Electoral Reform Premature Amid Low Rural Connectivity — ADSC Boss, Oluwafemi ~ Truth Reporters

...insists Nigeria is not yet structurally ready for real time result transmission 

President and Chief Executive Africa Development Studies Centre (ADSC) and Member, Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, Sir Victor Oluwafemi has said Electoral Reforms must follow readiness, not rhetoric as connectivity is still very low in rural areas of Nigeria.

The ADSC president made this assertion in a statement on Monday declaring that:

"The Office of the President and Chief Executive of the Africa Development Studies Centre (ADSC) issues this statement as an expert governance and public policy advisory on the ongoing national discourse surrounding electronic voting and real time transmission of election results in Nigeria.

"This intervention is not political. It is institutional, evidence based, and grounded in systems thinking drawn from comparative governance practice and digital transformation experience.

He insisted that Nigeria is not yet structurally ready for real time result transmission as Nigeria’s democratic aspiration must be matched by infrastructural reality.

"At present, the push for real time electronic transmission of election results risks prioritising speed over integrity, and visibility over verifiability. 

"Nigeria still conducts elections through manual voting, manual counting, and physical documentation at polling units.

 "Every valid result begins with paper processes, human procedures, and environmental dependencies that technology alone cannot correct.

"Without stable electricity, universal telecom coverage, cyber resilient systems, uniform training, and legal clarity, real time transmission remains aspirational rather than operational.

Oluwafemi explained that: "Attempting to enforce it nationwide under current conditions risks three serious outcomes:

• Disenfranchisement, particularly in rural and low connectivity communities

• Expanded cyber vulnerability, where perception of compromise alone can delegitimise outcomes

• Increased post election litigation, due to conflicting evidentiary standards

"Even advanced democracies do not prioritise instant transmission over auditability. They retain paper as the legal anchor while using technology to support verification, reconciliation, and transparency.

"The Issue Is Not Technology. It Is Sequencing.

"Electoral reform must be engineered as national infrastructure, not introduced as an election season feature.

"From a governance systems perspective, Nigeria requires a phased and platform based approach to electoral modernisation. 

"This is where Policy as a Platform (PaaP) and Results as a Service (RaaS) provide practical, non partisan pathways forward.

What Policy as a Platform (PaaP) Offers INEC

"PaaP reframes electoral reform as a continuous, standards driven governance system.

Applied to the electoral process, PaaP would:

• Establish minimum national readiness thresholds for power, connectivity, cybersecurity, and device integrity

• Enable gradual, geographically sequenced deployment rather than a risky nationwide switch

• Align law, operations, technology, and dispute resolution into one coherent electoral platform

• Institutionalise transparency and auditability as design features, not post election explanations

"Under PaaP, elections are treated as engineered systems, not improvised events.

What Results as a Service (RaaS) Delivers

"RaaS shifts national focus away from how quickly results appear, towards how credibly they are produced.

For electoral administration, RaaS would:

• Treat each polling unit result as a verified service output with defined checks and validation stages

• Prioritise reconciliation, traceability, and audit trails before public visibility

• Reduce disputes by strengthening confidence in process rather than accelerating announcements

• Measure success by acceptance and legitimacy, not by transmission speed

In democratic governance, trust is built on proof, not on immediacy.

ADSC Advisory Position

"Nigeria does not need to abandon electoral technology. It needs to respect the order of reform.

"Infrastructure must come before automation. Verification must come before visibility. Trust must come before speed.

"Until foundational gaps in power, connectivity, cybersecurity, operational discipline, and legal coherence are addressed, real time electronic transmission of results should remain a medium term objective, not an immediate mandate.

"Electoral reform must be deliberate, inclusive, and system ready.

"That is how democracies endure, he added.