The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has expressed concern over increased voter apathy among Nigerians. In 2023, only 24.9 million persons voted in the presidential and National Assembly elections, out of 93.47 million registered voters (87.2 million actually collected permanent voter cards), according to INEC.

That represented 26.72 per cent voter turnout, the lowest since 1999, when the Fourth Republic was launched with great enthusiasm. In 2019, the turnout was 34.74 per cent. In 1999, it was 52.26 per cent. And INEC claims it is alarmed by the trend.

At its leadership workshop in the New Year, the chairman of INEC, Prof Joash Amupitan, stated what he thinks to be the expectations of Nigerians. He said the people expect to see an electoral management body that is independent in thought and action. He confessed that INEC ought to be transparent in its processes and professional in conduct, and credible in outcomes. He admitted the waning interest in elections and promised to rebuild the lost public confidence.

It lies within the capacity of INEC to boost voter confidence if it desires to. INEC has the legal and material resources to simplify elections and make them more interesting. But each election comes with frustrations and imposed complexities that turn the people off. Inspiring confidence begins with INEC demonstrating that it is indeed an independent institution, instead of being perceived as the electoral wing of any party in government.

The people are not just bored by routinely mismanaged elections, they’re tired and disappointed that the democratic process often advertised as the best form of government has left them behind in misery. Let INEC think beyond just wooing people out to vote. It must ensure that its processes are free, fair, credible, transparent and inclusive.

Good speeches and best wishes alone do not build public confidence. It is in doing the little things according to law that public confidence is built. Nigeria’s Electoral Act, 2022, is perhaps, the most bulky and comprehensive document across electoral jurisdictions. But the Act is selectively applied and often disregarded. When INEC surrenders its independence to parties, that act diminishes the weight of the electoral system.

Take the 2022/23 parties’ primaries for instance: INEC set a deadline of June 3, 2022, for parties to conclude primaries. While a few parties complied, INEC bowed to pressure and extended the deadline till June 9, 2022. The sole beneficiary of that manipulation was the All Progressives Congress (APC), which clearly was not ready. From that point, perceptive voters and observers became suspicious of INEC, under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
That nonsense must not happen in 2026.

An electoral umpire that is perceived to be weak and susceptible to manipulation and cheap pressure cannot inspire voter confidence. So, Prof. Amupitan should go back and study INEC’s past blunders, and be weary of activities of smaller parties that have no ambition to win elections. They are used by influential parties, particularly ruling parties, to mount pressure on INEC to compromise its timetable.

Before the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2027 General Elections is drawn, let INEC weigh all options carefully, giving parties constitutionally allowed space and time to operate. But once announced, any party that is unable to work within the timetable is not fit to work for Nigerians.

Another area for INEC to diligently work on, so that voter confidence is boosted, is in painstaking scrutiny of candidates and the credentials they submit. In the past, INEC was lazy to assume that because a candidate smartly maneuvered his way in previous elections, therefore, whatever he parades in 2026 as his credentials do not need further investigation.

We are urging the Law Professor to do things differently. INEC has the resources and time to investigate the certainty of the certificates presented by candidates, including location of schools they attended with dates of graduation. That will inspire public confidence in the next election, if voters are assured there will be no room for forgeries.

In the 2023 elections, some forgery cases were not conclusively resolved, either due to judiciary compromises or collusion by INEC. Some governors had issues with the NYSC certificates they presented, but they managed to scale through in suspicious circumstances. INEC must be suspicious of everything and everybody.

There was the case of a former minister of innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, who was pressured to resign because the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), disowned the degree he presented for screening at the Senate. He did not conclude the programme, it was alleged. But the same Uche Nnaji had been cleared by INEC to run for the Senate under the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1999.

In 2023, he was again cleared by INEC to run for the office of governor in Enugu State under APC. He lost and was compensated with a ministerial job by President Tinubu, in August 2023. It took a painstaking scrutiny by the media to smoke out the man. Responsibility is on INEC to be as thorough.

One other area the INEC leadership can demonstrate some bite is in dealing with early campaigners. This reckless disregard for the Electoral Act rubbishes the umpire and renders the law useless. Section 94 of the Act prohibits early campaigns. But INEC has refused to apply the law.

At the time Prof. Amupitan was appointed to chair INEC, campaign posters of Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda, littered Lagos and Abuja airport highways. Then suddenly, the posters disappeared, which one (mis)interpreted as the Professor’s body language at work. But real campaigns actually shifted to states, where governors have surplus cash to waste on billboards.

Let INEC’s legal department make scapegoats of those who have ridiculed the Electoral Act. Laws are meant to be obeyed, not for decoration. The former excuse that the law did not appropriately capture the offence is untenable.

Prosecuting and punishing electoral offences is key to restoring public confidence in elections. Those who are hired by politicians to disrupt polls and cause trouble largely do not get punished after the elections are concluded. There are always arrests but actual arraignment does not take place for months and years and is often abandoned.

After the 2023 general elections, INEC reported receiving 215 case files from the police across the country. These included 52 files involving 238 alleged offenders during the Presidential and National Assembly elections and 163 files in respect of 536 suspects for the Governorship and State Assembly elections. While the beneficiaries of electoral crimes are given certificates of return by INEC, the criminality is left unattended.

Some have advocated faster means of dealing with electoral offences, including having special courts. The Law Professor should know better how to assure victims of past electoral crimes, that the next election would be free of violence, and that in case there are offences, justice would be served and seen to be served.

In Tudun Wada/Doguwa Constituency, Kano, February 26, 2023, was a day voters will not forget in a hurry. During the collation of the previous day’s Presidential and National Assembly election result, thugs and arsonists unleashed violence in the area and lives were lost. Amnesty International (AI) reported attacks on journalists, voters and electoral officials in Lagos, Rivers, Edo and Delta.

Many of the offenders are yet to be prosecuted. The stakes would be much higher come 2027. Therefore, INEC should go beyond sound bites to provide assurances that, in collaboration with other stakeholders, they can guarantee safety for voters. That is the way to inspire confidence.

In Lagos, whereas the Electoral Act at Section 92(1) (5) prohibits the use of masquerades for election or political purposes, the state authorities deployed traditional methods to gain upper hand in the voting exercise in 2023. The idea was to intimidate and scare away voters, a ploy that worked well in the Governorship and State Assembly elections. The outcome of the Presidential election was too dramatic.

The political authorities in the state had to device illegal methods, including incitement and use of ethnic and tribal slogans to whip up sectional sentiments. The Electoral Act frowns at these ancient methods, but INEC and the judiciary did not think these were grievous enough to alter the outcomes of the election. There should be assurances that 2027 will not be like 2023, so that voters will come out.

The INEC should learn to take responsibility for its failures. In Rivers State, the 2023 elections were a sham. Both local and international observers pointed at blatant alterations and mutilated INEC’s result sheets (Form EC8A). The data was obviously compromised: total number of votes exceeded the number of accredited voters. There were missing documents and glaring mutilations in Oyigbo Local Government. Unofficial results collation centres were created.

After elections, petitioners face INEC’s hurdle when it’s time to take delivery of election materials to depose to at the tribunals. Usually, INEC acts against interests of petitioners because doing otherwise will amount to owning up to the mess it allowed on the election day. That attitude must change. INEC must take responsibility.

Managing the party system is the responsibility of INEC. The umpire must ensure that parties are healthy enough to compete freely in elections as provided in the Constitution. The Constitution did not recommend a one-party state for the country. But when governors and legislators elected by voters on the platform of one party abandoned that party for another, without recourse to voters, that infringement is not an incentive for voters to continue voting.

If care is not taken, that is going to be a trigger of voter apathy in 2027. It is electoral robbery of the most despicable form. But INEC has looked helpless, even when it has constitutional backing to send home lawmakers who abandoned their parties without lawful reason.

Let INEC come up with reform proposals that will promote discipline in the party system. Any governor or lawmaker who desires to defect is free to go home. The ticket that gave them visibility belongs to the party. It must be surrendered to the owners. That will inspire confidence in democracy!