A media aide to President Bola Tinubu, Sunday Dare, has said Mr Tinubu is unlikely to give assent to the amended electoral act particularly real-time electronic transmission of election results.
Mr Dare, special adviser to the president on media and public communication, spoke during his appearance on a programme on Arise TV.
He stated that the country lacked sufficient Internet capacity to transmit election results from polling units via real-time upload of results on INEC’s IREV website.
He said the president would take account of the country’s present Internet realities before deciding whether to assent to the bill.
“I can assure you that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a renowned democrat, will do what is right, but it will not be in isolation of the realities of our country,” Mr Dare said.
He said that Nigeria’s limited Internet infrastructure cannot handle the volume of data required for real-time electronic transmission of poll results.
Mr Dare added, “There’s no 100 per cent real-time transmission anywhere. Are you telling me that this country as it is, is networked enough to have a 100 per cent electronic process?.”
The issue of electronic transmission of election results ignited nationwide debates and divided the Senate after lawmakers alleged that the Senate president Godswill Akpabio forged the Act to deliberately exclude the clause requiring the upload of results on INEC’s IREV portal.
But after protests at the National Assembly, Mr Akpabio agreed to reinstate the clause.
For the amended bill to become law, it has to be signed by the president.
During the 2023 presidential polls, the IREV portal was down for more than six hours over what officials claimed to be caused by technical glitches.
Twenty-four hours after the polls which Mr Tinubu was declared winner in February 2023, INEC had only uploaded 11 per cent of results.
