{"id":165029,"date":"2025-05-31T00:01:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T23:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria"},"modified":"2025-05-31T01:02:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T00:02:28","slug":"judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria","title":{"rendered":"judiciary biggest threats to free, fair elections in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Dr Sam Amadi, the former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has described the country\u2019s administrative failure as the biggest threat to free and fair elections.<\/p>\n

He stated this in Abuja while speaking at the launch of the National Action Plan on Electoral Reform by the Political Committee of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress, TUC, and the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the widespread endorsement of President Bola Tinubu\u2019s second term, Amadi call for the reform of INEC and the judiciary ahead of the 2027 general elections.<\/p>\n

According to him: \u201cThe proposed National Strategic Action is different from previous efforts in electoral reform in Nigeria; [it] is also directed at the judiciary. Both Executive and Judiciary arise from the recognition that the real threats to electoral integrity and justice come from the electoral management body and the judiciary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed joint project has become urgent because of the widespread and growing skepticism about the prospect of free and fair elections amongst both electorates and politicians. This skepticism is reflected in the spate of decampment to the ruling APC by governors and legislators of opposition parties because of fear of being rigged out of office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing, he said: \u201cThe 2023 and by-election experiences show that without reforming the institutional setting and procedures of the electoral management body and thereby guaranteeing its independence and impartiality, we can\u2019t have a guarantee of credible and trustworthy elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2023 elections were electronically transmitted in real-time as required by INEC guidelines. But the presidential results were not because polling officers could not access the right password to upload the results on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).\u201d<\/p>\n

This administrative failure, according to him, \u201cgutted the entire safeguard of the 2023 presidential election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said he: \u201cThe outcome was that several results in key battleground states were mutilated, and false results were entered and collected.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the tribunal, INEC could not provide evidence of any technical glitch that prevented the upload of results as required by its guidelines. Unfortunately, the tribunal and courts wrongly ruled that INEC could easily walk away from the requirements of its election management guidelines issued pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

He concluded on this note: \u201cThe challenge for free and fair elections in Nigeria is how to enable an electoral jurisprudence that penalises electoral malpractices in such a manner that restores the right of electorates to choose leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his part, the acting chairman of the Political Committee of NLC, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, noted that Nigerians have lost confidence in the electoral system.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocracy is dying. People don\u2019t come out to vote again. In 2015, we had 69 million registered voters, but 44% voted. Which was almost half of the voters; 2015 is just ten years ago. In 2019, we had 82 million registered, but 35% voted. In 2023, we had 93 registered voters, and only 27% voted. So if we are not careful, the next election will be 15% if we are following the trend,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when registered voters are increasing, the number of voters is decreasing, and the percentage is going down fast by almost 10% every election year. People are not voting because they have lost confidence in the electoral system. So we\u2019re not going to call this a democracy when the people are not voting.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Dr Sam Amadi, the former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has described the country\u2019s administrative failure as the biggest threat to free and fair elections. He stated this in Abuja while speaking at the launch of the National Action Plan on Electoral Reform by the Political Committee of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":165028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[251,254,7419],"class_list":["post-165029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-inec","tag-nigeria","tag-sam-amadi"],"yoast_head":"\njudiciary biggest threats to free, fair elections in Nigeria - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr Sam Amadi, the former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has described the country\u2019s a ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"judiciary biggest threats to free, fair elections in Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr Sam Amadi, the former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has described the country\u2019s a ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-30T23:01:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-31T00:02:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/sm_1748637211.005438.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"judiciary biggest threats to free, fair elections in Nigeria\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-30T23:01:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-31T00:02:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria\"},\"wordCount\":570,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/sm_1748637211.005438.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"INEC\",\"Nigeria\",\"Sam Amadi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/judiciary-biggest-threats-to-free-fair-elections-in-nigeria\",\"name\":\"judiciary biggest threats to free, fair elections in Nigeria - 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