A founding member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Osita Okechukwu, has cautioned the opposition against undermining and demonizing Nigeria’s democracy with “scaremongering.”
Okechukwu appealed to the opposition to desist from utterances capable of further discouraging voter participation and undermining democratic institutions.
Addressing journalists in Enugu over the weekend, Okechukwu said democracy becomes the ultimate casualty when political actors deploy negative and scaremongering narratives that dampen citizens’ confidence in the electoral process.
According to him, rather than resorting to blame games and alarmist rhetoric, opposition leaders should emulate the strategic political organisation demonstrated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who, he noted invested time and resources in nationwide mobilisation of supporters and demonstrated party loyalty by stepping aside for the late former “President Muhammadu Buhari of blessed memory from day one in the spirit of internal democracy and obedience to zoning convention.”
While acknowledging that the proposed Electoral Act 2026 may have its shortcomings, Okechukwu argued that it will be illiberal to “throw our baby democracy away with the bathwater.”
“Whereas the Electoral Act 2026 has its downside, the truism is that it is significantly closer to achieving real-time transmission of election results than the repealed Electoral Act 2022,” he said.
“As a Roadside Lawyer may one specify the core difference in plain terms inter alia: ‘Electoral Act 2022: The law says the presiding officer must “transfer results in a manner as prescribed by INEC,” but does not legally require electronic transmission itself.
“Electoral Act 2026: The law mandates electronic transmission of polling unit results to the IReV portal after Form EC8A is signed.
It then adds a fallback that if transmission fails due to communication issues, the hand-signed Form EC8A becomes the primary legal source of results.”
Okechukwu emphasised that democracy is evolutionary, not revolutionary and prodded opposition leaders to learn from the APC how to organise and mobilise the electorate and most importantly adhere to the rotation convention, “instead of demonising democracy.
“Democracy takes more than legislation; it requires patriotism, patience, commitment, integrity, and incremental institutional strengthening,” he submitted.
Responding to concerns that the APC is plotting a one-party state, Okechukwu dismissed the allegation and located the blame game squarely on the doorstep of anti-democrats within the then PDP leadership, who he said arrogantly breached the rotation and zoning convention in the 2022 presidential primary.
Electoral Act: Don’t demonize, undermine Nigeria’s democracy – Okechukwu warns opposition