Human rights supporter and past presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore thinks that if Nigeria had fair elections, a lot of today’s political leaders would be out of their jobs.

Sowore shared his views during a talk on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, where he talked about the changes happening to Nigeria’s election laws, especially about how election results are shared.

Recently, the Senate decided to let results be sent electronically, but they also added a rule that allows for counting by hand in places without internet. This choice has caused a lot of backlash from the public.

While discussing, Sowore pointed out that lawmakers might be scared to make election rules stronger because it could put their jobs at risk. He said, “Claiming some states don’t have internet is just an excuse. They are afraid of fair elections because if they were really open, 90 percent of those in power would lose their jobs.”

He criticized the choice to keep the option for manual counting, calling it a way to make the process less efficient. Sowore worried that the way the new rules were written could bring back old methods of announcing election results. He argued that this could hurt public trust in the election process and allow opportunities for manipulation.

Sowore expressed his disappointment with how the Independent National Electoral Commission manages election results, particularly criticizing the IREV platform for not meeting modern standards.

He believes Nigeria should go beyond just sending results electronically and fully embrace electronic voting.

“I’m not impressed with these outdated systems. We should be looking at what countries like India are doing. India conducts elections for around 900 million registered voters using electronic voting, and it works very well,” he explained.

Sowore noted that Nigeria’s number of registered voters is much smaller, which shouldn’t be a problem when it comes to technology.

“We have about 90 million voters here. If India can do it, there’s no reason we can’t have electronic voting,” he pointed out.

He also questioned why people think electronic voting is unrealistic when Nigerians already use technology for many secure online tasks.

Sowore highlighted that people transfer money, access personal information, and carry out secure online transactions regularly, yet the country still relies on manual methods to choose its leaders.

He warned that if Nigeria doesn’t make significant technological upgrades to its voting system, trust in elections will continue to fade, and the country’s democratic progress will be limited.