Ahead of the 2027 general elections, stakeholders are pushing for credible, free, fair, and transparent polls that would be acceptable to Nigerians and the international community concerned with advancing democracy in Africa‘s most populous nation.

The stakeholders observed that while there is still the prevalence of electoral offences, including rigging, vote buying, and thuggery, which characterised Nigeria’s elections, the country had made progress in the electoral process from 1999 to 2023, which witnessed significant improvements.

They spoke at a political dialogue on the election credibility threshold in Nigeria, organised by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) in Abuja on Tuesday.

In a thought presentation, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Nile University of Nigeria, Dr Iroro Izu, called for developing transparency and accountability checkers to gauge the operational credibility of the key stakeholders in the country‘s electoral process.

The scholar urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to create more polling units and make voting centres easier, more convenient, and more accessible.

He argued that the credibility of an election entails openness of the system, the conscious assurance of an all-dimensional involvement of different strata and genders of society, making it such that the system is non-discriminatory, non-judgemental and non-prejudicial, emphasising predictability, certainty, probity, measurability of actions, inactions and reactions vis-a-vis the extant electoral laws and relevant institutional frameworks.

Izu said it was in everyone’s interest for elections to be conducted in a manner that meets the basic credibility threshold, one that will be built on a system of transparency, accountability, inclusiveness, empathy, accessibility, convenience, security, flexibility, systematism, and predictability.

He noted that „transparency and accountability checkers should be developed and used to gauge the operational credibility of the key stakeholders (INEC, Political parties, media, security personnel, and voters) in the election enterprise in Nigeria. Existing constituencies should undergo new demarcation to create more polling units to make voting centres easier, more convenient, and more accessible.

“As recommended by the Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Commission, INEC should be unbundled to several independent entities for purposes of efficiency and effectiveness to the end that one of such entities will deal with election offences, another will deal with political parties conduct, especially in the area of primary elections; also, a third entity could be in charge of massive re-orientation of citizens, politicians, security personnel and other stakeholders;

“Civil society organisations with vast experience in election matters should be engaged in training and monitoring and retraining election workers. INEC, as an impartial player in the election enterprise, could use any legal measure to execute and achieve its mandate.“

Earlier, the Director of Strategy, Centre LSD, Itia Otabor, said that through the policy dialogue, the Centre intends to identify practical solutions to challenges facing credible elections and develop a roadmap for implementing reforms that will strengthen the integrity of electoral processes.

“We will explore innovative approaches to voter registration, voting systems, and electoral dispute resolution, among other critical areas. To implement the Centre LSD approach to elections work, the Centre will adopt the electoral cycle approach and embed election-related activities into a holistic cycle, focusing on pre-, during, and post-election phases.“

For his part, the founding executive director of Centre LSD, Dr Otive Igbuzor, lamented the fact that only nine million Nigerians, representing 26 per cent of the country‘s 200 million population, voted at the last general election that saw President Bola Tinubu emerge.

“So that pillar of our work is essential for us. Why don‘t people vote in Nigeria, and what can we do to make them vote? And then the last pillar, pillar four, is monitoring key stakeholders in the electoral process. And this, what we are doing today, is dealing with the credibility of elections.

“So we want to have indices to measure credibility. We aspire to create an index like we have a poverty index, so if there is an election in the U.S., we go to the U.S. and use the index to measure it. If there is an election in Ghana, we go to Ghana and use the index to measure it. That is our aspiration,“ he said.

In his intervention, Ezenwa Nwagwu of Peering Advocacy and Advancement Center in Africa said the country had significantly improved its electoral process since its return to democratic rule in 1999. That should motivate stakeholders to continue working towards perfection.

Nwagwu pointed out that the deployment of BIVAS, which curtailed the challenges associated with vote rigging and manipulation, showed progress in improving the electoral system.

He said that in dealing with the credibility threshold of the elections, solutions to be proffered either administratively or through the legislature should be influenced by the contemporary nature of the challenges faced by the electoral system.