By Mary Onyia
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has expressed deep fears over the credibility of the 2027 general elections following President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s swift assent to the amended Electoral Act, warning that the development could erode public trust in the electoral process.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party described the President’s “alarmingly speedy assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill” as a troubling signal ahead of the next national polls. According to the ADC, the move has “signed the death warrant on credible elections” and risks setting Nigeria’s democracy back by decades.
The party argued that although the President claimed he was consolidating democracy, the amendment instead “introduced ambiguity and permitted excessive discretion in the collation and transmission process.” It further questioned the urgency surrounding the bill’s passage and signing, noting that a government that boasts of controlling over 30 states and commanding a majority in the National Assembly should have no reason to rush changes to the electoral framework “unless it harbours deep-seated doubts about submitting itself to a truly transparent and competitive process.”
Warning of the implications for 2027, the ADC said that in the absence of firm guarantees of electronic transparency, citizens may feel compelled to safeguard their votes to prevent discrepancies between polling units and collation centres, “as has been witnessed in the past.
Reaffirming its stance, the party declared: “We are ready, willing, and prepared to defend the sanctity of Nigeria’s democracy using every constitutional and lawful means available to us… We stand firm in the belief that the will of the people must prevail and that no law, however hastily enacted, can extinguish the democratic aspirations of a free nation.”