OBI LEADS ‘OCCUPY N’ASSEMBLY’ PROTEST, WARNS AGAINST DILUTION OF ELECTORAL REFORMS 

Former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, on Monday joined hundreds of protesters at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja to oppose the Senate’s decision to remove the phrase “real-time” from provisions on electronic transmission of election results in the proposed Electoral Act amendment.

The protest, tagged “Occupy the National Assembly,” was organised by members of the Obidient Movement alongside pro-democracy activists, who accused lawmakers of deliberately weakening electoral safeguards ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The demonstration followed last week’s passage of the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Reenactment) Amendment Bill, 2026 by the Senate. A major source of controversy in the amended bill is the deletion of the words “real-time” in clauses relating to electronic transmission of results, a change critics argue opens the door to manipulation.

Although the Senate has issued several clarifications, insisting that it did not abolish electronic transmission of results, protesters maintained that the absence of an explicit provision for real-time transmission creates room for abuse and post-poll interference.

Singing solidarity songs and displaying placards with messages such as “Our votes must count,” “No to electoral robbery,” and “Protect democracy now,” the protesters marched from the Federal Secretariat toward the National Assembly.

They were, however, stopped at the gates by heavily deployed security operatives drawn from the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, who barricaded the main entrance and confined the protest to the outer perimeter of the complex.

Speaking to journalists at the protest ground, Obi decried what he described as the gradual erosion of Nigeria’s democratic gains, stressing that credible elections are fundamental to national stability and development.

“We must dismantle this criminality and prove that we are now a nation that shows light in Africa,” he said.

Obi’s presence further energised the crowd, with many protesters seeing him as a symbol of the youth-driven political awakening witnessed during the 2023 elections, which challenged Nigeria’s long-standing political order.

Also addressing the protesters, the National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement Worldwide, Dr Yunusa Tanko, said the agitation would persist until the National Assembly clearly restores real-time electronic transmission of results in the amended law.

“If there is no electronic transmission of results, there will be no election. Our elections must be credible,” Tanko declared.

He argued that previous elections were plagued by manual interference during result collation, a challenge electronic transmission was designed to curb following reforms introduced after the 2011 and 2015 general elections.

Nigeria’s push for electoral reform gathered pace after the widely criticised 2007 general elections. Subsequent innovations, including the introduction of card readers in 2015 and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in 2022, were hailed as major steps toward transparency, despite lingering implementation challenges.

Electronic transmission of results was also a key demand of civil society organisations during deliberations that led to the passage of the 2022 Electoral Act, with advocates insisting it would reduce human interference and rebuild public trust in the electoral process.

Popular activist Randy Peters, who also spoke at the protest, accused the political elite of betraying democratic ideals and vowed that demonstrators would continue to return to the National Assembly until their demands are met.

“Tomorrow, we will be back here until the Senate do the right thing. The current administration supported the June 12 campaign. It was about free and fair elections,” he said.

Invoking the spirit of the June 12, 1993 election—widely regarded as Nigeria’s freest and fairest—Peters questioned why elected leaders would resist reforms aimed at guaranteeing credible electoral outcomes.

“Do we have democrats who are afraid of losing elections? In 2027, our votes must count. The most important thing is that our votes must count. Tomorrow, they will meet us here again,” he added.