Ahead of the 2023 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is reported to have said it has vanquished the tendency to rig in Nigerian polls. The electoral body declared that no one could any longer rig election, courtesy of its reinforcement of tools and processes and recent changes in the legal framework that have strengthened its hand.

Speaking at a seminar on ‘2023 and Beyond: Leadership, Politics, and Citizens Engagement’ organised by St. James Anglican Church in Asokoro, Abuja, INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu advised politicians to perish the thought of any longer manipulating the electoral process. Represented by deputy director, voter education, Chukwuemeka Ogbuaja, the INEC chief said: “Nobody can rig any election. INEC has fortified its portal; people will elect the leader they want.” He was alluding apparently to a public acknowledgement by the umpire lately that its results viewing portal, IRev, was hacked during recent state governorship polls.

The commission also cited the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2022 that has tightened maneuvering room available for perpetrators of over voting and also empowered INEC to review results declared under duress or in dissonance with statutory provisions by its field officers. “Section 65 of the act gives the commission the power within seven days to review a declaration and return made where the commission determines that the said declaration and return was not made voluntarily or was made contrary to the provisions of the law, regulations and guidelines, and manual for the election. The commission will exercise this power responsibly based on provisions of the Constitution, the Electoral Act and its regulations and guidelines,” Ogbuaja said. He added: “We, in INEC, have good news for all Nigerians: we have murdered and buried rigging in Nigeria. No voter can afford to vote more than once in any election. Also, there will be no case of overvoting again in any polling station. Voting will be based on BVAS and other electronic devices by INEC… At the polling stations, the number of votes must be based on the number of voters accredited at the time of polling and not based on the number of registered voters. The number of accredited voters at the polling station must tally with the number of actual voting. If exceeded by one vote, the entire process would be invalidated.” With that, he was obviously referring to INEC’s Biometric Voter Accreditation System device that is its latest weapon for ensuring strict accreditation of voters and uploading electronic results, as well as the Electoral Act’s redefinition of over voting as benchmarked on the number of voters accredited for a particular election and no longer the number of registered voters in that polling unit.

There is no question that major strides have been made in sanitising Nigeria’s electoral system and INEC has recorded quantum leaps in its reformative efforts. But it isn’t that perfection has been attained or the process inviolably insulated from abuses, or indeed systemic lapses by INEC itself. By the electoral body’s own admittance, there were synchronisation challenges in its BVAS report for the July 16, 2022 Osun State governorship poll, such that it issued a Certified True Copy (CTC) on August 22 that superseded an earlier CTC it issued on July 29. The commission pleaded this lapse in its response to ongoing litigation over the poll before the Osun Election Petitions Tribunal. And that is to take its word that previous threats to IRev have been conclusively defeated.

In any event, rigging is not always targeted at INEC’s processes alone but is a society-wide malaise, and INEC can speak only of its own fortifications that aren’t necessarily all-sufficient. When, for instance, potential voters get intimidated by violence from coming out to polling units, it is disenfranchisement – hence rigging – that is outside the remit and not blamable on the processes of the electoral body. Even advanced democracies like the United States are yet battling designs to disenfranchise certain categories of voters through state laws that are entirely outside the control of election managers. And so, to ominously declare that rigging has been conquered is to beg the question whether it is within INEC’s sole purview to do that.

We commend the electoral commission for bold strides so far made, but would urge it to be wary of premature victory shout. It should rather keep tying lose ends and stay ahead of political actors, many of whom are irrepressibly disposed to cutting corners. That is where the real victory lies.