A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, has said the 2027 general elections will be difficult to rig if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducts them in the same manner as the just-concluded Osun State governorship election.

Chidoka, Chancellor of the non-partisan and independent think tank, the Athena Centre, said the only way the 2027 election could be rigged was if it was not conducted.

“The only way to rig the election in 2027 is not to conduct it,” Chidoka said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.

“If you conduct it with this (Osun) process, by 7am we at Athena Centre will be giving you results state by state, how many have been uploaded and what the scores are, we will tell you that. Even if they say no technology will work that day, we will use manual system, we will put over 5,000 people on the 8,000 wards in Nigeria and be downloading it because Nigeria just needs to make a move.”

He said election rigging had become outdated and urged Nigerian leaders to abandon the practice.

“We need to get out of here, we need to stop this, election rigging is old, it’s not something any leader does. Don’t they feel ashamed when they meet other world leaders and you come with a tainted mandate? No, that has gone,” he said.

Chidoka recalled how election-monitoring organisations were able to collate results during the Osun governorship election, saying the same could be achieved in 2027 if INEC allows the IReV platform to function as it did during the poll.

“They (those who wanted to rig) were sitting and waiting, they didn’t know the world had moved. YIAGA was already collating the results, Athena Centre was already collating the results, Dataphyte was already collating the results. So, we knew the numbers from every ward and every polling unit. And guess what, we are going to do it in the 2027 election.”

Speaking further, Chidoka praised the conduct of the Osun governorship election, describing it as another example of the progress Nigeria had made in electoral technology.

He said INEC performed well in deploying technology during the election, making it possible for Nigerians to monitor developments in real time.

“The competition was intense, the technology worked and then the people behaved well. Because despite technology working well in some places, we have seen INEC officials and electoral officers behave badly.

“But what was important on Saturday was that technology was working, the people were working and the more important one which I think Nigerians should be happy about is that AI played a critical role in this election. All of us who monitor IRev spending hours trying to get people download results and entering manually. AI made it possible for us to aggregate the results in minutes,” he said.

Chidoka said it was paramount for the will of Nigerians to be reflected in every election, adding that the country must move away from the idea of relying on the courts to determine who gets into office. (Channels TV, but headline rejigged)