Atiku Urges Youths to Champion Electoral Reform, Decries Manual Result Collation
By Matthew Eloyi
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has challenged Nigerian youths to confront the country’s flawed electoral system, particularly the continued reliance on manual collation of election results.
Speaking on Friday at the inauguration and national conference of the Nigerian Youths for Atiku (NYFA) in Abuja, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called for pressure on the National Assembly to amend the Electoral Act to allow full electronic collation of results.
According to Atiku, entrenched political interests in the current National Assembly may resist such reform.
“It is doubtful if the current National Assembly will facilitate a new Electoral Act that allows for electronic collation of election results to be successful,” he said.
Atiku accused some political leaders of deliberately resisting improvements to the electoral process in order to exploit its loopholes.
“Political leaders always do not want to improve the electoral process because they want to explore the loopholes in the process for their own advantage,” he noted. “That will only continue if the youth allow it.”
To illustrate his point, Atiku referenced Turkey’s recent presidential election, where results were electronically collated in real time.
“I remember the last Turkish presidential elections. I was sitting and watching the results coming electronically,” he said. “By the Turkish constitution, you must score 50 per cent to be elected as a president. The current president scored 49.5 per cent. There was no manual collation but they said he didn’t score 50 per cent.”
He continued: “We all know that in our arithmetic or mathematics we say if you get 49.5 you round it up to 50, not so? That was what we were taught in school. They didn’t round it up to 50. Instead they ordered another round of election. The guy who came third with about 4 per cent now endorsed the first candidate, and when the results were counted it came out exactly 49.5 plus 4 per cent and Erdogan was declared winner.”
He noted that the entire collation was done electronically, with no interference from electoral officers.
“There was absolutely nothing like manual collation. So, we really have a long way to go,” he said. “There are challenges but you must dedicate yourselves to confronting those challenges. If you don’t dedicate yourself to confronting those challenges, you have no future.”
Atiku also recounted his days as a student activist, emphasizing his long-standing commitment to democracy.
“At my time, what we wanted to see was a return to democracy. We fought the military. I was nearly killed. I went on exile. There is nothing they did not do to me,” he said. “We have seen a return to democracy. But has democracy provided us what we were expecting it to provide us? No. That now becomes your own responsibility. Ours is to guide you and give you the necessary leadership.”
He praised NYFA for its efforts, stating, “This organisation is dedicated to the development of our youth, who are the future leaders of our country. Don’t just see yourselves as youths but see yourselves as the leaders of this country in the future.”
In her remarks, NYFA President Prof. Gold Emmanuel described the movement, which was founded after the 2023 general elections, as a platform to shape the future of young Nigerians.
“We gather at a time when our nation is at the crossroads, facing numerous challenges that require the energy, creativity and idealism of our generation,” she said.
Guest Speaker and former Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Prof. Kolapo Eleka, urged youths to advocate for reforms ahead of the next general elections.
“We must push for direct transmission of results at polling units to curb prevalent dubious conditions at higher levels,” Eleka stated.
NYFA’s Director of Communications, Mr. Dare Dada, described Atiku as a “lover of youth worthy of emulation,” and said the movement aims to galvanise young Nigerians for active political participation ahead of 2027.
The event climaxed with the inauguration of NYFA’s national executives and state coordinators.
