Former presidential candidate Peter Obi has criticised Nigeria’s electoral framework, arguing that the country continues to face difficulties conducting credible elections despite having significantly fewer voters and polling units than India.
In a statement titled “Tale of Two Nations Continues,” Obi compared Nigeria’s democratic process with that of India, which he described as “a model” among global democracies.
Highlighting India’s scale, Obi noted that the country has “nearly 1 billion registered voters (over 960 million) and more than 60% actively participating in elections.” He added that India operates “over 1 million polling stations and thousands of political parties,” and deploys technology that ensures “electronic transmission of results within days.”
By contrast, he said Nigeria — with roughly one-seventh of India’s population — has “about 93 million registered voters, which is less than 10% of India’s voter base,” alongside fewer than 20 percent of India’s polling stations and about one percent of its political parties.
“It is deeply troubling that we still struggle to conduct elections, even when we record voter turnout below 20%,” Obi said.
He further lamented that Nigeria “still remains unable to consistently deliver free, fair, and credible elections or transmit results promptly, especially when compared to countries with far larger numbers than ours.”
According to him, the core issue lies in governance. “The difference is leadership,” Obi stated, arguing that in India, political actors and institutions “work tirelessly for the welfare of their people and the future of their children.”
“In Nigeria, many political figures instead implement policies that impoverish the people and threaten the future of our children,” he said, urging citizens to “demand leaders who put the people first, govern with integrity, and plan for a better tomorrow.”
Obi’s comments come against the backdrop of ongoing deliberations over amendments to Nigeria’s Electoral Act at the National Assembly.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have constituted conference committees to reconcile differences in their respective versions of the bill. While the House adopted a provision mandating real-time electronic transmission of election results, the Senate approved electronic transmission to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal but retained manual collation as a fallback in cases of technological failure.
The debate intensified on Tuesday when plenary in the House of Representatives became rowdy over a proposal to repeal the Electoral Act Amendment Act, 2022 and replace it with a new Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2026.
The joint conference committee is expected to harmonise the divergent positions before the legislation advances to the next stage of the lawmaking process.
