The Senate on Wednesday abandoned its planned electronic voting system for the consideration of the State Police Bill and other key constitutional amendment proposals, adopting a manual roll-call process that requires lawmakers to publicly declare their votes.
The last-minute decision followed concerns that technical glitches affecting some electronic voting devices could prevent senators from participating in one of the most significant constitutional exercises of the 10th National Assembly.
Moving the motion during plenary, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele said the chamber should embrace manual voting to guarantee equal participation and avoid disenfranchising any lawmaker.
“Rather than go by way of electronic voting, which obviously now will disenfranchise a few or some of our colleagues whose machines are not working, I am moving that we give every distinguished Senator the opportunity to answer his or her father’s name by doing manual voting,” he said.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio threw his weight behind the proposal, arguing that an open voting system would promote accountability and enable constituents to know how their representatives vote on critical national issues.
“For the purpose of transparency, and the need for the constituents to know where you stand on every issue, it is good for us to go into manual voting,” Akpabio said.
Following the adoption of the motion, the Senate suspended the relevant provisions of its Standing Rules through a voice vote, clearing the way for senators to be called individually to stand and openly declare their positions during the clause-by-clause consideration of the constitutional amendment bills.
The shift came shortly after the upper chamber conducted trial runs of its electronic voting system, which had been scheduled for its first deployment in deciding constitutional amendments during the 10th Senate.
Deliberations continued with Bamidele leading debate on the State Police Bill, an executive-backed proposal sponsored in his name on behalf of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The legislation, regarded as the flagship proposal in the ongoing constitutional review, seeks to restructure Nigeria’s security framework by allowing states to establish and operate their own police services alongside the Nigeria Police Force.
Lawmakers are also expected to vote on several other far-reaching constitutional amendment bills as the Red Chamber continues deliberations.
The proceedings are being closely monitored across the country, with many political observers and stakeholders describing the exercise as a landmark moment that could reshape Nigeria’s governance and security architecture.
