Catholic bishops demand for mandatory real-time transmission of election results

Tuesday, February 24 2026 -The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has urged the National Assembly to urgently revisit electoral reforms, particularly the issue of mandatory real-time transmission of election results.

The call was made on Sunday by the Archbishop of Owerri and outgoing CBCN President, Lucius Ugorji, during the opening session of the 2026 first plenary meeting at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria in Abuja. Speaking on the theme, “The Common Good and Leadership in Nigeria,” Ugorji raised concerns about declining voter participation in the country.

He noted that voter turnout had dropped sharply over the years, falling from 69 percent in 2003 to a historic low of 23 percent in 2023. According to him, “This decline says a lot about citizens’ trust in the electoral process and calls into question the legitimacy of elected officials in a democratic dispensation with the mandate of an ever-decreasing minority.”

To reverse what he described as a worrying downward trend, Ugorji said lawmakers must ensure that the Electoral Act clearly mandates the real-time transmission of results from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) at polling units directly to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

He stressed that such a provision was necessary to “prevent any human tampering with the expressed will of the electorate.”

The cleric also criticised what he perceived as inconsistency in legislative priorities. While acknowledging the passage of the 2025 Tax Act mandating digital filing and record-keeping, he suggested that similar digital transparency was being diluted in the electoral sphere.

“The honourable members of the NASS should not allow themselves to be perceived as talking out of both sides of the mouth. The world is watching! Above all, God is also watching,” he warned.

Beyond electoral issues, Ugorji expressed concern over rising insecurity, describing recent killings in parts of the country, including Kwara State, as “senseless massacres.” He also decried the economic impact of illegal mining, which he said costs Nigeria an estimated nine billion dollars annually.

In his remarks at the event, former Director-General of the National Orientation Agency and chairman of the occasion, Mike Omeri, challenged political leaders to adopt a model of “servant leadership” as a way of narrowing the widening gap between the rich and the poor and promoting the common good.