The Africa Development Studies Centre (ADSC) has cautioned against the immediate adoption of real-time electronic transmission of election results, warning that Nigeria lacks the structural and infrastructural readiness required to support such a system nationwide.

President of ADSC, Victor Oluwafemi, in a statement on Tuesday, said electoral reforms must be guided by institutional readiness rather than political rhetoric, stressing that connectivity gaps in rural communities remain a major obstacle.

According to him, Nigeria’s democratic aspiration must be matched by infrastructural reality, adding that the current conditions make real-time results transmission more aspirational than operational.

“The Office of the President and Chief Executive of the Africa Development Studies Centre (ADSC) issues this statement as an expert governance and public policy advisory on the ongoing national discourse surrounding electronic voting and real-time transmission of election results in Nigeria.

This intervention is not political. It is institutional, evidence-based, and grounded in systems thinking drawn from comparative governance practice and digital transformation experience,” he said.

Oluwafemi argued that the current push for instant transmission risks sacrificing credibility for speed.

He said: “At present, the push for real time electronic transmission of election results risks prioritising speed over integrity, and visibility over verifiability. Nigeria still conducts elections through manual voting, manual counting, and physical documentation at polling units.

“Every valid result begins with paper processes, human procedures, and environmental dependencies that technology alone cannot correct.

“Without stable electricity, universal telecom coverage, cyber resilient systems, uniform training, and legal clarity, real time transmission remains aspirational rather than operational.

The ADSC president warned that enforcing such a system nationwide under current realities could lead to disenfranchisement, particularly in rural and low-connectivity communities, expanded cyber vulnerability, and increased post-election litigation due to conflicting evidentiary standards.

Drawing comparisons with advanced democracies, Oluwafemi said many still retain paper-based processes as the legal anchor of elections while technology is used mainly for verification and reconciliation.

“The issue is not technology. It is sequencing. Electoral reform must be engineered as national infrastructure, not introduced as an election season feature,” he said.

He proposed a phased and platform-based approach to electoral modernisation through two governance models — Policy as a Platform (PaaP) and Results as a Service (RaaS).

Explaining the concepts, he said PaaP would enable INEC to establish minimum national readiness thresholds for power, connectivity, cybersecurity, and device integrity, while allowing gradual, geographically sequenced deployment rather than a nationwide rollout.

“Under PaaP, elections are treated as engineered systems, not improvised events”

On Results as a Service (RaaS), Oluwafemi said the model shifts attention from the speed of announcing results to the credibility of how they are produced.

He maintained that Nigeria does not need to abandon electoral technology but must respect the order of reform.

The policy expert added, “RaaS shifts national focus away from how quickly results appear, towards how credibly they are produced. In democratic governance, trust is built on proof, not on immediacy.

“Infrastructure must come before automation. Verification must come before visibility. Trust must come before speed.

“Until foundational gaps in power, connectivity, cybersecurity, operational discipline, and legal coherence are addressed, real-time electronic transmission of results should remain a medium-term objective, not an immediate mandate,” he stated.