With the 2027 general elections less than five months away, the question of whether Nigerians will trust the electoral process has become as critical as the campaigns themselves.
Political figures, lawyers, election observers and civil society groups have raised fresh concerns over vote buying, political intimidation, violence, weak institutions, and the growing use of Artificial Intelligence to spread false information.
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The concerns are coming as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, prepares for the presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for January, followed by the governorship and State Assembly elections in February.
For many voters, the question is simple: Will their votes be protected, counted accurately, and reflected in the final result?
That question gained prominence after presidential hopeful Peter Obi told supporters in Port Harcourt not to allow themselves to be intimidated during the 2027 election.
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Speaking at an Obi Talks Nigeria town hall, Obi said he believes the 2027 election will be more difficult to manipulate than the 2023 poll. He urged supporters to remain organised and to defend their votes, especially around polling units and during the transmission of results.
But the worries are not limited to political parties.
At a lecture in Lagos, human rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN, warned that political violence, vote buying, flawed party primaries, and weaknesses within electoral institutions could undermine the credibility of the 2027 elections.
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Falana called for greater independence for INEC and urged authorities to confront threats of violence and vote buying instead of normalising them as part of the election process.
The threat is no longer limited to the polling unit.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, has warned that AI-driven disinformation could pose a serious threat to the credibility of the 2027 elections. His warning was delivered by National Commissioner Sani Adam at the Annual Conference of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria in Abuja.
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According to INEC, generative AI has made it easier and cheaper to produce fake videos, audio recordings and images that are difficult to detect. The commission also noted that technology can now be used to push different political messages to targeted groups of voters, making it harder for the public to agree on basic facts.
The 2023 election showed both the promise and the problems of electoral technology. While BVAS and the INEC Result Viewing Portal were introduced to improve transparency, issues around technology and result transmission became a major source of criticism.
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Amupitan admitted that technology alone cannot build trust. INEC is currently auditing its systems, including redundancy, penetration testing and disaster recovery. The commission is also considering a mock presidential election to test accreditation, result transmission and result viewing before the actual poll.
IRI: PUBLIC CONFIDENCE STILL LOW
Technology cannot solve every problem.
The International Republican Institute, IRI, in a pre-election assessment mission, identified declining public confidence in institutions, political violence, vote buying, insecurity, and divisions among opposition parties as major challenges for 2027.
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IRI noted that while recent Ekiti and Osun governorship elections were largely peaceful on election day, incidents around collation, vote buying and political violence showed that improvements must be sustained.
Nigeria’s electoral process is not a story of only failure. There have been improvements, and some recent elections have proven that peaceful and competitive polls are possible. But observers say those gains must be consistent and transparent to earn public confidence.
INEC is now under pressure from all sides.
Political actors want assurance against manipulation. Civil society wants stronger safeguards against violence and vote buying. Voters need accurate information. Journalists and tech platforms must contend with fake audio, videos and images that can spread within minutes.
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INEC has acknowledged a trust deficit and said rebuilding that trust will require transparency, scrutiny and reliable systems. The commission is also working to clean up the voter register and strengthen its technology.
But credibility will depend on more than promises. It will depend on how officials conduct themselves at polling units, how security agencies behave, how political parties respond to results, how quickly false information is corrected, and whether voters feel safe to participate.
With January approaching, Nigeria still has time to address these concerns.
What may be harder to repair after the votes are cast is public trust.
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By Efunbajo Victoria
Reporter
info@ddnews.com
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