The New Electoral Bill Vetoed By President Muhammadu Buhari Provides For:

1. Mandatory use of card readers. Making biometric voters accreditation mandatory.

2. Real time on-the-spot live transmission of voting results. Avoiding time lag manipulations and electoral fraud.

3. Mandatory access for all party agents to inspect election materials before voting commences. Ensuring fairness to all concerned.

4. Mandatory access for party agents to be present during voting, collation and announcement of results. Ensuring transparency of the electoral processes.

5. Imprisonment for any INEC staff that contravenes the Act. Deterrent to fraudulent electoral officials.

The foregoing provisions of the electoral bill vetoed by president Muhammadu Buhari would have, to a large extent, minimised election rigging which is perceived as the main and only option left for the APC and Muhammadu Buhari to hold on to power illegitimately.

According to INEC data, at least 13.5 million votes were recorded in the 2015 presidential election without full biometric accreditation.

75 percent of votes cast without the full biometric accreditation were in states allegedly “won” by President Muhammadu Buhari, then candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The data also shows that Buhari “won” in nine of the 10 most-affected states.

The 2015 presidential election had two major contenders; Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s first incumbent President to “lose” a re-election bid.

Of the 31,746,490 accredited voters in the election, 13,536,311 representing 42.6 percent of voters voted without full biometric accreditation.

Out of this number of 13,536,311 votes without full biometric accreditation, 10,184,720 votes are from states “won” by Buhari and 3,351,591 votes came from states “won” by Jonathan, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, representing 75 percent and 25 percent of accredited voters respectively.

Below is a table showing the proportion of the votes cast in all states and the FCT in relation to those without full biometric accreditation in the 2015 elections:

STATES; ACCREDITED VOTERS; VOTES WITHOUT FULL BIOMETRIC ACCREDITATION; DECLARED WINNER:

1 Abia; 442,538; 102,401; PDP

2 Adamawa; 709,993; 296,733; APC

3 Akwa Ibom; 1,074,070; 288,775; PDP

4 Anambra; 774,430; 89,982; PDP

5 Bauchi; 1,094,069; 627,048; APC

6 Bayelsa; 384,789; 143,296; PDP

7 Benue; 754,634; 347,673; APC

8 Borno; 544,759; 317,933; APC

9 Cross River; 500,577; 129,381; PDP

10 Delta; 1,350,914; 226,266; PDP

11 Ebonyi; 425,301; 213,543; PDP

12 Edo; 599,166; 237,958; PDP

13 Ekiti; 323,739; 165,000; PDP

14 Enugu; 616,112; 146,730; PDP

15 Gombe; 515,828; 237,139; APC

16 Imo; 801,712; 151,234; PDP

17 Jigawa; 1,153,428; 744,457; APC

18 Kaduna; 1,746,031; 800,112; APC

19 Kano; 2,364,434; 1,358,537; APC

20 Katsina; 1,578,646; 1,045,994; APC

21 Kebbi; 792,817; 496,565; APC

22 Kogi; 476,839; 162,763; APC

23 Kwara; 489,360; 302,904; APC

24 Lagos; 1,678,754; 341,151; APC

25 Nasarawa; 562,959; 360,596; PDP

26 Niger; 933,607; 492,870; APC

27 Ogun; 594,975; 239,050; APC

28 Ondo; 618,040; 263,453; APC

29 Osun; 683,169; 255,460; APC

30 Oyo; 1,073,849; 384,316; APC

31 Plateau; 1,076,833; 482,788; PDP

32 Rivers; 1,643,409; 158,844; PDP

33 Sokoto; 988,899; 588,730; APC

34 Taraba; 638,578; 389,696; PDP

35 Yobe; 520,127; 302,965; APC

36 Zamfara; 875,049; 578,866; APC

37 FCT; 344,056; 65,102; PDP

Total 31,746,490; 13,536,311

The foregoing clearly shows that president Muhammadu Buhari would have committed political suicide if he signed the new Electoral Bill into law as the weak links to fraudulent electoral victory and retaining power without the peoples mandate would have been blocked by so doing.

Unfortunately, while they are still stuck in their pre-analogue age, the world had since moved on.

The choice before Nigerians now is either to tally along with instruments of retrogression, darkness and death or to liberate themselves.

•Echefuna ’Rotimi Onyebeadi (DBA; PhD) is a political analyst.

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