Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has called for far-reaching electoral and judicial reforms, warning that failure to act could further erode public confidence in Nigeria’s democracy.

 

In a statement on his social media handles on Thursday, Atiku outlined nine key reforms that he said must be implemented before the 2027 general elections.

 

While commending the enthusiasm of Nigerians participating in the ongoing continuous voters registration exercise, he stressed that registering for Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) alone was not enough without credible electoral processes.

 

According to him, “it is pertinent that far-reaching electoral and judicial reforms are undertaken to ensure electoral integrity, strengthen public confidence, and promote judicial independence.”

 

He linked the growing voter apathy in Nigeria to waning trust in the system, citing the 2023 elections as an example. Out of 93.47 million registered voters, only 24.9 million cast their ballots, representing 26.72 per cent turnout, the lowest since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.

 

Atiku warned that if nothing was done, citizens’ appetite for democracy would continue to decline. He highlighted the concerns around BVAS, electronic transmission, and the rising role of the judiciary in determining electoral outcomes.

 

Quoting Prof. Chidi Odinkalu’s book, The Selectorate: When Judges Topple The People, he noted: “Judges, once constrained arbiters of electoral disputes, have become increasingly unconstrained in determining who holds power — shifting legitimacy from voters to the courts.”

 

To reverse this trend, Atiku listed the following nine reforms:

 

1. Mandatory use of BVAS for accreditation of voters and upload of results from polling units and collation centers, without any provision for INEC discretion on manual accreditation.

 

 

2. Compulsory electronic transmission of results from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (iREV), with no allowance for manual transmission.

 

 

3. Result collation at Ward Collation Centers strictly on the basis of electronically transmitted results from polling units.

 

 

4. Result collation at Local Government/Area Council Centers based only on electronically transmitted results from ward centers.

 

 

5. Result collation at State Collation Centers based only on electronically transmitted results from local government centers.

 

 

6. Result collation at the National Collation Center strictly on the basis of electronically transmitted results from state centers.

 

 

7. Complete abolition of manual processe; no manual accreditation, transmission, or collation of results at any stage.

 

 

8. Democratic selection of INEC leadership; the Chairman, Resident Electoral Commissioners, and National Commissioners should be subjected to voting by the people.

 

 

9. Burden of proof shifted to INEC — the commission must demonstrate substantial compliance with the Electoral Act and the Constitution in election petitions, not the petitioner.

 

 

 

Atiku concluded that such reforms would ensure that “the power to choose leaders returns to the people, and not a conclave of interested parties.”