Sixteen days after the August 15, 2026 Osun State Governorship Election, Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria is releasing findings from its citizen observation of the election and calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to act on them ahead of 2027.

EiE is taking its findings directly to the Commission through an advocacy memo examining what Nigeria’s recent off-cycle elections reveal about the implementation of INEC’s existing electoral systems. The memo draws on four complementary sources of evidence from EiE’s work across the 2026 electoral cycle: the RSVP voter education and mobilisation campaign; stakeholder engagements; and off-cycle Governorship Election observations (Ekiti and Osun States).

The memo does not seek to re-litigate the outcome of the Osun election or duplicate the post-election assessments already published by other civil society organisations. Instead, it asks a more specific question:
Where citizens encountered problems during the election, did INEC’s existing systems work as intended, and, where they did not, what will the Commission do differently before 2027?

This question is central to EiE’s work throughout the 2026-2027 electoral cycle, which has focused on strengthening the electoral process and citizens’ electoral participation.

Through the RSVP – Register | Select | Vote | Protect campaign, EiE worked to reduce practical barriers to voter participation during the registration phase. Across 19 citizen activations in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States, the campaign reached more than 700,000 young Nigerians and supported approximately 4,300 completed voter registrations, alongside continued support through our Call Centre and community WhatsApp networks.

EiE also observed the Ekiti State Governorship Election earlier in the year and continued to engage relevant stakeholders on issues affecting citizens’ participation in the electoral process.

These experiences reinforced a simple lesson: helping citizens register is only the beginning. Citizens must still be able to locate their polling unit, arrive at a functioning polling unit, complete accreditation, vote freely and secretly, receive assistance where required, and be protected from intimidation.

The Osun election was an opportunity to observe what happens when citizens take that next step.
EiE deployed trained citizen observers across 12 Local Government Areas, supported by four accredited EiE staff participating through the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room. The observation generated 532 polling-unit-level reports covering election readiness, accreditation, voting, technology, security, ballot secrecy, accessibility and counting.

The majority of polling units monitored were peaceful and orderly. However, our observers also documented recurring challenges, including delayed arrival of election officials, materials and security personnel; BVAS and other technology failures; accessibility gaps; threats to ballot secrecy; voter intimidation; and alleged vote buying.
These findings are not statistically representative of every polling unit in Osun State and do not establish that any particular irregularity determined the outcome of the election. They provide, however, specific field-level evidence of where citizens encountered difficulties during an election in which INEC’s existing systems and safeguards were intended to operate.

What the Osun Experience Tells Us

INEC has established systems designed to support different parts of the electoral process. Its Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC) is intended to monitor electoral processes, identify risks and support early response. The Commission operates the INEC Citizens Contact Centre (ICCC) to receive enquiries, complaints and incident reports. It has also established procedures for election technology, accessibility, observer participation, and election security coordination.

Osun offers an opportunity to test these systems against what actually happened on the ground.
In parts of Osogbo, Ife Central and Olorunda, EiE observers reported polling units where election officials, materials or security personnel arrived after voting was scheduled to begin.

BVAS-related problems were reported in seven of the 12 Local Government Areas observed, including devices failing to start, interruptions during accreditation, slow processing and difficulty capturing the facial data of elderly voters.

In Olorunda and Ejigbo, observers documented accessibility challenges, including physically inaccessible polling locations and instances where EC40H forms were unavailable to voters requiring assistance.

Observers also documented incidents involving threats to ballot secrecy and voter intimidation. In Atakumosa West, voters were reportedly assaulted while police and NSCDC personnel were present. In contrast, observers documented an instance in Olorunda where security personnel responded promptly to a comparable threat.

EiE also recorded alleged vote buying in five of the 12 Local Government Areas observed. These reports should not be treated as established criminal findings without investigation, but they raise questions about how electoral-offence reports are documented, referred and followed up.

These incidents matter not simply because they happened, but because they offer an opportunity to examine what happened after each problem was identified – whether the relevant systems responded, where the response fell short, and what can change before 2027.

“If a BVAS failed, if a polling unit opened late, if a voter could not access a polling location or was intimidated while trying to vote, we need to know why it happened and what will be done differently before 2027,” said Akindeji Aromaye, Snr Media & Project Officer – Elections, EiE Nigeria. “These are not just election-day incidents; they are signals of where existing systems need to work better for citizens.”

From Observation to Action

EiE is asking INEC to treat the Osun election as an opportunity for an evidence-based review of how its existing electoral systems performed in practice.

The full findings and detailed recommendations are set out in EiE’s advocacy memo to the Commission. EiE is asking INEC to prioritise the following actions:

1. Review election-day readiness and response. Examine reports of delayed opening and deployment against EMSC and operational data to determine whether these risks were identified, what response was triggered and where the response chain broke down.

2. Turn technology failures into deployment lessons. Conduct a structured review of BVAS and related technology failures reported in Osun and feed recurring failure modes into future testing, training and deployment planning.
3. Make citizen complaints part of institutional learning. Review complaints and incident reports received through existing INEC channels during the election, identify recurring issues and, where appropriate, communicate the corrective measures arising from them.

4. Close the gap between accessibility commitments and voter experience. Review the implementation of INEC’s existing accessibility framework against what was documented at polling units and address identified gaps in logistics, polling-unit preparation and training before 2027.

5. Strengthen voter protection and security coordination. Use the intimidation, violence and ballot-secrecy incidents documented in Osun to inform election-day procedures, security coordination and training ahead of 2027.
6. Create a stronger feedback loop with accredited observers. Ensure that credible findings from accredited observer organisations can be considered alongside INEC’s own data in post-election reviews and future election preparation.

EiE Nigeria will, in the coming days, formally engage INEC with the detailed findings and recommendations contained in its advocacy memo.

The engagement will focus on the implementation gaps identified through EiE’s citizen observation and the specific actions required to address them before the 2027 General Elections.

EiE will also seek to understand how the Commission’s internal readiness, technology, citizen feedback, accessibility and security data align with the evidence generated by citizen observers, and how identified gaps can be addressed while there is still time to test and implement corrective measures.

“The work of strengthening democracy cannot stop when the votes have been counted, and a winner has been declared,” said Ufuoma Nnamdi-Udeh, Executive Director, EiE Nigeria. “INEC already has systems for election readiness, technology, citizen complaints, accessibility, observer engagement and election security. The opportunity now is to examine where those systems worked, where they did not, and what needs to change. We want the lessons from Ekiti and Osun to become improvements citizens can experience in 2027.”

EiE will continue to engage INEC, relevant institutions and civil society partners on the lessons from Osun and track the Commission’s response to the issues raised.

The Osun election has ended. The institutional learning should not be overlooked, as the credibility of the 2027 General Elections rests on it.

Enough is Enough Nigeria (www.eie.ng) is a network of individuals and organisations committed to instituting a culture of good governance and public accountability in Nigeria through active citizenship. EiE’s #RSVP – Register | Select | Vote | Protect is a key voter education campaign. EiE was an integral part of the #OccupyNigeria movement in 2012 and is very active in the #OpenNASS and #OfficeOftheCitizen campaigns.