The clock is ticking, and for once, it is not an imaginary legislative deadline invented to justify emergency lawmaking.
February 2026 is real, fixed, and unforgiving. By then, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must issue the Notice of Election for the 2027 general elections, as required by the Electoral Act.
If ongoing amendments are not concluded before that notice is released, Nigeria will head into another election cycle under the Electoral Act 2022, flaws and all, no matter how loudly Nigerians complain afterward.
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This looming deadline now hangs over the National Assembly like a parliamentary pop quiz it forgot to revise for.
Last Thursday, the Senate took a step that suggests it may finally be taking the matter seriously.
Following a three-hour closed-door executive session, senators resolved to constitute a seven-member ad hoc committee to harmonise and distil lawmakers’ views on the proposed amendments to the Electoral Act.
Announcing the decision at plenary, Senate President Godswill Akpabio said the committee was mandated to “contribute, galvanise and distil the opinion of senators on the bill,” an assignment that sounds simple until one recalls how many “opinions” lawmakers typically have when elections are involved.
The committee is chaired by Adeniyi Adegbonmire, chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, and includes Adamu Aliero, Aminu Tambuwal, Adams Oshiomhole, Danjuma Goje, Tony Nwoye, and Titus Zam, a line-up that blends legal expertise, political experience, and, perhaps most importantly.
The committee has just three days to conclude its work and report back to the Senate by Tuesday.
In parliamentary terms, that is either admirable efficiency or optimistic compression, depending on one’s level of faith in legislative miracles.
The decision to set up the ad hoc committee followed the Senate’s deferral, on Wednesday, of consideration of the report on the Electoral Act, 2022 (Repeal and Enactment) Bill.
Instead of proceeding with debate, senators opted for an executive session to allow deeper scrutiny of the proposed amendments.
This came after plenary deliberations on the report of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, which was presented in the absence of its chairman, Simon Lalong.
Lawmakers agreed that given the far-reaching implications of the bill, it would be unwise, if not politically dangerous, to rush through it without adequate study.
Akpabio insisted that the Senate must exercise due diligence, perhaps avoiding the mistake of its predecessors, where the lawmakers passed an act that denied them the privilege to be delegates at primary elections, a decision they regretted deeply at the 2023 poll.
Akpabio said, “This is a very important bill, especially as it is election time. We must take our time to ensure justice is done to all, so that we do not end up at the tribunal,” an unusually honest acknowledgment of the legislature’s role in producing laws that often return as court exhibits.
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What the Bill seeks to fix
According to the committee’s report, a clause-by-clause review of the proposed amendments shows that the bill aims to strengthen electoral integrity, enhance transparency and boost public confidence in the electoral system.
The Senate Committee on Electoral Matters recommended the passage of the Electoral Act (Repeal and Enactment) Bill, 2025, as amended, noting that the reforms would expand voter participation, curb electoral fraud and strengthen INEC’s institutional capacity.
Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele outlined key provisions of the bill, describing it as a major upgrade to Nigeria’s electoral framework. Among others, the proposed law introduces stiffer sanctions for vote-buying, including fines of up to ₦5 million, a two-year jail term, and a 10-year ban from contesting elections—penalties that suggest lawmakers may finally be tired of pretending vote-buying is a minor inconvenience.
The bill also prescribes tougher punishment for result falsification and obstruction of election officials, introduces electronically generated voter identification, including a downloadable voter card with a unique QR code and mandates electronic transmission of polling unit results.
Other provisions recognise the voting rights of prisoners, mandate INEC to register eligible inmates, standardise delegates for indirect party primaries, and require the release of election funds at least one year before polling day, a reform INEC has consistently demanded to avoid last-minute logistical chaos.
Bamidele said the reforms are aimed at guaranteeing credible, transparent and secure elections beginning with the 2027 polls, subject to approval by at least two-thirds of state Houses of Assembly, in line with constitutional requirements.
INEC’s long-ignored homework
Notably, many of these proposals are not new.
On May 12, 2025, then INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu disclosed that the Commission had forwarded 142 post-election recommendations to the National Assembly.
Eight of those recommendations required amendments to the Constitution or the Electoral Act.
For months, however, nothing was heard of those submissions, reinforcing the perception that electoral reform only becomes urgent when election dates start to glare from the calendar.
Under the current Electoral Act, INEC is mandated to issue the Notice of Election one year before polling day, placing the deadline squarely in February 2026.
If the amendment bill is not passed before then, INEC will be legally bound to conduct the 2027 elections under the 2022 Act, despite public outcry over its grey areas.
Inside the Senate Report
A copy of the Senate committee report obtained by BusinessDay shows that on page 45, a new subsection (3) has been introduced to strengthen safeguards against result manipulation and ballot box snatching.
The provision states that “INEC shall electronically transmit election results from each polling unit to the IREV portal in real time and such transmission shall be done simultaneously with physical collation of results.”
The report also introduces a new subsection to Section 77, making it an offence for presiding officers to fail to sign and stamp ballot papers and announced results, an act that has often provided fertile ground for post-election litigation.
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Sections 47(2) and (3) were amended to replace “smart card reader” with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), reflecting technological realities already in use.
Further amendments to Section 54(1) seek to curb abuse of visually impaired and incapacitated voters by barring political party agents, candidates or officials from accompanying such voters into the voting compartment.
Penalties for buying and selling voter cards were also increased significantly, with fines raised from ₦500,000 to ₦5 million, signalling a rare moment of legislative impatience with electoral malpractice.
Given the sensitivity of the bill, Akpabio urged senators to study the report thoroughly ahead of final consideration.
“Distinguished colleagues, please let’s look into the report very well ahead of final consideration tomorrow,” he said, announcing another closed-door session before clause-by-clause debate at the committee of the whole.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has complicated matters further. Although it passed the Electoral Act last year after what critics described as a hurried public hearing, the House recommitted the bill last Wednesday, effectively restarting the legislative process.
This means that even if the Senate moves swiftly, harmonisation between both chambers could yet become another obstacle in a process already flirting dangerously with time.
Ultimately, February 2026 will not wait for executive sessions, recommittals or parliamentary soul-searching.
If lawmakers fail to meet the deadline, Nigeria will head into another election under an Act everyone agrees needs fixing, followed, inevitably, by another round of post-election regrets.
For the National Assembly, the question is no longer whether electoral reform is desirable.
It is whether this time, it can outrun a deadline of its own making.
