By Nnaoke Ufere, PhD
The INEC was founded to stand as an independent body, immune to corruption and free from the grip of the president, the National Assembly, or any political party. Its core mission is to safeguard free and fair elections, strictly enforce constitutional electoral laws, protect the voting rights of every citizen, and uphold the integrity of our democracy.
But that’s not what the INEC has become.
It is clear that INEC, along with the judiciary, has become thoroughly corrupt and discredited, losing the confidence of most Nigerians. Worse still, it has devolved into a mere arm of the ruling APC and the presidency, serving as a tool for election manipulation and legitimizing fraudulent outcomes.
Instead of protecting the interests of the people, INEC now shields the minority elite, enabling them to rig elections and plunder the nation’s wealth with impunity, free from accountability.
This once-vital institution has become a commodity, auctioned off to the highest bidder, with no regard for integrity or its duty to the Nigerian people. Instead of upholding our democracy and safeguarding the constitution, INEC now stands at the heart of its dysfunction, actively eroding the very principles it was meant to defend.
The disastrous failures of the 2023 presidential election and the recent Edo governorship election are glaring warnings that our electoral process is deeply flawed and under siege. INEC’s incompetence, combined with the judiciary’s failure to hold it accountable, has paved the way for inept and, often, criminal political leaders to seize control of the federal and state governments and the National Assembly.
These compromised leaders, installed through fraudulent means, continue to plunge the country deeper into corruption, lawlessness, and economic ruin, while the true voice of the Nigerian people is silenced. If this trajectory is not reversed, the future of our democracy is at grave risk.
Experts agree that decades of INEC’s failure to protect the integrity of our elections lie at the core of our ongoing social and economic collapse. The institution’s persistent compromise by corrupt, unqualified politicians who steal elections has allowed this dysfunction to fester unchecked.
Without immediate and radical transformation, INEC will continue to drive us toward a future of unrelenting electoral lawlessness, where elections are reduced to mere marketplaces for corruption. Wealthy criminals will relentlessly buy their way into power, strip the nation of its resources, and turn both our democracy and economy into hollow mockeries of what they were meant to be.
Expecting sweeping reform under Tinubu’s administration is futile without a sustained fight. Both he and the APC rely on the broken system to maintain their grip on power. They benefit from INEC’s corruption, ensuring control through rigged elections and stifling genuine democracy. Any real reform would threaten their political dominance and expose their illegitimacy.
Now is the time to fix INEC before the 2027 Elections
To secure fair and free elections and safeguard the future of our democracy, we must act now—well ahead of the 2027 elections.
The failures of the 2023 presidential election and the recent Edo governorship election cannot be repeated in 2027. This is our opportunity to restore integrity to Nigeria’s electoral process and guarantee that the voice of the people is genuinely heard.
To accomplish this urgent and mission-critical goal, I have gathered the nation’s top legal minds and election experts to wage a relentless legal battle (a relentless lawfare) against INEC. Through aggressive, proactive legal challenges, we will target the flawed voting rules and practices that have compromised past elections.
The Proactive Injunctive Relief we seek will eliminate the rigging tactics that have tainted past elections and enforce essential reforms in voter registration, education, and security. It will also ensure adequate and accessible polling stations, transparent vote counting and result collation, reliable results transmission, and the proper certification of winners.
We will pursue the following essential preventive measures through legal action:
1. Comprehensive Testing of the BVAS System
INEC must be compelled to work with independent external experts to conduct thorough, large-scale testing of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) under real-world election conditions. This will ensure that the system can handle the national voter turnout and is fully protected against tampering or manipulation. Transparency is paramount—results of these tests must be publicly available to guarantee the system’s reliability and integrity. If the system fails and cannot be fixed in time for the 2027 elections, it should be scrapped and abandoned.
2. Ensuring Election Process Integrity
INEC must be legally obligated to publish a comprehensive, publicly accessible electoral logistics plan well in advance of the 2027 elections. This plan should outline the management of polling stations, voting materials, and election-day operations, ensuring transparency and preparedness.
3. Enhanced Voter Security Measures
To combat election-day violence, voter intimidation, and ballot tampering, INEC must collaborate with law enforcement to deploy strong security at all polling stations. These measures must prevent interference by political actors or bias from government operatives. No unauthorized political party or government officials or individuals should be allowed near polling stations or collation centers, ensuring the process remains free from undue influence.
4. Transparent Vote Collation Process
The vote collation and winner certification stages are highly vulnerable to manipulation as evidence has shown repeatedly. INEC must implement significant reforms to ensure transparency, with real-time public access and visibility to the collation process. Any discrepancies in vote counting or collation must be addressed immediately to prevent the certification of winners under questionable circumstances. Rigorous oversight is critical to safeguarding the integrity of election results.
5. Secure and Accurate Results Transmission and Certification
INEC must be legally required to guarantee that the transmission of election results is secure, transparent, and verifiable in real-time. This process should be closely monitored by independent observers and authorized representatives of all political parties. Any deviations from established protocols should trigger immediate investigations and corrective measures. No election results should be announced until they are fully verified and confirmed by a majority of observers and authorized party representatives, with INEC officials providing strict oversight throughout the process.
6. Pre-Election Judicial Oversight
The judiciary must maintain active and continuous oversight of INEC’s reforms and the overall election process. This legal framework will ensure INEC’s compliance with the law and provide early intervention mechanisms in case of irregularities. The courts must hold INEC accountable and ensure strict monitoring throughout the pre-election period leading to 2027.
7. Intensive Voter Education and Engagement
The low voter turnout in the 2023 elections—only 28% of over 98 million registered voters—was partly due to technical failures, delays, insufficient polling stations, and violence. However, post-election surveys revealed widespread voter apathy as a significant factor. To combat this, we will push for robust reforms to remove these barriers and launch an extensive voter education campaign, emphasizing citizens’ constitutional rights and the importance of participation. In addition, INEC would be mandated to launch public awareness campaigns in all dialects to educate voters about their rights on Election Day and the steps to take if they encounter any obstacles. This will ensure that every eligible voter is motivated and able to cast their ballot without fear or difficulty.
8. Standardized Electoral Protocols
The procedural confusion that marked 2023 elections will not happen in 2027. The injunction will seek real reforms to be implemented to standardize protocols for managing technical delays and disruptions, ensuring that no eligible voters are turned away due to logistical issues. Laws would mandate that polling stations remain open for a minimum duration when delays occur, giving every registered voter a fair chance to cast their ballot. INEC must enhance security at polling stations to protect voters from violence and intimidation.
9. Independent Election Observers must Wear Surveillance Cameras
Furthermore, independent election observers, including authorized party officials, must be granted unrestricted access to polling stations, counting rooms, and collation centers to ensure transparency. These observers would be permitted to wear hidden surveillance cameras that record and transmit real-time footage of their observations.
10. Seek to Change INEC Leadership and Funding Mechanism
No reform of INEC can succeed without the immediate removal of its current leadership. We will seek an injunction to remove the chairman and national commissioners ahead of the 2027 elections. Fresh leadership is essential to pull INEC out of its deep-rooted corruption and restore integrity to the institution. Additionally, INEC must receive independent funding from the National Assembly, free from interference by the presidency and influence from the ruling party. If removal proves constitutionally difficult, we will apply pressure to ensure they change direction and their behavior, and correct the course of their organization.
By pursuing these preventive measures through proactive legal action, we can create a more secure and fair electoral environment for the 2027 elections. This strategy represents the best opportunity to safeguard our democracy and ensure that the will of the people is genuinely reflected at the ballot box.
One thing is clear: post-election lawsuits won’t work. Relying solely on legal challenges after the fact, as the PDP and Labour Party did following the 2023 election, has proven to be a failed strategy. None of these efforts brought about meaningful reversals of the flawed outcomes. However, by taking aggressive legal action early, we have a unique opportunity to tackle and correct these systemic issues before the next election cycle, ensuring a fairer and more transparent process in 2027.
In sum, INEC (and the judiciary), if truly independent, can transform Nigeria. It holds the power to ensure elections are free and fair, with real winners—not those who buy their way to power. People’s votes would count, and the manipulation of results would end.
This would lead to stronger presidential leadership and a more effective National Assembly. Visionary leaders, accountable to the people, would emerge. These leaders would possess the integrity and competence to build a thriving economy.
Instead of allowing criminals to continue running our nation as they have for decades, we will elect leaders who prioritize national security, unity, and inclusive prosperity. Leaders who will drive economic growth, reduce inflation, and create better wages and jobs—finally fulfilling the long-overdue promises of independence and democracy.
However, if we fail to transform INEC before 2027, it will continue to support poor leadership and further economic decline. The choices we make in the years leading up to 2027 will decide the fate of our nation.
This push for injunctive relief is for the Nigerian people, and I urge everyone to stand behind it. It is “we the people” who must unite to defeat the corrupt influence of INEC. In the end, we will win, because the power of the people will always prevail.
