Real-Time Result Transmission, Flames Of Controversy And Adegbonmire’s Intervention By Oyewamide Wande Ojo

Real-Time Result Transmission, Flames Of Controversy And Adegbonmire’s Intervention

By Oyewamide Wande Ojo

Despite being a first-term member, Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire has become one of the visible and relevant voices in the Tenth Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He is a blessing to the Red Chamber. He enriches proceedings with his outstanding brilliance and knowledge of law. Whenever the chips are down, he is one of the senators the lot always falls on to find a pathway.

Adegbonmire, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, represents Ondo Central in the upper chamber. He is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters. He is a member of several other committees. He currently chairs the Senate Ad-hoc Panel on the Review of the 2026 Electoral Bill. The seven-member panel was set up to harmonise conflicting positions and resolve grey areas in the proposed amendments.

The lawmaker addressed the raging debate on real-time transmission of election results in an interview on Arise Television last week. His intervention added legal and technical depth to an argument that has grown increasingly political.

The controversy is now one of the most sensitive issues in Nigeria’s democratic discourse. Opposition politicians present it as a battle against a grand plan to rig the 2027 general elections. They also frame it as a test of the country’s commitment to transparency and accountability. Is there any plan to compromise the elections? Only the opposition politicians can explain the reason for their hysteria. 

They demand that real-time electronic transmission of results from polling units must be mandatory and clearly backed by law. They insist it should not be left to the administrative discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission. 

Parties such as the Peoples Democratic Party, the Labour Party and the African Democratic Congress argue that instant electronic uploads reduce manipulation during collation. In their view, most disputes do not arise at the point of voting. They arise during the movement and aggregation of results. Immediate transmission limits interference and builds public confidence according to them.

Adegbonmire however responded in the Arise TV interview from a realistic angle. He drew a sharp line between electronic voting and electronic transmission. He noted that Nigeria has not adopted e-voting. Ballots are still cast, counted and recorded manually. Results are entered on Form EC8A at polling units. The senator explained that INEC uses the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) only to upload results that have already been declared. IReV does not determine votes. It publishes them.

This distinction is important. Electronic voting means a fully digital process. Electronic transmission means digitally forwarding manually processed results. By separating the two, Adegbonmire rejects claims that the senate scrapped digital safeguards or weakened IReV ahead of 2027.

He also points to Nigeria’s logistical realities. In states such as Ondo State, some communities are riverine. They are accessible only by boat. Voting does not begin at the same time nationwide. Delays are common. Connectivity is uneven. Under such conditions, simultaneous uploads across the country are unrealistic. In view of this, when delays are merely technical, they could spark needless allegations of rigging. 

This is a pragmatic argument. Electoral reform must match infrastructure. Do the technological realities in the country support real-time uploading of results? One does not think. The opposition must be made to face this reality.

The truth is that Nigeria faces a trust deficit in electoral governance. Years of disputed outcomes have made transparency a psychological necessity. Citizens want assurance that results cannot be altered between polling units and final collation. Where trust is fragile, even minor adjustments invite suspicion. 

But Adegbonmire’s intervention has shed light on the mechanics of result transmission. One thinks the light is cogent enough to extinguish the flames of controversy.

Ojo Oyewamide writes from Abibirih lane, Isolo, Akure