In the perception of many Nigerians and even the international communities, 2023, for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is a year of so many promises but very few deliverables.

It is a year the electoral commission has the unwavering and sole legal instrument to usher a new dawn, improve democratic credentials, and redirect the political trajectory of the country through the conduct of a transparent, credible election across the country.

As an election year, the future of Nigeria and the full weight of the nation rested squarely on the head and shoulders of the electoral commission. It is a year INEC had the exclusive reserve to determine who became the new Sheriffs in town from the presidential and national Assemblies to the governorship levels through assurances to the electorate that their votes will count.

From the beginning of the year, the commission made a bold statement of its readiness for the daunting task ahead of it. And from the physical preparations to the logistics arrangements, the commission did not disappoint in the build-up to the poll.

Its introduction of seconds and minutes’ countdown, in addition to many other innovations to guarantee its capability and capacity for the elections actually heightened and restored the confidence of many Nigerians, pushing many to exercise their franchise across all the cadres of the elections.

Before the conduct of the general elections, the signing of the amended new electoral act to enable the commission to conduct hitch-free, transparent, credible, and fair elections added another impetus to many political followers and the ordinary Nigerian electorate.

Periodically, the commission equally reassured and raised the expectations of many Nigerians and the international communities of its readiness for the poll. And even when there were speculations of possible postponement of the election, the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, had dispelled and assured that; “at no time in the recent history of the commission has so much of the planning and implementation been accomplished 44 days ahead of a general election.

“Therefore, the commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone the postponement of the general election. For the avoidance of doubt, the presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, February 25, 2023 while governorship and State Assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

“The repeated assurance by the security agencies for the adequate protection of our personnel, materials, and processes also reinforces our determination to proceed. The 2023 general election will hold as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the commission.”

The deployment of technology, the supposed game changers for the poll, like the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal to accredit and transmit electoral results real-time was seamlessly perfected to restore the confidence of the electorate.

Through several consultative meetings with relevant stakeholders like the leadership of the political parties, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the headship of security agencies under the auspices of Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), the media and its Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), the precision build-up to the election was very smooth and encouraging.

Understandably, every other activity in the country, including governmental and commercial, was practically shut down or paused to ensure strict concentration on the smooth running of the commission’s timetable, schedule of activities, and guidelines.

The electoral umpire, in line with the expectations, grabbed all the headlines and attention. It did not also fail to meet the expectations by matching words with actions through repeated assurances its chairman, Yakubu gave to Nigerians.

Through such assurances, Nigerians, for the first time in a very long while in the history of the conduct of elections in the country, showed some level of resilience, resolutions, and resolve to participate in the poll ostensibly to elect the government of their own.

Diaspora Nigerians and other citizens equally exploited the assurances from the commission to participate in the new registration of voters and collection of their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), in the determination to exercise their electoral franchise.

Commendably, the commission lived up to expectations in concluding on time all the necessary documentation, especially the local and international election observers, conducting the requisite training to the recruited ad-hoc and main staff, and other stakeholders involved in the conduct of the much-anticipated 2023 polls.

To confirm the magnitude of the general elections, the commission was the biggest discussion on the lips of every household in every part of the country. As if the covered mileage was not sufficient enough, the electoral umpire even took its messages of guarantees to the elevated international platform of Chatham House, perhaps to reassure the international communities of its sincerity and determination to conduct credible general elections.


As part of the efforts to perfect the arrangements and activities for the elections, BVAS machines were configured, logistics concluded, deployment of sensitive and non-sensitive materials; and ultimately mock accreditation of voters was held across the country to reassure the electorate their votes will really count.

On the whole, the commission, in sincerity to it, put up near perfect arrangements and logistics across the country. And while reiterating INEC’s commitment to credible elections, Yakubu repeatedly reassured that, “votes will continue to count and will be the sole determinant of the electoral outcome.”

He added: “The deployment of BVAS with its dual fingerprint and facial biometric accreditation process to ensure that only genuine voters are accredited to vote during the election will not be compromised. The BVAS has come to stay and will be the only means by which voters will be accredited in the general election.

“The introduction of IReV portal has made the result management procedure more transparent and polling unit results will be uploaded to the portal in real-time in the 2023 general election. The deployment of technology has curtailed the incidence of multiple voting and other sharp practices associated with voter accreditation during elections.”

The commission apparently matched the expectations of many Nigerians in some places, especially with the rave of the moment, a hitherto relatively obscure Labour Party (LP) making a serious impact in the presidential election and surprisingly sweeping victories in some states both at the governorship and legislative elections.


In fairness to the commission, who conducted the general elections under a very hostile and insecure atmosphere, previous hitches like delayed delivery of election materials and widespread snatching of ballot boxes were reduced in many states.

Molestation and intimidation of the electorate by political thugs loyal to desperate candidates were also reduced in many places due to the assurances and arrangements the commission made and put in place with the security agencies.

However, despite the repeated promises of credible elections, the commission obviously caved in to pressure when the chips were down. Confronted with a combination of extreme challenges like the popular glitches that crumbled the functionality of IReV portal, especially in uploading election results real-time and other manners of electoral malfeasance that characterised the general elections, the commission had allowed the little reputation it built during the off-cycle elections previously held in some states to slip out of its hands.

In the considerations of some pundits, and many local and foreign observers, the commission had failed to meet the expectations of a larger chunk of the Nigerian public despite the whopping amount of fund made available to it. It was so bad that only the beneficiaries of the flawed polls clapped for it after announcing the winners of the elections.

To underscore the magnitude of the disappointment across the country and beyond over the electoral outcome, criticisms by the United States, European Union, Commonwealth, and international observer groups torrentially berated the commission for the conduct of the elections amid allegations of widespread irregularities, rigging and manipulations of results.

Contrary to the expectations of many Nigerians beguiled with the assurances of the commission’s boss, the failure to transmit the election results real-time, especially during the presidential election, as promised, attracted hostilities.

In its executive summary, the European Union Election Observer Mission (EU-EOM) succinctly captured the real picture of the election. “The 2023 general elections did not ensure a well-run transparent and inclusive democratic process as assured by the INEC. Public confidence and trust in INEC were severely damaged during the presidential poll and were not restored in state-level elections, leading civil society to call for an independent audit of the entire process.

“The electoral legal framework lays an adequate foundation for the conduct of democratic elections, with key regional and international standards being ratified. However, gaps and ambiguities in national law enable circumvention and do not safeguard transparency, while also allowing undue restrictions to the rights to stand and to vote.

“The widely welcomed Electoral Act 2022 introduced measures aimed at building stakeholder trust. However, the Act’s first test in a general election revealed crucial gaps in terms of INEC’s accountability and transparency; proved to be insufficiently elaborated, and lacked clear provisions for timely and efficient implementation.

“Weak points include a lack of INEC independent structures and capacities to enforce sanctions for electoral offences and breaches of campaign finance rules. Furthermore, the presidential selection of INEC leadership at the federal and state level leaves the electoral institution vulnerable to the perception of partiality,” EU accessed.


It further wrote that; “early in the process, while enjoying a broad stakeholder trust, INEC introduced a series of positive measures to strengthen the conduct of the elections. However, closer to the polls some started to doubt INEC’s administrative and operational efficiency and in-house capacity.

“Public confidence gradually decreased and was severely damaged on 25 February due to its operational failures and lack of transparency. While some corrective measures introduced before the 18 March elections were effective, overall trust was not restored.

“The introduction of BVAS and IReV was widely seen as an important step to ensure the integrity and credibility of the elections. In practice, multiple missteps and lack of transparency before the polls, compounded by the severely delayed display of presidential result forms, dashed the public trust in election technologies used,” the EU-EOM declared.

Chatham House, an independent policy institute based in London, in its assessment and analysis of particularly the presidential election, emphatically noted that INEC failed to learn new lessons, especially by not adhering to its guidelines in the uploading of results real-time.

“The logistical failures of INEC and widespread delayed opening of polling units meant that voters who showed up early were frustrated. INEC staff were not able to locate their polling units for several hours. Half of the eligible voters could participate in the elections, despite the commission’s N305 billion budgetary allocation.

“INEC’s performance and controversies over the results mean that the electoral reforms and lessons declared to have been learned were not fully applied. It failed to adhere to its statements and guidelines, which derive from its laws, that election results would be uploaded to its portal using the BVAS directly from the polling unit in real-time for the public’s viewing,” the Chatham House declared regarding INEC.

As could be seen from the litigated cases, there were still a few cases of ballot box vandalism, stuffing of ballot papers, manipulation, and deliberate refusal to use BVAS, in addition to the glitches in results upload among many other setbacks.

It came to the head in the presidential election when the commission issued a statement signed by the then National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, apologising for the glitches in its inability to meet up the expectations of uploading the election results real-time.

Sensing that the admittance was not enough to pacify some furious Nigerians and the international communities, Yakubu, in his first post-election event in Abuja with RECs, admitted that the commission’s best was not just enough.

“No doubt, the national elections raised several issues that require immediate, medium, and long-term solutions. The planning for the election was painstakingly done. However, its implementation came with challenges, some of them unforeseen.

“The issues of logistics, election technology, behaviour of some election personnel at different levels, the attitude of some party agents and supporters added to the extremely challenging environment in which elections are usually held in Nigeria,” Yakubu admissibly passed a vote of no confidence on the commission in the conduct of the general elections.

And in what seemed like rendering unreserved apologies, the humbled electoral umpire boss said: “Once again, the commission would like to appreciate the patience and understanding of Nigerians. We do not take this for granted. We equally appreciate the patriotism of political, traditional, religious, and community leaders who appealed for calm. Similarly, the commission appreciates the role of heads of election observation missions, some of whom are still in the country.”

Lamentably, if the standard of the conduct of the general elections was considered relatively tolerable, it deteriorated during the off-cycle governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo states where cases of all forms of electoral malfeasance were recorded, including pre-filled election result sheets.

The poll was a representation of all the attributes of the usual typical Nigeria election with the trappings of electoral fraud. Even though the parties’ candidates and stakeholders heartlessly and mercilessly prosecuted their antics and devilish strategies to outsmart and out-manoeuvre one another, the commission still declared winners.

There was brazen snatching, stuffing, and destruction of ballot boxes, intimidation of voters, deliberate disenfranchisement of voters, deployment of fully kitted fake uniform security agents as thugs, high-level voter apathy, use of brute forces by stakeholders, alleged connivance of security agencies to perpetrate election fraud, vote buying, and voter inducements among several other electoral malfeasances during the poll, the commission still upheld it.

In the rating of former National Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), High Chief Peter Ameh, the commission was such a monumental failure in carrying out its statutory responsibilities in 2023, demanding a public audit of the electoral umpire.

Hear him: “INEC failed woefully and even changed the goalpost in the middle of the match. It claimed that the glitches it suffered during the cause of the election were responsible for the failure to upload election results, but as a public institution that should be accountable to the people, it never gave full disclosure of the nature, cause, or extent of the glitches that occurred.

“The commission should be subjected to public audit. Number of BVAS bought, number deployed for the elections, how many are remaining in their custody, and how much out of the amount of money given was spent for the election itself.

“INEC is hiding in the basement. It is time to come out of the closet. Some of the BVAS are now in the custody of politicians. Otherwise, how were Ogori Magogo Local Government Area (LGA) results uploaded?” Ameh alleged.

Head or tail, as the commission embarks on a fresh litmus test in its struggle to reclaim its receding reputation and public confidence, the conduct of the off-cycle governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states next year, provides the brightest opportunity to change the negative public perception against it.


The perception of INEC allowing desperate politicians to determine the outcome of elections even before the ballot papers were cast, the cases of electoral officials allegedly and fraudulently found in the custody of millions of cash, the reported incidences of its officials arriving voting centres with pre-filled election result sheets or without any at all, in addition to several others should be checkmated before they escalate into a complete erosion of its credibility. Next year is a fresh opportunity for the electoral commission to improve its image in the public space.

https://sunnewsonline.com/inec-in-2023-many-promises-little-delivery/

The only way Tinubu could become president of Nigeria was to first destroy Nigeria, Buhari was like an air raid of destruction on the institutions of Nigeria, he weakened them so well(including INEC) that it became easy for someone like Tinubu to penetrate easily.

Tinubu knew he had a worse reputation than Buhari, reason why he didn't contest in 2015 against Jonathan, his best gamble was to use a supposedly man of integrity who people later found out was the opposite, but the damage already had been done.

A man who supported Buhari 2 times to destroy Nigeria so that he can become president is the same man some people were/are expecting to work to improve the country, No politicians in Nigeria has disregarded Nigerians the way Tinubu has done, he doesn't have a single iota of respect or sympathy for Nigerians(including his supporters), that's why the country is the way it is now.

The 2023 election is one of the best in Nigeria