Nigerians cannot understand why INEC delayed in uploading election results – Dr. Sam Amadi

Dr. Sam Amadi, a Law Lecturer at Baze University, has said that Nigerians cannot understand why the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) delayed uploading election results from the 2023 general elections conducted on February 25.   

He stated this during an interview on Arise TV on Monday, February 27, which was monitored by Nairametrics.

Delays in transmitting election results: During the interview, Dr. Amadi addressed the delay in the election results upload, stating that in section 60 of the country’s Electoral Act, it was said that INEC officials must upload results immediately once they are collated. He said: 

• “Clause 38 of the guidelines issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says it is a crime not to do so. One of the things people cannot understand is why INEC has not done this. Why do we have long hours of delay that have now created all kinds of problems? My worry is that we have not improved since 2015.” 

INEC failed to meet basic requirements: Dr. Amadi said that at some polling units in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, INEC officials showed up without tables. Some of the voters had to go to their homes to bring tables for INEC officials to carry out their duties. He also pointed out the fact that ink and other materials were unavailable in some polling units during the voting exercise. He said: 

• “If any logistics company in the world were to do these basics, without the N306 billion spent, they would get a better result, so, did the gross failure of logistics occur because it was programmed to fail, or was it just circumstances? Also, BVAS did not fail, what failed was people who refused to trigger those processes. I can’t wrap my head around why INEC failed in very basic electoral issues.” 

He also said he thinks INEC has been protected too long by civil society over its gross incompetence. However, he noted that the February 25 elections have shown factors leading to a new direction in the country’s politics that will be dominated more by current trends and issues rather than being tethered to the past.  

What you should know: Mr. Olufemi Awoyemi, the founder of Proshare had earlier suggested that Nigeria’s elections should be run by competent logistics experts as opposed to the usual path.