Pro-democracy advocates have urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, political parties, security agencies, and other stakeholders to ensure credible elections in 2027.

They made the call at the one-day national dialogue on election integrity and accountability in Abuja on Thursday.

Fix Politics Africa, a pro-democracy organisation focused on strengthening democratic principles across the continent, organised the dialogue.

Fix Politics Africa executive director Anthony Ubani restated the need to restore Nigerians’ confidence in the electoral process ahead of the 2027 general elections.

According to him, before we ask citizens to trust the electoral process, the institutions and actors that manage it must prove they are worthy of that trust.

He said presidential election turnout fell from 53.7 per cent in 2011 to 26.7 per cent in 2023, describing the apathy as citizens’ waning belief in the value of participation.

“INEC must understand that transparency cannot be selective. When technology fails, Nigerians deserve immediate facts, not explanations days, weeks or months later. Political parties must stop behaving as if elections are warfare and votes are commodities. The integrity of general elections cannot rise above the integrity of the primaries that produce their candidates.

“Security agencies must protect voters, not political interests. Neutrality must be visible and consistent. Citizens and civil society must do more than complain after elections. We must register, vote, observe, document, resist inducement and defend the ballot peacefully. Our courts must remain the last line of defence and not the place where Nigerians routinely go to discover who actually won an election,” he said.

The executive director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, said the three major threats to the integrity of the 2027 elections are violence, vote buying, and political selfishness. He said that, as demonstrated in the just-concluded Osun governorship elections, the resilience of the electorate could shape and ensure credible elections in 2027.

Mr Itodo said that if Nigerians come out en masse to vote and defend their votes, it will be difficult for any individual, group or institution to compromise the process.

Social activist and founder of Citizens Hub, Aisha Yusufu, underscored the need for people with capacity and integrity to participate in party politics and elections. She said some people consider politics a dirty game, which makes people with integrity stay away from party politics, leaving room for people with less capacity to take over.

Ms Yusufu said people with “white integrity” must prove themselves by going through the mud of politics and coming out clean for the country to reach its destination.

The executive director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Rafsanjani, said that electoral credibility had gone beyond a single institution. He reiterated the need to hold all actors such INEC staff members, security and party faithful as well as judges participating in electioneering processes accountable for their words, actions and inactions.

(NAN)