Follow Us on Google
There are ominous signs that the 2027 general election is tilting towards becoming a farce, or a sham, if you like. What some politicians have done, and still intend to do, make this conclusion inevitable. From every indication, the powers that be do not want to brook any opposition and may go to any extent to crush whoever becomes a stumbling block to their ambition.
Their tactics are variegated. One of them is to instigate violence and scare away both the opposition and potential voters. A typical example was the disruption of an event marking the defection of Labour Party (LP) members to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Saturday, January 31, 2026, in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, by suspected thugs.
Over 100 hoodlums reportedly invaded the venue of the event with knives, canes and other dangerous weapons. They assaulted people, vandalized party property and forced party officials and members to flee. Many people sustained injuries. The hoodlums were said to have chanted hostile slogans and declared that LP and ADC were not welcome in Lagos State.
In another violent act, reminiscent of the Lagos show of shame, some suspected thugs, last week, attacked the convoy of the presidential candidate of the LP in the 2023 election and leading presidential aspirant of the ADC in the 2027 election, Mr. Peter Obi, in Benin, the Edo State capital. Obi, together with a former governor of Edo State, John Odigie-Oyegun, and some other ADC stalwarts, attended the declaration of a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olumide Akpata, for the ADC.
On their way back to Odigie-Oyegun’s house, they reportedly noticed that some Sienna buses were trailing them. Obi and Co. were inside Odigie-Oyegun’s house when the hoodlums allegedly rained bullets on the compound. Bullet holes were visible on the gate of the former governor. Some vehicles had their windshields smashed. Luckily, no one was killed. But a number of people reportedly sustained injuries. Also, the destroyed furniture around the secretariat of the ADC in Edo showed visible signs of the violence.
The statement of the Edo State government on the incident was laughable. It claimed it was an internal crisis within the ADC that engendered the attack. Perhaps, Okpebholo thinks Nigerians are fools. Or that they have short memories. In July last year, he had warned Mr. Obi to desist from visiting Edo without his consent; and that he should be ready to take anything that happened to him. But for immunity, which protects him in office, this man should have faced some charges in court. Nevertheless, immunity cannot protect him forever.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) acting chairman in Edo State, Jarrett Tenebe, is a good student of the governor. Early last month, he reportedly threatened a woman, Blessing Agho, with death for criticizing Okpebholo. “Your death is close. You are a bastard, just show where you are, if you can. Death awaits you, idiot,” he allegedly told the woman via Facebook Messenger. In sane societies, he should have been going through cross-examination in court by now.
It is this type of shenanigans that led to the fall of the First Republic. In the 1960s, politicians threw caution to the wind and operated as if nothing else mattered except their inordinate ambition. At some point, there was ‘Operation Wetie’ violence in the South-West and, subsequently, the military coup of 1966.
The same thing happened in the Second Republic. Politicians became very unruly.
The dominant party then, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), became master riggers and shut out the opposition. Corruption became their second name. It was not surprising that the military struck in 1983 to bring an end to that civilian contraption.
Politicians have not relented in their evil ways in this current democratic experiment. Violence, intimidation of the opposition and rigging of elections have continued with impunity. Elections have become mere waste of time and resources as votes hardly count. In areas where they cannot buy voters, they snatch ballot boxes and change results of polls.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) council elections held on Saturday, February 21 across six area councils were a dress rehearsal. Low voter turnout, vote-buying, and some other malpractices marred the election. Some of those announced as winners might not have won the election.
Nigeria has descended to a stage where the rule of force overrides the rule of law. The game plan now is to intimidate the opposition and the electorate so that there will be very low voter turnout on the day of the election. This will give them the latitude to manipulate results as they like and announce themselves as winners.
If all attempts to intimidate the opposition fail, they have other plans up their sleeves. You will begin to hear that the APC is the dominant party and will naturally win all the elections. With the defection of the Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, to the APC last week, the ruling party now has 30 out of the 36 state governors in Nigeria. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) now controls only three states while the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Accord and Labour Parties control one state each. Some of the so-called opposition governors are in full support of Tinubu.
In 2027, the riggers can conveniently tell you that the APC controls almost all the states both at the executive and legislative levels and there is no way any of the opposition parties would have come near victory at the polls.
Other News
Going to court will be a waste of time. The Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill that the President swiftly signed on February 18, a day after it was passed by the National Assembly, will form the legal basis upon which to determine electoral petition cases. Many Nigerians had clamoured for a mandatory electronic transmission of election results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal real time.
The House of Representatives had passed the version which sat well with Nigerians. But at the harmonization level, the Nigerian magic happened. The National Assembly went for the Senate version which provides for electronic transmission of results but with a caveat that manual transfer will be used in areas where there are network failures.
This is where the rigging will start. Politicians know how to cook up figures. They will likely target areas with high voter-population and announce network failures there. Then, manual transfer of results, which is prone to all sorts of manipulations, will follow. At the end of the day, some fictitious results may be announced and losers asked to go to court. We have gone through this cycle before. And that was why Nigerians pushed for a change in the electoral law so that votes would count. But that has not worked.
It is a pity that Nigeria is currently under the grip of total state capture. State governors have been captured. The legislature and the judiciary have also been captured. The opposition is weak. The only major opposition we have now is Peter Obi. And that is why they are after him. If the election is free and fair, Obi will likely take them to the cleaners, even with all the captured governors. But it will be a miracle if the umpire allows the election to be free and fair. So, do we fold our arms and resign to fate?
I don’t think so. Let us come out on the election day and perform our civic duties. If we fail to come out, they will still cook up figures and claim that millions of people voted and they won the majority of votes. Either way, they will still claim victory.
Paul Biya did it in Cameroon in October 2025. Samia Hassan and Alassane Outtara also did it in Tanzania and Ivory Coast respectively in 2025. And Yoweri Museveni did it in Uganda in January this year. All these leaders have one thing in common.
They manipulated their countries’ electoral system, shut out the opposition and claimed victory in highly contentious presidential elections.
This is why Africa has been moving backwards. We have leaders who are too egocentric. Even if heaven is falling, it doesn’t bother them as long as their selfish interests are protected. Most current Nigerian leaders are in that league. We must continue to do our beat and leave the rest for posterity.
Re: Fears for 2027 election
We all are at fault for all the impunities associated with our elections. Yes, the politicians who orchestrate and carry out the rigging of elections share the greatest blame for their brazenness, arbitrariness and total disregard for laws but part of the blame equally goes to the academia of our society who help the politicians in realizing their goals. The Professors, PhD holders, lecturers and NYSC members who serve as INEC ad hoc staff during elections who allow themselves to be used to truncate the will of the people.
The task of having a credible election in Nigeria after what the National Assembly foisted on us rests on four oars: the INEC, the Telcos, the people and the civil society. For the coming elections (2027) and onwards, the INEC must publish the names of those it recruited to work as its ad hoc staff for all the polling units, LGAs and States. The names must not only be displayed on the INEC website for all to access but also must be pasted at each polling unit on the day of elections. The voters need to accredit the electoral officers too. This will prevent impersonations like we had in the last election where till date a returning officer who declared results in an area cannot be traced. This will also give the populace the opportunity of knowing who to call out for aiding and abetting election malpractices in the country.
The Telcos have continued to assure Nigerians that the whole country is almost covered and network for the transmission of results in real time will not be an issue. It rests with them to live up to their words. On election days, after the declaration of results at the polling units, the people must mobilize themselves in numbers to accompany the collated results of the polling units to the various LGA collation centers. These are primary places where the results are first altered before they get to the state collation centre. If the people can make each LGA Returning Officer to call out the collated results of the LGA collation centres, fifty percent of the abnormalities will be curbed.
The civil society and various professional bodies and unions have roles to play in keeping the persons involved in check. Associations like the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) must have a disciplinary mechanism through which to hold their members who are hired for election duties accountable. Same applies to the NYSC. It is high time people were demoted, de-robed or dismissed for election rigging.
–Aloy Uzoekwe, Anambra, 08038503174
