As the 2027 general election approaches, many fear that the glitch which the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal developed and, thus, altered the result of the 2023 presidential election, may repeat in the 2027 presidential election, and may affect Nigeria’s democracy negatively
By Udoka Ekeleme, Abuja
At last, Peter Obi appears to have woken up from slumber. Obi had been criticized by Omoyele Sowore the activist over his docile approach to the 2023 presidential election which he allegedly won but was allegedly stolen from him by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), All Progressives Congress (APC) and Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Many opinion leaders including the likes of Nasir El’Rufai who allegedly helped Tinubu in snatching Obi’s mandate in 2023 had revealed that Obi, not Tinubu, actually won that election. Recall that while the results were been uploaded on the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) Portal, the real-time transmission of results for the presidential election ceased to work, but Obi was leading, while the results of the National Assembly elections conducted the same day were uploaded seamlessly. INEC was to explain that its IReV had developed glitch and announced the presidential election purported winner, Tinubu in the dead of the night.
Efforts by Obi and his legal team to retrieve his alleged stolen mandate were resisted by the Appeal and Supreme Courts which had to bend even the status of the Federal Capital Territory which is now referred to as a ‘state’, but without a governor, just to confer presidency on Tinubu who could not record victory in the nation’s seat of power.
But recently, the Presidential Candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Obi, assured his supporters and party faithful that nobody would intimidate them or subvert their will at the polling booths during the 2027 general elections.
Obi also vowed that anyone who would attempt to make votes not to count in the elections, would himself be counted.
This came as his vice presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, warned political parties against relying on the number of governors they control as a guarantee of victory in the 2027 general election. Recall that Obi, the acclaimed winner of the 2023 presidential election, never had a governor in his then Labour Party (LP).
Obi spoke in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Thursday, September 3, during a Town Hall Meeting with voters in the state, tagged “Obi Talks Nigeria”.
Fielding questions from the supporters, he said: “Nobody will intimidate us again at the polling booths. If you get to any polling booth today, the highest number of officials you see in any polling booth is five.
“The average number of voters is 40 to 50. There’s no way five people will intimidate 50 people. And we will make sure we have coordination to ensure that such intimidation does not arise.
“The people who are in these polling booths are from families that are suffering of hunger. Some of the policemen, their children are not in school. All they want is for you to defend and demand that your vote most count.
“And that is the demand we are going to make aggressively. Yes, they will try to manipulate the IReV. But let me tell you, it will not be easy this time.”
Obi said that voters would not allow any manipulation on the INEC Result Reviewing Portal, IReV, adding, “There will be so many IReVs this time. This time around, if there is network glitch, we will give them another one that has no glitch.
“By allowing them to continue, that glitch will glitch our lives. That’s what we are suffering today. This time all of us will rescue our country. Somebody said, ‘we are ready to die. Let me tell you, ‘I’m ready to die too.”
30 govs can’t guarantee victory — Kwankwaso
On his part, Kwankwaso, a former Kano State governor, at the same event, argued that several governors, particularly in the North, had performed poorly and might struggle to campaign for their parties ahead of the elections.
Kwankwanso said it was the time for the nation to get leadership right, adding that many of those people aspiring for the hallowed office of the President lack experience.
On their part, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, and civil rights activist, Ayo Obe, have raised the alarm over the credibility of the 2027 general elections, warning that technology and electoral reforms would achieve little without institutional integrity, transparent political processes and active citizens’ participation.
While Falana said many Nigerians were already doubtful that the elections would be free and fair, Obe warned that technological innovations, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and IReV, could improve elections but could not manufacture integrity where institutions and political actors failed to play by the rules.
Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM), Dr Mike Okonkwo, also expressed anguish over the state of the country, saying there were times he cried over Nigeria but urged citizens not to give up on the country.
They spoke at the 25th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture, themed: “Democracy at the Crossroads: Electoral Credibility, Judicial Integrity and the Future of Nigeria.”
Obe, former president of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), who delivered the lecture, warned against assuming that greater deployment of technology would automatically guarantee credible elections.
“Technology can transmit a result, but it cannot create political integrity,” she said.
In the same vein, the Igbo Leaders of Thought (ILT), an assembly of prominent Southeastern intellectuals, traditional rulers and other stakeholders, has warned that Nigerians will not accept what it described as flawed election results.
The group also accused the Federal Government of anti-democratic tendencies and alleged marginalisation of the South-East, while reiterating its demand for the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
The ILT made its position known in a communiqué issued after a meeting at its headquarters in Enugu, signed by its President, Prof. Elo Amucheazi, and Secretary, Prof. Dozie Chukwuokolo.
It also called for the intervention of the United States to help ensure what it described as free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria in 2027.
The group said it was concerned about what it described as efforts by the Presidency to weaken the opposition parties ahead of the elections.
“ILT observed certain anti-democratic tendencies being orchestrated by the Presidency, like the stifling of the opposition and inflammatory comments such as ‘there is no vacancy in Aso Rock’ and the one the President himself made to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) that ‘all is fair in politics’.
“Some of these comments have been interpreted to mean that the President cannot be removed from office by fair ballots. We join all patriotic people of the world to demand that fair, free and credible elections must be conducted.
“ILT joins the Patriots in reminding the President that world powers are on the watch over the 2027 elections and demand that election results must be transmitted appropriately and in real time. Nigerians are not ready to accept flawed election results,” the communiqué stated.
