Senate President Godswill Akpabio haas stated that elections in Nigeria have “improved tremendously” since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) left power.
Recall that from 2007 to 2015, the senate president was the governor of Akwa Ibom. In 2015, he was elected as a senator on the PDP platform to represent Akwa Ibom north-west.
As a bill to repeal the Electoral Act 2022 and establish a new Electoral Bill 2025 passed second reading in the Senate on Wednesday, Akpabio spoke during the plenary.
He noted that during the PDP-led administration, elections were marked by anomalies and manipulation.
“You will agree with me that since PDP left, the elections have improved tremendously in this country,” Akpabio said.
“I’ve been close to most of the presidents since 1999. And I recall in 2007, when I won as a governor, our then president, may he still rest in peace, President Yar’Adua, had to come out publicly to say that the election that brought him as president was totally flawed. He said it was full of inconsistencies and rigging.”
The senate president said subsequent administrations have since “blocked the holes” that made electoral fraud possible in the past.
He added that there was no need for the debate over how “two-thirds of the states and the FCT” should be interpreted in the 2023 presidential election.
“So now, imagine this last election. We had to go up to supreme court, arguing as to whether winning the federal capital territory was the only reason why you should become president,” he said.
“Instead of FCT being counted as a state for the purpose of calculation, the two-thirds, people were saying, no, win FCT and then you have won the presidency.
So, you can lose in 36 states of the federation, but once you win FCT, you have become president. And they wasted time. They had panels upon panels in different television studios. And at the end of the day, we got to the supreme court and back.”
According to Akpabio, the new law attempts to “block the loopholes” and fortify Nigeria’s election system against manipulation.
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