cited data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) that indicates that over 95 per cent 2G coverage across the country. He added that the immediate past INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, had once said that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which operates offline, had achieved an over 90 per cent success rate nationwide.

The logical questions to ask the opposition leaders are: Where were they when the bill was still at the National Assembly? Where were they when the some civil society organisations were protesting? Their participation in the protest would helped a great deal in giving it a strong voice.

Each time the federal government comes up with any obnoxious policy, they are usually silent or inactive. Some times, their resistance ends with issuing empty statements.

Their docility has many Nigerians to conclude that there are no opposition political parties in the country.