Tuesday, March, 3 2026 - The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has accused former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi and other opposition figures of hypocrisy over their criticism of provisions in the newly signed 2026 Electoral Act.
Speaking during a media chat on Monday, March 2, Wike
reacted to opposition objections to the clause permitting manual transmission
of election results where electronic transmission fails due to poor network
coverage. The minister claimed Amaechi had previously opposed the electronic
transmission of results while serving under former President Muhammadu Buhari,
and questioned why he was now demanding its full implementation.
“Remember under Buhari, the issue of electronic transmission
came. People like Rotimi Amaechi, they were in government, they said ‘no, don’t
sign, if you sign you lose election’. “And this is the same person now who is
coming out in the public to say there should be electronic transmission, but he
refused simply because he felt his boss would be affected,” Wike said.
He maintained that the new Electoral Act does not abolish
electronic transmission but provides a safeguard to prevent votes from being
invalidated in areas with unreliable connectivity. “Now we are here, they did
not say there should not be electronic transmission. All they said is in case,
and which is likely, let us not disenfranchise people by not allowing their
votes to be counted,” he said.
Wike also addressed the controversy surrounding the
requirement for political parties to adopt direct primaries, arguing that the
reform was designed to curb the influence of powerful individuals within party
structures.
According to him, indirect primaries have historically
allowed governors, ministers and wealthy political actors to dominate candidate
selection processes. He described Nigerians as “professional complainants,”
suggesting that critics had previously faulted indirect primaries for
concentrating power among party elites and “moneybags.”
Opposition parties, including the African Democratic
Congress and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, have called on the National
Assembly to initiate fresh amendments to what they describe as “all obnoxious
provisions” in the 2026 Electoral Act.
They argue that the amended law, signed by President Bola
Tinubu, contains “anti-democratic” clauses that could undermine electoral
transparency and public confidence in the voting process. The debate over
electronic transmission and party primaries is expected to intensify in the
coming weeks as stakeholders push for further legislative review ahead of the
next electoral cycle.
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