Catholic Bishops’ Conference Of Nigeria Calls on National Assembly to Mandate Real-Time Result Transmission

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria has urged the National Assembly to promptly reconsider its stance on electoral reforms, with a specific focus on making the real-time transmission of election results compulsory.

The Archbishop of Owerri and outgoing CBCN President, Lucius Ugorji, made the call on Sunday at the opening of the 2026 first plenary meeting of the conference at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria in Abuja.

Speaking on the theme, “The Common Good and Leadership in Nigeria,” Ugorji expressed concern over what he described as a steady decline in voter turnout in the country.

He noted that participation had dropped from 69 percent in 2003 to 23 percent in 2023.

“This decline says a lot about citizens’ trust in the electoral process and calls into question the legitimacy of elected officials in a democratic dispensation with the mandate of an ever-decreasing minority,” he said.

According to him, reversing the downward trend requires deliberate legislative action.

He urged federal lawmakers to ensure that the Electoral Act provides for the mandatory transmission of results from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System directly to the INEC Result Viewing Portal.

The cleric said such a provision was necessary to “prevent any human tampering with the expressed will of the electorate”.

Ugorji also drew a comparison between electoral reforms and digital innovations in other sectors.

He observed that while the legislature passed the 2025 Tax Act mandating digital filing and record-keeping, it appeared to have “watered down” the people’s demand for digital transparency in elections.

“The honourable members of the NASS should not allow themselves to be perceived as talking out of both sides of the mouth. The world is watching! Above all, God is also watching,” he warned.

The CBCN president further decried rising insecurity across the country, referencing what he described as “senseless massacres” in parts of Kwara State.

He also lamented the impact of illegal mining, which he said costs Nigeria about $9bn annually in economic losses.

In his remarks, Chairman of the occasion and former Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, Mike Omeri, urged leaders to embrace “servant leadership” as a way of narrowing the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

The bishops’ intervention comes amid ongoing debates over electoral reforms and public confidence in Nigeria’s democratic process.