Election in Nigeria: A mirage of democracy or the real deal — the INEC question

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) delay in uploading the election results as prescribed by the 2022 electoral act has raised doubt in the minds of Nigerians and onlookers about the credibility of the just concluded 2023 elections and this act seem to support the long held beliefs of certain NIgerians that democracy in Nigeria is a mirage.

The trust reposed in INEC has been ultimately destroyed, not only because of the delay in uploading the results to the Inec Election Viewing Portal (IREV) and the various overt misconduct and inexperience of the officials; but also because of the violence, bullying and many other clandestine acts that disrupted the electoral process. Although elections in Nigeria since independence has never been completely rid of these acts, there was a general hope by the public that this year’s presidential elections will be different due to the constant assurance by INEC of their preparedness for the elections. Nigerians took these words to heart and came out in their numbers to vote.

Considering the massive turnout of Nigerians at the polling unit and their avid interest and resolve to vote despite the many hindrances, it can be clearly seen that a lot of faith was put in INEC to deliver on their promise to conduct a smooth electoral process. The incompetence in fulfilling its own part of the deal, despite the added advantage of technological systems like the Bimodal Vote Accreditation System (BVAS) will be seen as a total disappointment to Nigerians. It is quite unheard that the results of an election were released four days after the elections was supposed to have been concluded and the whole process was shrouded in particular areas of the country.

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The tension and mounting angst on the part of the opposing parties and their supporters are just clear indication of the failure of the INEC to be transparent in the process. Hence the question, does INEC really serve any purpose in the country? The main purpose of having an electoral body apart from the organization and smooth running of the elections is also to have a neutral body to quell any doubt of favouritism, partisanship, or acts of impropriety in the elections; yet there are allegations of most of these and more in the just concluded elections.

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Due to the incompetence of INEC, election seem to serve no other purpose than to create a facade of Nigeria as a democratic state to the average man on the street. It leaves a lot of doubt for citizens to wonder if there votes truly count and if truly the elected leader is actually the popular choice of citizens.