Nigerians ‘ve lost confidence in electoral process —Itodo, Yiaga Africa boss

By Dickson Omobola

Samson Itodo, an election observer and election development expert, is the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa. In this interview monitored on Politics Today, a Channels TV programme, he spoke on what President Bola Tinubu must do for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as the tenure of its Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, is coming to end.

Excerpts:

How significant would this transition be, not only for INEC but for our elections?

It is very significant because you are going to have a relatively new electoral commission that will manage the 2027 elections. You recall a few weeks ago, Yiaga Africa released our status of electoral integrity report for 2025, and one of the projections that we made was that the 2027 election would most likely be the most compromised and perhaps the most expensive. One of the reasons that we advanced was because of this leadership transition in the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

If it is not managed carefully, if it is not managed from a statesman point of view, you could probably have the next elections jeopardized because citizens are not going to trust INEC. It is very significant because Professor Mahmood Yakubu has been there for 10 years. His exit will leave a lot of vacuum because you ask yourself if a new chairman is appointed whenever he is, is there sufficient time for the chairman to settle? If you look at what data says, you see the commissioners who are leaving next year and then those who are leaving on the eve of the 2027 election. So, to a large extent, it is quite significant. Do not forget that the level of trust of citizens in the electoral process is also at its lowest ebb. So, this is really an opportunity for the president, the Senate and the National Assembly to rebuild public trust and confidence in the electoral process.

Professor Mahmood Yakubu will be known as the man who entrenched the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS and introduced the Election Result Viewing Portal, IReV. How would you review his time as INEC leader?

There have been remarkable reforms introduced in the electoral process. To add to that, it was under these 10 years that for the first time in our history, ballot papers and result sheets were produced locally. That happened in the 2023 elections. Previously, we have always printed our ballot papers and result sheets outside the country. This time, we printed them locally and that is something we should encourage. Countries like South Africa, for instance print 100 per cent of their materials. In fact, they fund their elections 100 per cent without taking money from anybody, but when you look at all these reforms that were introduced, public trust in the electoral process has actually dampened because of issues around electoral fraud. You also see sabotage by other institutions within the election governance architecture, but the fact that we are actually at a point where citizens trust in the electoral process, that is something that gives a source of concern.

There are some reforms that he (Yakubu) introduced that need to be retained like the technologies that you mentioned. Unfortunately, these same technologies introduced as game changers are the same tools that are now being used to subvert the process. Do you agree that as we think about retaining these tools, the next INEC boss should subject things like the BVAS and IReV to independent audits?

What politicians have done, coupled with complicit INEC officials, is to leverage the same technologies to undermine the integrity of the process. There were also a lot of missed opportunities. We hope that the next INEC would learn from this in particular. I think at the heart of it is that we need to rebuild public trust and confidence in the electoral process.

That is why the appointment of the next INEC chairman and national commissioners is very critical because today, there are partisan people currently in INEC. One of the bad legacies that the late President Muhammadu Buhari left on our electoral process is how he appointed individuals who have clear partisan interest, and when President Tinubu had the opportunity, he did not reverse that particular practice because some of the Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, that he nominated are people known to have been campaign actors, people who have either biological affinities or are cronies of certain politically exposed persons.

These are some of the issues because when you do that, you reduce the confidence that people have in the electoral process. That is why for the appointing authority, in this case, who is the president, there are certain criteria that he needs to look out for before he appoints the next chair or the next set of national commissioners. As of today (Wednesday), there are 514 days until the 2027 elections. That is one year and four months, meaning we do not actually have time. When you think about what the criteria are, the constitution sets two conditions. The first one is that the person must be nonpartisan and the second, the person must have unquestionable integrity. It is clear from experience that these two qualifications or criteria are inadequate.

There is a great need that the next chairman or national commissioners should be individuals that not only have impeccable character, but are individuals that do not have any partisan connection whatsoever. And what we are saying is, in fact, that person should not have been a member of a political party, whether present or past. That is one. The second is that the next INEC chairman and commissioners should at least be people who have courage, people who have the ability to resist political pressure, because leading INEC requires people who are courageous enough to call the bluff of politicians when they try to put pressure on INEC.

But then also, we have seen how incompetence impacted the 2023 elections. When you flood INEC with people who do not have the competence or understand elections, what you get is what happened in a place like Sokoto. If you recall, there were some who were actually relieved of their responsibility because of sheer incompetence. When you compare the Edo and the Ondo governorship elections, you clearly see a stark difference in the way that the commissioners managed those elections. So competence does play a critical role in determining who becomes the next INEC chairman. But then, what we have said is the president has the power. It is his prerogative. But we are saying the president needs to rise above politics and act as a statesman. And one of the things that the president can really do is when he decides on whoever he wants to appoint, can you release and publish the name and ask citizens or professional groups or civil society to submit memoranda and then submit petitions, perform a pre-nomination sort of

And, in this particular case, the Senate needs to introduce the framework for citizens’ oversight. What happens is once the names of nominees are read on the floor, that is it. The Senate does not call for memos. It does not call for petitions. However, in the appointment process, we have seen how civil society has been very proactive.

But one of the things the Senate can do this time is once a nomination has been made, they need to enhance the credibility, the transparency and the quality of the nomination process. When you receive petitions from civil society or from professional groups, attend to those petitions, consider them on their merit and then when you make a decision, please communicate it to the people. I think that those screenings should be televised. You should invite people to come make oral submissions and then make that entire process open.

This is what civil society and citizens are saying if we want to make this entire process participatory.

It is important for the president and the Senate to take this appointment seriously because it has grave implications for our elections. In weak democracies where politics is a do or die affair, political elites often see leadership transition in the electoral commission as an opportunity to capture the electoral commission or consolidate control over the political process.

This is why we are calling on the president and the Senate that this is a golden opportunity that has been presented to them. If you are going to consider appointments, ensure that these are individuals who have not been members of political parties, whether present or past. They must be people who have impeccable character but also people who are courageous and, as some would say, people who have mental alertness. Because the INEC job is a tedious one. You need people who are healthy and strong to deliver credible elections.

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