The Movement for Credible Elections (MCE) has described President Bola Tinubu’s signing of Electoral Act as deliberate act of weakening of electoral integrity.
MCE in a statement by Dr.Usman Bugaje,
Prof Pat Utomi, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN
Comrade Ayuba Wabba, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, Barr Femi Falana, SAN, among others said the president and federal lawmakers have willfully trampled on the will of the people.
“It was a calculated choice to place their personal and partisan interests above that of the country and people,” the group said.
According to the MCE, the push by Nigerians for mandatory electronic transmission is not cosmetic, but a response to decades of collation-stage manipulation, result disputes, and violence rooted in mistrust.
It regretted that instead of consolidating that progress, the political class has chosen to reverse the reform that Nigeria has painstakingly built over 25 years.
“Nations emerging from military rule survive only when institutions become stronger than personalities.
“When procedural clarity gives way to ambiguity, the system drifts backward,” the group said.
MCE noted that the political class chose ambiguity over certainty, discretion over obligation, and vulnerability over transparency.
“After decades of military rule, Nigerians reclaimed democracy through sacrifice and sustained civic struggle.
“That hard-won constitutional order rests on one foundational principle – the integrity of the ballot. We have walked too far from the barracks to now weaken the ballot.
“When those entrusted with legislative authority diffuse safeguards that protect that ballot, they do not merely amend a statute but have badly damaged public trust,” the group said.
It regretted that the cost of democratic is backsliding, leading to capital flight, social polarisation, youth disillusionment, and institutional fragility.
The group warned that history will not treat lightly those who knowingly preserved grey zones in electoral processes ahead of a national election cycle.
“Democracies do not implode in a single day. They decay when leaders convince citizens that the rules can be bent without consequence,” it said, stating that if the road to 2027 elections are clouded by crisis, history will remember this moment when those in power were warned and chose expediency over integrity
“If instability follows a crisis of electoral legitimacy in 2027, responsibility will not lie with protesting citizens. It will lie with those who ignored warnings and weakened guardrails.
“Nigeria deserves leaders who fortify democracy not leaders who gamble with the country and intentionally declared a war against the Nigerian people.
“The patriotic activities of all who disagree with the direction the political class is taking our democracy and country will escalate until the citizens of Nigeria win,” it added.
The group however said it will not relent until unfettered transparency is enshrined in our electoral system and processes.
“We shall mobilise our citizens to the democratic battleground and resist the dangerous actions of the political class who steadily seek to derail our democracy.
“Nigerians have walked too far from the barracks to now watch politicians selfishly weaken the ballot,” the group said.
