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There is no doubt detection of some AI-generated pictures and other materials in Nigeria’s voters’ register brought back memories of 2023’s controversial glitch and confirmed the people’s fear that INEC may be compromised to rig 2027 elections.
Recalling the bitter experience the 2023 glitch, Nigerians are worried that all may not be well with 2027 elections and that the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission may not have truly improved since 2023.
Reacting to the people’s fears, however, INEC on Friday said Nigerians have nothing to worry about the integrity of the Voters’ Register to be used in conducting the 2027 elections.
Admitting it was some of its field officers that introduced the AI-generated pictures and other irregularities into the national voters ‘ register, using their field access codes, the commission told Nigerians not to be worried, promising that INEC’s processes are being “cleaned up.”
Lawrence Bayode, INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), who, on behalf of INEC, voiced the admission of guilt and gave the assurance when he appeared on The Morning Show, the breakfast programme on ARISE News Television, said, “Some registration officers used their login details to introduce questionable records into the commission’s database.”
According to him, the irregularities were discovered through the commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System, which was deployed to examine the registration records.
As he stated it: “We have registration officers on the field. And these registration officers, they have login details to log into the system.
So what we have found is that some of these registration officers, not all of them now, some of them across the states nationwide, they’ve done different things to bring these irregularities onto the register.
“Some of these pictures are AI-generated. Some of them not AI-generated, but very bad registration.
And this thing got into the register by the registration officers because they have access to register people.
“When the ABIS was run on the system, we saw these people. We know what they did. We know how they did it. But, honestly, I don’t know why.”
This timely and open admission of guilt by INEC, to me, is commendable, though it is not, on its own, enough to ensure free, fair and acceptable elections in 2027.
I am not certain INEC was that forthcoming during the 2023 glitch nightmare.
INEC’s current admission of guilt is not enough to assure Nigerians that the corrupt INEC officials are not still poised to sell Nigerians’ mandate.
All of us must admit that Nigerians should be worried to learn that the INEC that is going to conduct 2027 elections in Nigeria is peopled by officials who have access codes and are minded to use same to introduce fake and AI-generated materials and other irregularities into the national electoral system.
This truth, no matter how anyone views it, is, to say the least, scary!
Yes, the INEC’s director repeated the statement that they are currently cleaning up their system. What does that really mean? Is the gentleman trying to say that INEC’s only response to an offence as heinous as manipulation of a country’s voters’ register is just to delete the fake AI inputs and then to present the edited version to Nigerians with verbal assurances that all is well?
If this is the thinking of INEC, may I say it here clearly that the commission and the government it represents are getting it all wrong. Such a reaction is another evidence that the current government and the electoral umpire are possibly taking Nigerians for a ride.
What the corrupt INEC field officials have done is to serve notice to Nigerians that they have the technology to input fake materials to INEC’s final results in the 2027 general election.
They are also serving Nigerians notice that they all have access to the central data bank and so can add or subtract from their remote fields.
This being the case, it is not only shocking that no one in government or in INEC’s top command is talking about sanctions and total change to a more reliable system.
It is so simplistic for INEC to believe it will really rebuild public confidence by saying it could trace the sources of the AI-generated fake pictures and other materials in the register.
What Nigerians want to hear instead is that it’s system is such that no staff can input fake materials to rig the election. Anything less than that leaves ample room for fears and doubts.
I say so because I think most hungry and frustrated citizens, if tempted or pressured by desperate, corrupt politicians, may yield to input AI-generated fake materials into the system before or during the elections and during compilation of results.
I agree with the worried population that an electoral umpire that is exhibiting so much skill to rig through AI in a preliminary voters’ register should be feared by all.
This is even more when the commission seems to say little or nothing about what it will do to the staff members involved and how to permanently ensure no staff would be able to do this in any form during the actual elections.
Apart from the AI-generated images attached to voter records in parts of Edo State, other concerns included alleged duplicate entries and complaints by some registered voters that their details were missing from the online register.
These are allegations and facts too heavy to be waved aside.
APC’s defence of Tinubu on his failure to keep electricity supply promise to Nigerians
Nigeria is truly a unique nation. It is a country where people love and defend with passion and where they also hate and condemn with passion.
Take the case of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s alleged failure to fulfill a promise he made to Nigerians to supply electricity and ensure that every family uses pre-paid metre so as to eradicate estimated billing from the giant of Africa.
It was a promise made in the open during the 2023 presidential election campaigns. But like everything Nigerian, Tinubu passionate haters and lovers are today touting slightly different versions upon which they now build their condemnation or defence.
The fact is that Tinubu has woefully failed to fulfill his promise of electricity supply. Today, even his defenders agree he failed in this critical area.
The only difference is that while his traducers insist he clearly asked Nigerians not to re-elect him if he fails to fulfil this critical promise, his defenders argue that he added a proviso, which they say reads: “If I don’t keep the promise and I come for a second term, don’t vote for me, unless I give you adequate reasons why I couldn’t deliver.”
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council which is currently leading this defence insists Tinubu’s “remarks have been taken out of context.”
In a statement on Sunday, the council’s spokesperson, Dele Alake, agreed Tinubu made the pledge to deliver stable electricity while addressing members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) in Lagos ahead of the 2023 general elections.
He said Tinubu had said at the meeting: “Whichever way, by all means necessary, you will have electricity, and you will not pay for estimated bills anymore. A promise made will be a promise kept.
“If I don’t keep the promise and I come for a second term, don’t vote for me, unless I give you adequate reasons why I couldn’t deliver.”
To me, I do not see any reason for this current heated debate over this matter.
Since we all agree that Tinubu made the said promise to Nigerians and we also agree that he woefully failed to fulfill it. We also all agree that he, in 2023, made his fulfilment of this promise a condition for Nigerians’ to consider his re-election, I believe we do not need to argue over the said proviso.
Tinubu’s defenders should simply explain to Nigerians in very plain language what he has done in the last four years after he made the promise and was given the people’s mandate while his critics and the electorates should assess his performance so far to determine if it is adequate to earn him the re-election he is seeking today.
It is this simple.
• Samuel Hezekiah Egburonu Esq, is a lawyer, veteran journalist, literary scholar and current affairs analyst
