The African Democratic Congress (ADC) said President Bola Tinubu has signed a death warrant on credible elections in Nigeria with the signing of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
ADC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, on Thursday, regretted that Nigeria’s democracy has been set back several decades.
The party stated that at a time when Nigerians are calling for stronger accountability and full modernization of the electoral system, President Tinubu, who likes to boast of his pro-democracy credentials, hurriedly approved amendments that fail to improve citizens’ confidence in the electoral process.
“In signing the bill into law, the president claimed to be consolidating the country’s democracy, but in reality, he has simply corrupted it further by introducing ambiguity and permitting excessive discretion in the collation and transmission process,” ADC said.
According to the party, despite claiming to control more than 30 state governments and commanding a majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, “the extraordinary haste with which this amendment was passed and signed raises the unavoidable question of why a government that wrongly boasts about being so politically dominant would rush changes to the electoral framework unless it harbors deep-seated doubts about submitting itself to a truly transparent and competitive process.”
The party added that by refusing to slow down, listen, and meaningfully engage the concerns of Nigerians, President Tinubu and the APC-dominated National Assembly have shown that they are afraid of what the Nigerian people would do to them in a free and fair election.
ADC regretted that the presidency has demonstrated outright disregard for the very citizens whose mandate sustains its democratic authority.
The party expressed concern about what this amendment portends for Nigeria’s forthcoming elections.
ADC stated that in the absence of firm guarantees of electronic transparency, citizens might feel compelled to physically safeguard their votes to prevent discrepancies between polling units and collation centres, which has occurred in the past.
The party advised that no government confident in its democratic mandate and caring about its citizens should place its people in a position that risks heightening tensions during elections.
ADC therefore said it is prepared to defend the sanctity of Nigeria’s democracy using every constitutional and lawful means available.
“We will mobilize Nigerians toward vigilance, toward lawful participation, and toward unity in defense of their constitutional rights. We stand firm in the belief that the will of the people must prevail and that no law, however hastily enacted, can extinguish the democratic aspirations of a free nation,” the party stated.
