Usman Bugaje is a political activist and civil society leader. In this interview, he speaks on the controversy trailing the amendment to the Electoral Act and the need for the National Assembly to chart an independent cause and avoid needless controversies like Tax law, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

Controversy is raging over the mandatory real-time transmission of election results; what do you think about the fact that the Supreme Court had said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Result Viewing Portal. (IREV) or whatever is electronically transmitted into IREV is not admissible because IREV is not a collation centre?

Because of that ruling of the Supreme Court, it has become necessary for us to go back and amend the law for clarity, accuracy, and precision, so that everybody would be clear because the whole idea is to do a transparent election.

And the best way to do it is to make sure that the results are available electronically. That’s real-time, so that everybody can see exactly where the votes are. And the idea of this amendment is precisely to address the very point that the Supreme Court had raised earlier. And even INEC itself in its submission has gone as far as saying that there should be mandatory transmission of results in real time.

The House of Representatives has done exactly that. Why the Senate is always caught cheating or deceiving people is one thing that we really have to address after this amendment. This is not the first time the Senate is found napping or is caught cheating in terms of their basic function of lawmaking. They have done that, like you just mentioned, with the tax law.

They have done that with padding of budgets. And as a result of the mess they have done, we have now nearly three budgets, none of which is really functioning and we don’t know where we really are. Businesses cannot plan because they don’t know which budget is going to be implemented and which one is going to be funded. So, the Senate leadership, at least, is now being the biggest problem of this country.

And we need to begin to ask of what use are these leadership? What kind of irresponsible behaviour is this? So, we’ll have to take that up after we have gone through the amendment. But I think there is a groundswell of opinion across the country, even with their fellow legislators in the House that this mandatory transmission in real-time is what everybody wants. And that’s what should actually be done as Nigerians are not ready for anything less.

Some people have described this moment as a defining moment in our democratic history here in Nigeria. And it could possibly be a game changer when it comes to the way elections are run. What do you say about the reasons given by the Senate on not having internet penetration in some areas?

These are all alibis. It’s very clear you have POS in the remotest villages; you have telephones working, people sending messages and communicating. In any case, it is for INEC to say that we do not have the capacity to deliver. It’s not for the legislators to do that. And like I said, INEC itself has recommended in its submission during the public hearing that this is possible.

So, what is the business of the Senate to start speculating about INEC’s inability to do that when INEC is very clear on its position? And experts in the last few days have come out to say that the amount of coverage is more than sufficient for INEC to deliver.

And remember, even if you post in remote areas, by the time you move into area of coverage, the message will find its way to the portal. Therefore, it’s not something that is impossible. Many countries in the world that are far less developed in terms of internet coverage have done exactly this. So, really, these are no reasons at all. These are alibis, excuses given because they want to perpetuate the regime.

There are lots of issues that are deliberately being suppressed or blocked, so that the proper democratic practices will never see the light of the day

Otherwise, why should you block the idea in the 21st century, with all the advancement? In any case, we have sufficient time to build the capacity of INEC. This can be done in one month. It’s not like you’re building a nation; you’re just putting gadgets together and linking up satellites. So, even if you want to do more, there are lots of other facilities available in the world that will allow you to make this.

So, I think the whole idea of giving excuses is suspect. And clearly, the intention is to find a way of attenuating the electoral system in a way that will give certain people the advantage to rig elections like they have done. Even in the last elections, you recall exactly what happened. They switched off and then all sorts of images were coming.

And really, up to now, nobody has adequately explained to us what exactly happened. I mean, if it was a glitch, why didn’t it happen with other results? Why only the presidential results? In a serious country, this is something that should have been investigated and if people were found wanting, they would have been prosecuted. But a lot of these criminals are working scot-free.

What do we then do?

We have about a year to the elections or even less than a year, and will the President sign the bill? The processes are very clear. If there is a law that has been passed by the National Assembly, if the President does not sign, the National Assembly is empowered to pass that law by two-third majority. And once that is done, it becomes law, irrespective of whether the president has signed it or not.

If the President does not implement it, he is breaching a law that has been signed and passed by the National Assembly. And that is an impeachable offence. It’s just that the National Assembly has no liver. They have no courage. They don’t even know their work. They are just there collecting money, left, right and centre. This is why they are ineffective and this is why we must change them in the coming election.

But coming back to your point, the fact of the matter is that a lot of these things can be done within the shortest possible time. There is no problem at all. If you have listened, and I’m sure a few of these experts have spoken, these things can be fixed in the shortest possible time. I expect that even if the President signs, he may delay the release of funds to INEC to build that capacity to be able to deliver what the law has said.

But this is something for the civil society and for the active members of the National Assembly, the few that are independent, to pursue because if there are delays, then they should shout. They should bring this out to the public and the public will know what to do. Nobody can just continue to fool 260 million people all the time. Therefore, we are not going to take our eyes off the ball. We will be watching every step of the way until the election is through.

Are there other proposals either from the House of Representatives or the Senate that you also consider very important since we may eventually have a conference committee of both chambers?

There are lots of issues that the Senate has deliberately avoided. For example, section 84 that deals with the actual internal democracy within the primaries, which have not been implemented. There are sections 68 and 109 that deal with people decamping.

There are proposals to strengthen those sections, so that people who are elected on the platform of a party, the moment they decide to move to another party, they lose that right because the mandate was given on the basis of a particular party. Why do we need a political party to contest election? Because a political party has a programme, has a vision, has a particular characteristic based on which those who voted actually voted.

Therefore, you cannot take away that midstream and move to another party that may have a different perspective, and then carry the votes of those people who voted you because you stood on the platform of a particular party. There are lots of issues that are deliberately being suppressed or blocked, so that the proper democratic practices will never see the light of the day. But these are going to be part of the struggle, which both the citizens and the civil society will have to continue. We are prepared to continue having incremental gains until we eventually get to where we should be.

So, there are lots of issues. But I think this issue of 120, 360, there is no point to go in because if they have signed the law, they would still have enough time – 360 days. And if they are going to adjust it, why go as far as one third of that particular period? Why do you want to stampede INEC? The concern is because you don’t want the processes to take their normal gestation periods so that the preparation will not be properly done. And then the whole election will be rowdy.

And eventually you just simply get results announced like it was done in 2023. Then you go to the courts and you know what the courts have become today. So, I think the controversy should not stop us from making this particular amendment of mandatory transmission of results in real-time. On the issue of dates, I think we still have enough time.

If we pass this week and the President signs this week, we still have enough time to give INEC the 360 days. This 360 days, I recall when the laws were being done, was worked out with a lot of details. Therefore, the problem is not so much in the number of days. The fact is that the Senate has been dragging this issue over time as if to exhaust that particular period of time that has been given. We are not going to allow this to happen.