This day

In their determination to engineer socio-political change in Nigeria against a background of prevalent corruption and growing economic hardships, ...

The blunder committed by INEC officials in the presidential and National Assembly elections will have serious consequences for the credibility of forthcoming elections. The future of democratic governance in Nigeria is on trial. The highly contested presidential election last weekend exposed the insincerity of INEC officials and their complicity in undermining national elections, which they were hired to supervise. Yakubu and senior INEC officials are paid attractive salaries and allowances to do their job and to do it very well. The much-talked-about BVAS did not work in some polling stations while some of the BVAS machines were reportedly stolen. Between the last election in 2019 and now, Yakubu and his officials pretended that everything was going according to plan. But it turned out to be the worst election conducted in the country’s history. The denial of PVCs to eligible voters and the obstacles that awaited voters before they could collect their PVCs showed that Yakubu and senior INEC officials were insensitive, careless and indifferent to voters’ circumstances. Yakubu and his officials had four years to prepare for the 2023 elections. However, in one moment of madness, all the dreams were extinguished by election officials who made elaborate plans to deny the youth their voice. In three consecutive national elections in 2015, 2019, and 2023, when Nigeria was on the edge of making history, incompetence and criminal collusion by the previous and current leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and their bumbling staff interrupted the process. The much anticipated presidential and National Assembly elections came as scheduled but were heavily marred, disrupted and desecrated by INEC officials and political thugs driven by their ethnic agenda.