In the wake of protests on the removal of the provision mandating the electronic transmission of results from Nigeria’s amended 2022 Electoral Act, Yiaga Africa, a leading election monitoring organisation, has educated Nigerians on the real meaning of real-time transmission of election results.
Speaking on Monday 9, February 2026 at a joint press conference organised by the Kukah Centre and Yiaga Africa,the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, disclosed that “The presiding officer electronically transmits that result to a central portal at the end of proceedings at the polling unit, where transmission is happening at the polling unit in the presence of everyone.”
Screenshot of the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, speaking at the joint press conference.
The director of the leading civil society organisation in Africa also detailed that “if transmission is happening at the collation level, it means after results have been collated and entered in the Form EC8B and Form EC8C, there is no need to delay the upload or the transmission; you transmit it immediately. That is what real time means.”
Itodo, 39, used the occasion to call for voter education, saying, “Nigerians should know that real-time does not mean that as you are voting, your result/vote is being transmitted or collated somewhere. No, that is not real-time. Real time is not electronic collation.
“So please let’s help inform Nigerians so they don’t get manipulated by some of those who have misappropriated this whole concept of real-time. “
Launched as a student organisation in 2007 at the University of Jos, North-central Nigeria, Yiaga Africa has since carved a niche for itself as one of the most famous elections monitoring Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) across Africa.
As a civic hub of changemakers, the NGO is committed to promoting democratic governance, human rights and civic engagement.
CSOs at the joint press conference. Credit: Yiaga Africa.
The CSOs gave the National Assembly an ultimatum of two weeks to conclude work on the Electoral Act amendment and retain mandatory real-time electronic transmission of results.
Meanwhile, after widespread protests, the Senate has reversed its decision, approved real-time uploads to INEC’s IREV, while making room for manual backup in areas where there is poor network coverage.
