Nigerian election history and the crisis of confidence

By Joseph Onu Silas, Esq.

Yesterday, I made a short post about voters apathy and how it is incrementally becoming very obvious that Nigerians have lost faith in our model of democracy, especially in the electoral system. This is not a matter unknown to @inecnigeria or the political actors. Everyone knows the dangers posed by the declining interest of Nigerians in the democratic process.

One of the core causes of this declining interest is that Nigerians have continually realized that the political class and @inecnigeria only require participation in elections to justify their manufactured results, one that is disconnected with reality and the overall will of voters. Usually, voters are allowed to exercise their franchise at the polling units and are legally asked to vote and go home. This is deliberate, to ensure that the next step in the process is controlled for desired outcome.

After polling unit voting is done, next is the election ward collation of votes from the polling units. This is where the magic happens and votes are stolen by mutilating ballot papers to rewrite figures for preferred candidates/political party. This is possible because at this stage, participation is highly restricted and enforced by the military, police and other security agents. Those allowed to be present are usually the ruling political elites and their agents. In most cases, even collation agents of opposition parties are not allowed into the controlled collation venue or those of easy virtue are compromised to look the other way.

It is particularly for the above reason that the clamor for real time electronic transmission of results from polling units have become the main desire of voters in Nigeria. I said the desire of voters, because the political class and INEC do not want that to ever become a reality as it will finally empower the voters by making voters the true determinants of electoral outcomes – as it ought to be. Little wonder why we continue to witness the excuses given for the inability to deploy full real time electronic transmission of results from polling units – impostors will be retired and banished from ever holding public offices in Nigeria.

So, because the voters are not too important in determining the outcome of elections, the politicians also have begun to talk down on Nigerians. They now are good to say things like, “just do your own at the polling units and leave the rest for me”. They are simply saying that at the stage of collation, they’ll deploy their superimposing influence and control to alter the will of the voters. This acts have also been continuously endorsed by the judiciary, who find nothing wrong with mutilated results and makes it practically impossible for anyone to successfully challenge the alteration of results at collation stage.

Now, with the refusal to deploy real time direct electronic transmission of votes from polling units, what options are there to ensure that results are recorded as they were cast at the polling units? It is simple and easy to secure outcomes of an election at the polling units. That will require a bold reform, one which will reduce the involvement and control of INEC in the collation process and throw the process open to all voters/the public. To this end, here are my thoughts and recommendations:

1. Remove INEC control at the collation stages by creating a college of collation officers comprising of participating political party nominees, whose responsibility is to record results emanating from polling units, for the Ward Collation, as each polling unit publicly announce the outcome of votings in such a polling unit.
2. The polling unit returning officer is not to take the result of his or her polling unit to the collation Centre alone. He or she must be accompanied by agents of political parties from the polling units and any interested voter from the polling unit, together with observer. The job of the returning officer is to call out his or her result when called upon by the college of collation officers.
3. Collation of polling unit result must commence at the specified time that it ought to commence, irrespective of the fact that some polling units are still lagging behind. Those polling units that are ready should be taken, while those who are yet to conclude are encouraged to conclude before night fall. It makes no sense at all that it has become a tradition for collation to be done only at night. Why must simply tabulation of results take the whole day and night?
4. INEC is to be present at the collation Centre as observers of the process, to ensure that law is adhered to and no one is denied his or her right of participation in the process. At the end of each phase of collation, INEC is to collect the original collation results sheets, while each member of the college of collation officers retain a counterpart copy.

5.The collation must be held in an open place, without restricting members of the public from witnessing the process. Therefore, security personnel must be ordered to know their role and not be engaged in causing rancor or being used to block entry into collation centres.

Above are some immediate actions that must be put in place to curb the endless electoral heists in Nigeria and restore voters confidence in the process. It will also cut down the logistics and cost of conducting elections for INEC. The involvement of players in the collation process will eliminate election litigation almost completely, if implemented.

Abuja – Nigeria.
22.02.2026

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.