“Out Of 100 Nigerian Voters, Only 26 Expressed Faith In The Voting Process By Actually Voting” — PDP Spokesman Ememobong
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The National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Debo Ememobong, has revealed that out of 100 per cent of Nigerians who registered to vote, only 26 per cent expressed faith in the electoral process by actually going out to vote, attributing the low turnout to citizens’ belief that their votes will not count.
Ememobong made the disclosure during an interview on Arise TV Newsnight alongside Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Oba Maduabuchi, SAN, following President Bola Tinubu’s assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2026.
Ememobong explained the reasons behind voter apathy in Nigeria.
“The last election, only 26 percent of the people who registered to vote actually went to vote. Registration to vote is an initial announcement of an intention to vote. Actually going to vote is now an expression of faith or disbelief in the system. And so, out of hundred percent, only 26 percent expressed faith in the process.
“And if you talk to people, why don’t people vote? They say our votes won’t count. And so they sat back and said: what are the sociological issues, the political issues, the legal issues that have led to this?”
The PDP spokesman described the Electoral Act Amendment as a treacherous betrayal.
“We speak for the real PDP. There are some members of PDP who are an annexure of the APC. So we speak for the real PDP,” Ememobong stated.
He explained how the amendment undermines previous stakeholder agreements.
“Public hearings were held across the country, stakeholder groups met and agreed — this work has been going on for more than 2 years — and agreed. All of the issues brought were galvanised and argued at those forums, and an agreement with the Senators, with the House of Representatives, with the stakeholders, came to say: to deepen democracy by electoral sanctity, the sanctity of the ballot.”
Ememobong explained why there is fear of the fallback to Form EC8A.
“People are no longer taking ballot boxes to run. Why are people afraid of electronic transmission real-time? Now, let me show you. Because, with collusion with some members in INEC, they are going to print the same serial with election results, EC8A, and they are going to use the same serialised number. So you are going to find 2 result sheets and they are going to adopt the one.
“So what do they do? They call the person who is at the polling unit and say what’s the total number of accreditation. Because BVAS accreditation will now capture the total number. But because it is manual voting, it cannot sort the votes. So they will now take that accreditation digits and now fill a form in their houses.
“Some of them have had histories of putting result sheets in buses in their houses in 21, 28 local government areas and trying to submit it. So that is what is going to happen.”
Oba Maduabuchi, SAN, provided legal context on the constitutional issues surrounding the Electoral Act.
“We have gone this route before. When we had Card Reader, the Supreme Court said Card Reader is not in the Electoral Act. There was a time we wanted to do elections and the National Assembly said you must do presidential election first. And they said you can’t tell INEC how to do elections. You cannot. It is INEC that decides how to conduct an election, not the National Assembly.
“You cannot tell INEC you must transmit electronically. You can’t, because Section 153 of the constitution sets up INEC, not the Electoral Act. That’s one mistake people make. It is not the Electoral Act that set up INEC, it is Section 153 of the constitution. Then Section 160 gives INEC the power to assign responsibilities. Then Schedule 3, Paragraph F15 clearly says INEC shall have the power to organise, undertake and supervise elections.”
Maduabuchi explained the constitutional conflict.
“If they are to organise, the constitution gives them the power. Can a lesser legislation now come and say: don’t organise, do it this way? That’s where the problem is. You cannot, when they have been told organise, undertake, then you are now saying: don’t organise, we organise for you.
“When people say you must do e-transmission real-time online, it is what we all want. But then the constitution says something different, that it is INEC. If INEC says we want to do it real-time, it will be in tandem with the constitution. But if the National Assembly says you must do it real-time and electronically, no, it is not constitutional.”
Maduabuchi stated the way forward.
“Electronic transmission of votes is an imperative, but it is not possible in Nigeria today because of the position of the constitution. The constitution gives the sole power of organising elections to INEC: Organise, undertake and supervise. You cannot now ask them what to do. That is where we have a problem.
“So we must go back and amend Section 160 and then Paragraph 3 of the constitution, remove that power. There is no way you now make a subsidiary legislation like the Electoral Act and it will override the Constitution.”
Ememobong criticised the provision limiting candidate nomination to direct primaries or consensus.
“While we admit that the National Assembly has rights to make rules as to how political parties are administered, but those rules, if you see how Section 228B is couched, it’s couched in such a way that first you make laws as per registration and you now make laws that guide democratic, transparent and democratic selection and nomination of candidates.
“From my experience, between indirect primaries, where there are statutory delegates and ad hoc delegates which forms an electoral college, and direct, which you have seen in this country, through indirect primaries, people have allotted to candidates who emerge votes, that at the end of it, during elections, the total votes of the people in that community was not up to half of what the candidate had.
“We are saying that it is an overreach for the National Assembly to limit. There is a spectrum of process of selecting candidates. So you shouldn’t have gone to limit to say it has to be direct or consensus.”
A coalition of civil society organisations including Yiaga Africa, International Press Center and the Kuka Center, stated that the new law has loopholes that could undermine the 2027 polls.
The organisations described the law as “a missed opportunity for the transformative electoral reform Nigeria requires and that Nigerian citizens deserve.”
The interview also highlighted other changes in the Electoral Act that have received less attention:
- Funding of INEC has been reduced
- Submission of candidates by parties has reduced
- The mode of nomination of candidates has changed
- Electronic transmission is now mandatory for the first time (as against 2023)
Ememobong clarified the position on electronic transmission.
“We’re saying that immediately you finish the physical form, transmit that particular thing so that when we get to the collation centre, we would see whether what you’re bringing physically tallies. It does not remove the primacy of the paper, it doesn’t.”
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