Obi: If banks can function seamlessly nationwide, our electoral process should too

Obi at the recent NASS protest

Peter Obi, the 2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, has dismissed recent claims credited to Senate President Godswill Akpabio that real-time transmission of election results may fail in some parts of Nigeria due to poor networks.

Obi had on Monday led a group of protesters to the National Assembly Complex in Abuja over the senate’s rejection of real-time electronic transmission of election results.

Among the protesters were student and civil society groups, some members of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and the Obidient Movement — a group of Obi’s supporters. Following the outrage that trailed the controversial amendment, Akpabio said the red chamber did not reject electronic transmission of election results but retained the provision as contained in the Electoral Act 2022.

The senate president said the only adjustment made was the removal of the phrase “real-time” from the provision.

He said “real-time means that in over nine states where networks are not working because of insecurity, there will be no election results. Nationally, if the national grid collapses and no network is working, no election results will be valid”

According to him, the senate’s decision was intended to give INEC the flexibility to determine the most suitable mode of result transmission in view of technological and security realities.

In a statement shared via X on Tuesday, Obi said Akpabio’s claim that certain states lack network coverage is no longer acceptable.

“Financial institutions operate nationwide through secure digital networks to conduct transactions and collect taxes on a daily basis,” he said.