…warns Nigeria not structurally ready for real-time transmission of election results
The President and Chief Executive of the Africa Development Studies Centre (ADSC), Sir Victor Oluwafemi, has cautioned that Nigeria’s electoral reforms must be driven by infrastructural readiness rather than political rhetoric, warning that low connectivity in rural areas makes real-time transmission of election results premature.
Oluwafemi, who is also a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, made this assertion in a statement issued on Monday as part of what he described as an expert, non-partisan governance and public policy advisory on the ongoing national debate over electronic voting and real-time result transmission.
According to him, the intervention was not politically motivated but grounded in evidence, systems thinking, and comparative governance practice drawn from global digital transformation experiences.
“Nigeria’s democratic aspiration must be matched by infrastructural reality,” Oluwafemi said. “At present, the push for real-time electronic transmission of election results risks prioritising speed over integrity, and visibility over verifiability.”
He stressed that Nigeria still conducts elections through manual voting, manual counting, and physical documentation at polling units, noting that technology cannot correct foundational weaknesses inherent in these processes.
“Every valid result begins with paper processes, human procedures, and environmental dependencies that technology alone cannot fix,” he stated.
Oluwafemi argued that without stable electricity, universal telecommunications coverage, cyber-resilient systems, uniform training of electoral officials, and clear legal frameworks, real-time transmission remains “aspirational rather than operational.”
He warned that enforcing nationwide real-time transmission under current conditions could result in serious consequences, including the disenfranchisement of voters in rural and low-connectivity areas, heightened cyber vulnerabilities that could delegitimise electoral outcomes, and increased post-election litigation arising from conflicting evidentiary standards.
Drawing comparisons with advanced democracies, the ADSC boss noted that even technologically mature nations do not sacrifice auditability for speed.
“They retain paper as the legal anchor while using technology to support verification, reconciliation, and transparency,” he said.
Oluwafemi emphasised that the core challenge facing Nigeria is not technology itself, but the sequencing of reform.
“Electoral reform must be engineered as national infrastructure, not introduced as an election-season feature,” he maintained.
He proposed a phased, platform-based approach to electoral modernisation, anchored on Policy as a Platform (PaaP) and Results as a Service (RaaS), which he described as practical, non-partisan pathways for reform.
Under the Policy as a Platform framework, Oluwafemi said electoral reform would be treated as a continuous, standards-driven governance system. Applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), this approach would establish minimum national readiness thresholds for power, connectivity, cybersecurity, and device integrity; allow for gradual, geographically sequenced deployment of technology; and align legal, operational, technological, and dispute-resolution mechanisms into a single coherent electoral platform.
“Under PaaP, elections are treated as engineered systems, not improvised events,” he said.
Explaining the Results as a Service model, Oluwafemi noted that it shifts attention away from how quickly results are announced to how credibly they are produced.
He said RaaS would treat each polling unit result as a verified service output with defined validation stages, prioritise reconciliation and audit trails before public visibility, and reduce disputes by strengthening confidence in process rather than accelerating announcements.
“In democratic governance, trust is built on proof, not immediacy,” he added.
Outlining ADSC’s advisory position, Oluwafemi concluded that Nigeria does not need to abandon electoral technology but must respect the proper order of reform.
“Infrastructure must come before automation. Verification must come before visibility. Trust must come before speed,” he said.
He maintained that until gaps in power supply, connectivity, cybersecurity, operational discipline, and legal coherence are addressed, real-time electronic transmission of results should remain a medium-term objective rather than an immediate mandate.
“Electoral reform must be deliberate, inclusive, and system-ready. That is how democracies endure,” Oluwafemi concluded.