E-Transmission Won’t Work Yet In Nigeria – Former INEC Commissioner Reveals Sh*cking Reasons

A former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mustapha Lecky, has said Nigeria is neither legally nor technically prepared for real-time electronic transmission of election results.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶

Lecky made the remarks on Friday during an interview on Channels Television, where he argued that the current debate around instantaneous transmission of results is misplaced because elections in Nigeria are still conducted manually.

According to him, electronic transmission can only logically follow electronic voting, a system the country has yet to adopt.

“I don’t think it makes sense to be talking about live, instantaneous transmission of results from polling units when we do not conduct electronic voting anywhere,” he said. “Are we doing electronic voting? We are very far from that.”

He explained that votes are cast using paper ballots and must be manually counted at polling units in full view of voters and party agents before results can be uploaded.

“Ballots are still paper-based. They are counted one after the other for everyone to see, after which Form EC8A—the most critical result document—is completed and signed by party agents,” Lecky noted.

The former commissioner maintained that this process already ensures transparency, describing calls for real-time electronic transmission as unfounded.

He also stressed that Nigeria lacks the technical capacity to support nationwide electronic transmission, pointing to poor mobile network coverage across thousands of polling locations.

“For electronic transmission, we are simply not ready. We are not technically prepared,” he said.

Lecky further cautioned that pushing for instant transmission without the necessary infrastructure could expose elections to cyber threats, especially given Nigeria’s fragile digital resilience.

“Even more advanced democracies are still grappling with these issues. You can imagine the risks for a fledgling democracy like ours,” he warned.

He, however, advised INEC to focus on strengthening existing tools such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the Result Viewing Portal.

“What we need to do is rely on the systems already in place and ensure they work perfectly—and they can work perfectly if properly managed,” he concluded.