Need For Transparency In Voter Registration

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) precocious embarked connected a nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.

INEC’s online pre-registration portal, which is billed to past for a year, was launched connected August 18, 2025, with in-person registration pursuing connected August 25.

Within the archetypal week, 1,379,342 Nigerians had pre-registered online with Osun State signaling the highest fig of prospective voters astatine 393,269, followed by Lagos State with 222,205, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with 107,682.

The breakdown of the online pre-registrations shows that 661,846 (47.96 percent) are antheral and 717,856 (52.04 percent) are female.

Young radical betwixt the ages of 18 and 34 represent the bulk of the prospective voters with 860,286 (62.37 percent), portion 374,534 (27.15 percent) are students and the fig for persons with disablement is 27,089 (1.96 percent).

This paper recognises that elector registration is simply a captious facet of the electoral process, which tin find the integrity of immoderate election. This is adjacent arsenic the INEC encouraged each eligible voters to instrumentality vantage of the accidental to guarantee information successful the upcoming elections.

However, the registration fig arsenic disclosed by INEC has continued to make controversies and situation crossed the federation with galore Nigerians including absorption and civilian nine organisations,  describing the figures arsenic an effort to rig and manipulate 2027 elections ahead.

They described the concern arsenic “a worrisome spread that raises superior questions astir the transparency, credibility, and ratio of the registration process.”

With 26 years of unbroken ideology successful this 4th Republic, Nigeria’s electoral processes person been serially fraught with rigging, violence, ballot snatching, ballot buying, usage of nether -age voters, falsification of predetermination results by which losers go winners and winners go losers.

These odious fractures person been allowed to thrive and fester for excessively long, throwing up leaders, galore of who were not elected by the people.

This paper recalls that aft the 2023 wide elections, the INEC chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu said that the committee was helpless successful prosecuting perpetrators of predetermination unit and predetermination offenders.

Just recently, adjacent though it claimed determination is nary authorisation for aboriginal predetermination campaigns, the aforesaid INEC expressed concerns astir aboriginal predetermination campaigns by governmental parties, stating that the campaigns person undermined its quality to way run concern limits.

We person been canvassing for the constitution of an Electoral Offences Commission to instrumentality the “burden” of prosecuting electoral offenders disconnected INEC. The Electoral Reform Committee headed by a erstwhile Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammed Uwais, had successful 2007 recommended the constitution of a peculiar prosecution assemblage to beryllium known arsenic the Electoral Offences Commission.

According to the United Nations connected Democracy and Human Rights, the values of freedom, respect for quality rights and the rule of holding periodic and genuine elections by cosmopolitan suffrage are indispensable elements of democracy.

Governments are chosen done regular, just elections successful which citizens person the close to ballot freely and successful turn, ideology provides an situation for the extortion and effectual realisation of quality rights.

For us, the telephone for amendment to the 2022 Electoral Act has go strident and stronger. In summation to the azygous time voting strategy being canvassed by INEC, which if, passed into law, would importantly heighten electoral efficiency, trim operational costs, and streamline governance cycles crossed the country, the mode of transmission of predetermination results has go captious successful elections.

Our sister African country, South Africa has demonstrated that it tin beryllium done with existent clip transmission of results online portion we emphasise to INEC the request to signifier retired collation centres wherever we cognize that manipulations of results are carried out.

With little than a twelvemonth and fractional to the 2027 wide elections, there’s truthful overmuch to bash earlier the run kicks disconnected successful earnest towards the extremity of adjacent year.

A well-worn cliche says that it’s lone a fool that does the aforesaid happening repeatedly and expect to get a antithetic result. We cannot proceed successful this aforesaid trajectory of rigged elections and expect credible leaders who would bash good for the improvement of the nation.

In our opinion, predetermination rigging has had acold reaching consequences connected the federation with atrocious leaders emerging  who show deficiency of empathy, accountability, integrity, and vision, characterised by mediocre communication, dishonesty, self-centredness, and the inability to marque sound, decisive choices.

To close this anomaly therefore, there’s a request to marque the electoral strategy ...