The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, on Monday defended the 2026 Electoral Act and accused former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, of hypocrisy over criticisms of its electronic transmission provision, insisting that the law does not abolish electronic transmission of results.
Speaking during a media chat, Wike said Amaechi had opposed
the approval of electronic transmission of election results under former
President Muhammadu Buhari but is now criticising a provision in the new law
that allows manual transmission where electronic transmission fails due to poor
network.
According to Wike, the new Electoral Act does not abolish
electronic transmission but introduces a safeguard to prevent
disenfranchisement in areas where network challenges may disrupt the process.
“Under Buhari, the issue of electronic voting came up;
people like Rotimi Amaechi were in government; they said, ‘No, don’t sign; if
you sign, you lose the election.’ This is the same person now calling for
electronic transmission,” Wike said.
“While he was here, he refused simply because he felt his
boss would be affected.
“Now we are here. They did not say there should not be
electronic transmission. All they said is, “In case, which is likely, let us
not disenfranchise people by not allowing their votes to be counted,” he said.
The former Rivers State governor also defended the act’s
provision mandating direct primaries for political parties, arguing that
indirect primaries favour wealthy politicians and powerful officeholders who
dominate party structures.
He maintained that direct primaries would reduce the
influence of money and expand participation within parties.
His words: “When you do indirect, you allow the rich ones to
buy all the delegates. You allow the governor to dictate who will be there.
Now, people have taken steps to see how they will be able to reduce that, and
it has become a problem.
“We have cried here that governors and ministers are the
ones who have all the resources, and if you allow it, they will buy all the
delegates. Why not go for direct primaries? Now, the National Assembly in their
own wisdom said, ‘Can we also make a trial of this?’ because we will continue
to amend and improve on this from time to time.”
On February 10, Amaechi who joined the protest at the
National Assembly, alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is
opposed to the electronic transmission of election results because it fears
losing elections.
“I believe that the opposition parties should come out—PDP,
ADC, everybody should be out—to protest against the attempt of one party,” he
said.
“If we come out, and they say the opposition has hijacked
(the protest), what is APC doing? Are they not hijacking? What are they afraid
of?”
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