About 19 months to the next general elections, Nigerians say there is little faith in the country’s electoral process.
On August 16, 2025, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, conducted bye-elections into state and national assembly constituencies in 12 states across the country.
However, it was a grim reminder that the road to electoral integrity and credibility is still a tall order as the exercise was marred by violence, apathy and the malfunctioning of BVAS in many of the place.
To demonstrate how violent the exercise was over 332 electoral offenders were arrested with Kano state alone accounting for 288 suspected thugs in just two constituencies.
Besides the worrisome development, all the parties which participated in the election have cried foul over the character of the INEC.
While it is unfortunate that politicians will always seek to discredit the system when they fail to secure victory in their areas, the electoral commission has not equally fared in glowing colours when it is taken into cognisance that the upload of the results into the IReV was not achieved 100 per cent in at least six states 72 hours after the conclusion of the bye-election election observers noted.
The observers noted that this is contrary to what happened in the Ondo governorship election, which took place in November 2024 and which results’ upload on the IRev was achieved 100 per cent the same day.
“In contrast to the recent Ondo 2024 governorship election where INEC successfully achieved a 97% upload of polling unit results on IReV by 9:30 PM on Election Day, thus ensuring timely and reliable public access to the result of the election, the Saturday, August 16 bye-election did not meet this standard”, some observers under the auspices of Kimpact Development Initiative, KDI, said in their report.
If the INEC just could not deliver elections in 16 state and federal constituencies in 12 states in 2025, the doubts as to the integrity of the crucial 2027 polls are germane.
With calls across various segments for electoral reforms, it beggars belief that the Bola Tinubu Presidency has been lethargic as to the urgency of reforms to strengthen the electoral process.
Various bodies including the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Policy and Legislative Advocacy Centre, PLAC, YIAGA Africa and others have demanded and canvassed their positions on the need to address this concern.
For one, the appointment of the INEC chairman and commissioners remain a sore point. It is a regret that successive administrations including the incumbent have abuse the appointment process. Therefore, a more robust legislation is required to stem the appointment abuse and ensure only individuals worth their values in gold make it to the commission.
It is worth noting that the NBA has presented its position to the National Assembly and has pointed to the urgency to aamend the Electoral Act 2022 to guarantee free, fair, and credible elections in 2027.
Topmost for the Association is the full legal backing to the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, and electronic transmission of results via the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV, among other critical recommendations.
Though these instruments are contained in the INEC electoral guidelines, the courts have rubbished their importance, hence, the overwhelming clamour for an Act of Parliament to have them fully adopted into the nation’s laws.
This newspaper also backs the use of BVAS data as the sole and binding record of voter accreditation in any election while not unmindful of connectivity issues.
Furthermore, we agree with the NBA for the explicit legal recognition of electronic transmission of results to IReV, as failure to do so continues to expose elections to post-poll manipulation and loss of public trust.
President Tinubu as an avowed democrat owes this country a near-full proof electoral system and that starts with the non-reappointment of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, and the immediate commencement of supporting the National Assembly to achieve this onerous but desirable elecyoral reforms.
