The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has urged the National Assembly to reconsider its position on electoral reforms, particularly the proposal for mandatory real-time transmission of election results.
The appeal was made on Sunday by Lucius Ugorji, Archbishop of Owerri and outgoing CBCN president, during the opening session of the 2026 first plenary meeting held at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria in Abuja.
Addressing the theme, “The Common Good and Leadership in Nigeria,” Ugorji lamented what he described as a steady drop in voter participation, noting that turnout has fallen from 69 percent in 2003 to an all-time low of 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,” NAN quoted Ugorji as saying.
He said to end this “downward trend”, federal lawmakers must ensure the Electoral Act provides for the mandatory transmission of results from the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) at polling units directly to the INEC result viewing (IReV) portal.
The cleric said such a move was essential to “prevent any human tampering with the expressed will of the electorate”.
He said while the legislature passed the 2025 Tax Act, which mandated digital filing and record-keeping, it appeared to “water down” the people’s will regarding 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 also highlighted the “senseless massacres” and rising insecurity across the country, citing the killings in Kwara state.
He also lamented the economic sabotage caused by illegal mining, which reportedly costs Nigeria approximately nine billion dollars annually.
In his remarks, Mike Omeri, the chairman of the occasion and former director-general of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), challenged leaders to embrace “servant leadership” to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.