Nigeria, Feb. 9 -- A democracy rarely collapses in a single dramatic moment. More often, it is slowly redesigned - clause by clause - until citizens wake up one day to discover that elections still happen, but accountability no longer does. Nigeria's democracy is not being overthrown; it is being edited, not with tanks on the streets, but with clauses in a bill. And sometimes the most dangerous edits are the ones presented as "technical clarifications," because they preserve the very loopholes that have repeatedly poisoned public trust.

On Wednesday, 4 February, after concluding deliberations on proposed changes to the Electoral Act 2022, the Nigerian Senate passed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill. But the most consequential choice was n...