The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, on Monday defended the 2026 Electoral Act, accusing former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, of hypocrisy over his criticism of its electronic transmission clause, and maintained that the legislation does not eliminate the 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 further backed the Act’s requirement for political parties to adopt direct primaries, contending that indirect primaries tend to benefit affluent politicians and influential officeholders who control party machinery.
He argued that direct primaries would curb the sway of money and broaden participation within party ranks.
In his words: “With indirect primaries, the wealthy can simply buy over the delegates. It also allows a sitting governor to determine who emerges. Efforts are now being made to limit that practice, yet it has suddenly become controversial.”
“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?”
