They Want To Change Election Rules Again. Guess Who Benefits

The Electoral Act of 2022 was celebrated as a victory for Nigerian democracy. It introduced electronic transmission of results. It strengthened INEC’s independence. It gave citizens hope that their votes might finally count. Now, lawmakers are proposing amendments. They say it is about improving the process. They say it is about fixing glitches. They say a lot of things. Here is what they do not say. Every time election rules change in Nigeria, the same people benefit. Guess who.

Here is what most people get wrong about electoral reform. The problem is not that the Electoral Act is perfect. The truth is that the timing of these amendments is not neutral. And here is why that matters right now: because changing the rules in the shadow of an election is not reform. It is rigging by another name.

What the official report won’t tell you

The proposed amendments target electronic result transmission. They suggest that paper backups should override electronic results in case of discrepancies. They suggest that collation centers should have more power to review and reject transmissions. Civil society groups have warned that these changes would gut the 2022 reforms. Wole Soyinka called them a “return to the dark ages of manual collation where results are manufactured in back rooms.”

If electronic transmission worked in 2023, why is it suddenly broken in 2026?

The government says it is responding to concerns from political parties. But which parties? The party that won the last election and fears losing the next one. The amendments do not come from a groundswell of citizen demand. They come from politicians who saw how close the last election was and want more control.

To be fair…

Let me give the lawmakers their due. No electoral law is perfect. The 2022 Act had technical challenges. Some polling units could not transmit results electronically. Some backup systems failed. In an ideal world, amendments would address those specific problems without weakening the overall framework.

But here is where that defense crumbles. The amendments do not just fix glitches. They change the fundamental balance of power between electronic and manual systems. They give collation centers the authority to override electronic results based on paper trails that can be fabricated. That is not a fix. That is a backdoor. And everyone knows it.

When politicians propose election changes two years before a vote, they are not planning for smoother logistics. They are planning for smoother theft.

The human cost

Trust in Nigeria’s elections is already fragile. The 2023 election left millions of citizens believing their votes were manipulated. The Supreme Court rulings settled the legal question but did not heal the public wound. Changing the rules now, without broad consensus, without public hearings, without transparency, will not fix that wound. It will tear it open again.

Young Nigerians already vote at lower rates than their elders. They say it is because nothing changes. They say it is because their votes do not matter. Changing election rules in a way that appears to favor incumbents will not bring them to the polls. It will drive them further away. And a democracy that loses its young people loses its future.

What needs to happen

Any amendment to the Electoral Act must be subjected to the widest possible consultation. Civil society. Political parties. INEC. Ordinary citizens. Not closed-door meetings where deals are cut. Town halls. Public hearings. Live broadcasts. If the amendments are truly about improving the process, there should be nothing to hide.

If the amendments pass without that consultation, Nigerians will draw their own conclusions. And those conclusions will not be favorable to democracy. Or to the politicians who benefit.

Here is where we land. They want to change election rules again. Guess who benefits. You do not need a crystal ball to answer that question. You just need a memory of every election Nigeria has held since 1999. The pattern is clear. The question is whether citizens will watch it happen again or demand better. I know what I am demanding.

Barr. Adenike Badmus Esq,

Ondo State

[email protected]