The Die is Cast – But so is our will

Olu Allen

So the lawmakers have spoken, and not in whispers. Loud and clear: electronic transmission of results? No.

In 2026.
While the world sprints toward AI governance, blockchain audits, and digital transparency.
Interesting.

Let’s call this what it feels like to many Nigerians: a dare to the electorate. A quiet message wrapped in legislative grammar that reads less like policy and more like a paternalistic pat on the head: “We know what’s best. Stay in your lane.”

But history has a stubborn way of embarrassing those who underestimate citizens.

If truly the country is doing well as we are told daily, why fear transparency?
If elections will be free and fair, why fear real-time electronic transmission?

If confidence in victory exists, why prefer collation centres whose names have become synonyms for mystery in our political folklore?

We are not naïve. Nigerians understand coincidence, and we recognize choreography. When a system rejects tools that reduce human interference, questions will rise like harmattan dust. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

In a century defined by data integrity and digital accountability, choosing opacity over transparency is like refusing calculators during WAEC and insisting on counting with bottle caps. E be like movie, but na real life.

Now before anyone says:
“Electronic transmission isn’t perfect.”
Correct. No system designed by humans is perfect. But imperfect transparency still beats perfected opacity.

“Technology can fail.”
Yes. So can humans. In fact, Nigerian electoral history shows that human failure, the mysterious “glitches,” the vanished ballot boxes has been far more catastrophic than any technological glitch.

“Infrastructure isn’t ready.”
Yet banks move billions electronically daily. Telecom companies process millions of calls per minute. Nigerians file taxes, transfer money, run businesses and even court cases digitally. Suddenly, only election results must travel by convoy?

Let’s be serious.

This is not about party. This is not about tribe. This is about the architecture of trust between leaders and the led.

Let us also speak truth without sentiment: many who seek office today do not truly wish to represent the people, they wish to manage them. Representation requires humility; management requires control. One builds nations, the other builds empires of convenience.

A nation where citizens doubt the counting of their votes is a nation sitting on a quiet keg of disillusionment.

And when people lose faith in ballots, history shows they begin to search for other languages of expression. No patriot should desire that path.

This outcome, therefore, is not an end. It is a detour. And on a detour, the map must be redrawn by the people.
So what can citizens do, beyond outrage and WhatsApp broadcasts?

1. Organize, not just agonize.
   Community-level voter education must start now. Not in 2027. Now. Every ward, every street. Understand the process. Document everything.
2. Demand accountability from representatives.
   Town halls. Letters. Media pressure. Ask them to publicly justify their stance. Democracy does not end after elections; it begins there.
3. Support civic-tech and election observers.
   If institutions resist transparency, citizens must build parallel visibility — legal, peaceful, organized. Data, documentation, evidence.
4. Register, vote, and protect the vote legally.
   Cynicism is the chief ally of bad governance. When good people disengage, the field is left to the professionals of manipulation.
5. Think long-term governance, not stomach infrastructure.
   Rice today cannot replace a stolen future. We must graduate from seasonal empowerment to structural accountability.

Yet Nigeria remains bigger than any assembly, any administration, any political calculation.
History is watching.

Not the loud history of headlines, but the quiet history that asks: When the moment demanded courage from citizens, what did they do?

We stand at one of those moments.
This is not a call for chaos.
It is a call for consciousness.
For lawful resistance.
For intelligent participation.
For patriotism that refuses to sleep.

Because whether they admit it or not, power in a democracy does not reside in chambers of assembly. It resides, slowly, patiently, but inevitably in the awakened will of the people.

And Nigerians, when awake, are never powerless.

Olu Allen writes from Kano on public affairs and promote good governance. He can be reached via oluallen1904@gmail.com