Following months of discussion, review, and amendments by both chambers, the legislation was finally passed by the National Assembly on Tuesday. Despite resistance from minority lawmakers, the Senate and House of Representatives harmonised the electoral process on Tuesday.
Leaders of the national assembly attended the signing ceremony, which was held at the State House on Wednesday at approximately 5:00 p.m.
Shortly after the bill was signed into law, Tinubu gave a speech in which he praised the National Assembly for the “solid brainstorming discussions” that were intended to protect democratic stability and advance national development.
“Having very solid brainstorming discussions dedicated to national development and nation-building, the stability of the nation is the essence of democracy,” he stated.
Beyond the legislation’s historical significance, the president stated that the most important thing is to make sure that the election process is run in a way that avoids misunderstandings or disenfranchisement.
“What is important is that you oversee the process to the point where there is no misunderstanding or deprivation of Nigerians’ rights, and democracy will thrive for everyone,” he stated.
Tinubu stated that trust in the system needs to be restored, contending that no electoral system, no matter how sophisticated, can operate without human integrity.
“No matter how good a system is, the people are the ones who run it, promote it, and decide the outcome,” he stated.
You won’t be communicating with the computer for the final results. The people who will be announcing the results will be human.
The president called for a realistic evaluation of Nigeria’s technological capabilities, especially regarding broadband infrastructure, in response to discussions surrounding the real-time electronic transmission of results.
“Maybe Nigeria should question our broadband capability when you look at the essence of various agreements.” To what extent are we technical today? Tinubu enquired, “How technical will we be tomorrow?”
Voters will continue to physically visit polling places, pick up ballots, thumbprint their favourite candidates, and cast their ballots without any intervention, he emphasised, adding that the voting process itself is still essentially manual.
Only the arithmetic results are entered into official forms, he added, and ballots are manually sorted and counted.
He cautioned against needless interference in a time of increased digital scrutiny, saying, “Essentially, the transmission of that manual result is what we’re looking at, and we need to avoid glitches.”
Tinubu expressed hope for Nigeria’s democratic future, saying the country would keep fostering its democracy to achieve stability and prosperity.
Nigeria is going to be present. We’ll be successful. To realise our dream of prosperity and stability for our nation, we will keep fostering this democracy,” he continued.
In order to allow for changes that would impact the 2027 election schedule, the Senate cancelled its earlier passage of the bill and called another emergency plenary on Tuesday.
The lawmakers claimed that the change was required after a closer examination of the bill showed that clause 28’s 360-day notice requirement might cause the 2027 presidential and national assembly elections to be scheduled during Ramadan.
The bill’s electronic transmission of election results had also been the subject of discussions.
Public indignation resulted from the Senate’s initial rejection of mandatory real-time electronic transmission of election results.
To demand live transmission, demonstrators consequently overran the national assembly complex.
The Senate authorised the electronic transmission of election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s result viewing portal (IReV) after re-examining a contentious provision during its February 10 plenary. However, it permitted manual collation as a backup if technology malfunctioned.
The clause does not, however, require electronic transmission and does not cover results uploaded in real time.
According to the approved amendment, the manually filled-out EC8A form will serve as the main source of data for compilation and results declaration in cases where network or communication issues prevent electronic transmission.
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