Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called for comprehensive electoral and judicial reforms, saying the ongoing voter registration exercise would only be meaningful if backed by measures to guarantee electoral integrity and judicial independence.
In a statement he personally signed, Atiku, now a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said Nigerians’ enthusiasm in registering for their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) reflects a strong commitment to participate in leadership selection. However, he warned that voter registration alone is not enough without reforms to restore public confidence in the electoral process.
“At the 2023 elections, out of 93.47 million registered voters, only 24.9 million voted, representing just 26.72 per cent turnout — the lowest since 1999. Something needs to be done to arrest this decline,” he said.
He argued that issues around the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), electronic transmission of results, and related processes must be clearly enshrined in the law to avoid leaving outcomes to judicial discretion.
Citing Prof. Chidi Odinkalu’s book The Selectorate: When Judges Topple The People, Atiku noted that judges have increasingly become decisive in determining electoral outcomes, shifting legitimacy from voters to the courts.
He outlined specific amendments to the 2022 Electoral Act, including:
- Mandatory use of BVAS for accreditation and results upload without INEC discretion for manual processes.
- Compulsory electronic transmission of results to the iREV portal at all levels — polling units, wards, local governments, states, and the national collation centre.
- Elimination of manual accreditation, result transmission, or collation at any stage.
- Election of the INEC Chairman, Resident Electoral Commissioners, and National Commissioners through a democratic process.
- A requirement for INEC, not petitioners, to prove substantial compliance with the Electoral Act in election disputes.
According to him, these reforms would return power to the people rather than a “conclave of interested parties.”
Meanwhile, Atiku has handed over one of his properties in Yola to the ADC for use as its Adamawa State Secretariat. The building, located near the Mubi Roundabout in Jimeta, previously served as the state headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The move underscores Atiku’s recent defection from the PDP to the ADC, which has attracted several high-profile politicians in Adamawa, including former APC governorship candidate Senator Aishatu Ahmed (Binani) and former governor Senator Jibrilla Bindow.
ADC’s Assistant National Organising Secretary, Umaru Jada, said the facility would give the party a befitting operational base in the state.
