Opposition lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Tuesday staged a dramatic walkout from plenary following a heated disagreement over the controversial manual collation clause in the ongoing amendment of the Electoral Act.
The protest erupted after the lower chamber retained a provision allowing manual collation of election results as a fallback in cases where electronic transmission fails.
The rowdy session underscored deep divisions among lawmakers over the credibility of Nigeria’s electoral process ahead of the 2027 general elections.
At the centre of the controversy is Section 60(3) of the proposed amendment, which provides that presiding officers shall electronically transmit results from each polling unit to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) after signing and stamping Form EC8A.
However, the clause also stipulates that where electronic transmission fails due to communication challenges, the manually signed Form EC8A shall serve as the primary source for collation and declaration of results.
Opposition lawmakers demanded the removal of the fallback provision, insisting that electronic transmission must be made mandatory without exceptions to prevent manipulation.
Their position, however, was rejected through a voice vote presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, who chaired the Committee of the Whole.
Earlier in the session, the House became tense when the Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Business moved a motion to rescind the chamber’s earlier decision on the bill passed in December.
When the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, put the motion to a voice vote, dissenting lawmakers argued that the “nays” were louder than the “ayes”. Abbas, however, ruled in favour of the “ayes”, triggering loud protests across the chamber.
An attempt to proceed into an executive session was initially resisted, but the House eventually went into a closed-door meeting that lasted about two hours.
Upon resumption, tensions resurfaced when the Deputy Speaker read clauses one to 10 together instead of subjecting them to clause-by-clause consideration, prompting fresh protests from lawmakers who insisted on detailed scrutiny.
Lawmakers also complained that copies of the amended bill were not made available to them before deliberation.
When Section 60 was revisited, opposition members proposed several amendments, including:
Deleting the manual collation fallback clause;
Making electronically transmitted results on IReV prevail in cases of conflict with manually collated results; and Granting equal legal weight to both electronic transmission and manual collation.
All the proposed amendments were defeated via voice votes.
Following the rejection, opposition lawmakers staged a walkout in protest.
Despite the tension, the House adopted other amendments to the Electoral Act, including:
Reducing the timeline for the Independent National Electoral Commission to issue notice of election from 360 days to 300 days before polling;
Amending Section 84 to limit political parties’ nomination methods to direct primaries and consensus, effectively removing indirect primaries as an option.
The development comes amid similar debates in the Senate of Nigeria, which initially rejected mandatory real-time electronic transmission before rescinding its decision and approving electronic transmission with manual collation as a backup.
The differing interpretations and persistent disputes over the amendment have sparked nationwide debate, with civil society groups and electoral reform advocates warning that any ambiguity in the law could undermine public confidence in future elections.
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