The electoral system is a critical component of any democracy. It serves as the set of rules and a focal point for selecting leadership and evaluating governance performance. Nigeria’s electoral system is fraught with issues leading to several amendments to the Electoral Act in the last five cycles of election. Yet, the 2023 general elections had contentious issues despite the amendment to the Electoral Act and its meticulous planning and execution by the Independent National Electoral Commission. It fell short of some Nigerians’ expectations for failing to abide by its rules to the end due to the glitch suffered in the uploading of election results.

There are upcoming off-cycle elections in Edo, Ondo, and Anambra states between now and next year. Many Nigerians want to see what improvements INEC would bring to bear on the elections. The National Assembly has also embarked on another round of amendments to the Electoral Act, and part of the process would be the conduct of public hearings on the proposed amendments. Ahead of the take-off of this process, The Nigerian Democratic Report (NDR) www.ndr.org.ng went to town to gauge the mood and feelings of Nigerians and their expectations and the kind of reforms they wished would take place. Such reforms are expected to boost public trust in the electoral process.

Against this backdrop, NDR went to the bustling streets of Lagos to conduct a vox pop to gather the different perspectives of Nigerians on the subject of electoral reform. Nigerians who spoke with us expressed their thoughts, hopes, and frustrations regarding the conduct of the 2023 elections. They also offered solutions from their perspectives.

Raphael Anichebe, Media Practitioner: “It is saddening that the Nigerian system is generally weak and unreliable, such that nobody believes in what the government is doing anymore. I do not think there is anything wrong with the current electoral law. All I feel could be done is to implement the current law effectively. The electronic result transmission, which INEC failed to do in the past elections, must be made to work effectively. There should be transparency in the conduct of our election. I will also state that our judiciary needs to be reformed. Its conduct during the electoral matters in court was not convincing, they must focus on making sure that the judiciary is not controlled by the powers that be.”

Daniel Ezekiel, Entertainer: “The thing I feel we can do is if we can create a Mobile App or something that can help us vote from anywhere, at least look at the way they are doing it abroad. We can have this App or software which will also monitor your vote as it is being counted. We do not want the regular threats and electoral violence we see at the polling booths anymore, a mobile App can reduce such incidents we see during the election, especially in Lagos. We saw quite several voter suppressions here in Lagos during the 2023 election. If they want people to participate in this country’s elections, that must be put into consideration.”

Fumilayo Igbiniedor, Trader: “Bad governance is causing voter apathy in this country. Our political leaders and government are too greedy, their policies do not favour us and that is making many people uninterested in participating in anything related to elections or voting again. I have vowed that if nothing is done to address bad governance in this country, I will not even vote again. The first reform I am concerned about is the issue of bad government, which must be addressed as quickly as possible.

Temitope Ayedogbon, Student: “It is no longer news that the public no longer trusts the electoral process in this country. And when you have conversations with people, they will tell you they will not vote anymore. So, if we look into gaining people’s trust again, making them come out in their numbers to vote for their choices. First of all, I would like us to look at political parties that are buying people in the sense of giving them little things that will not sustain them so that they can vote for them. One thing I will advise the government to do is to eradicate hunger in the land. When people are so hungry they can be bought so easily and that is why we have prevalent vote buying during the election. Also, there should be transparency in the process. Imagine if people come out in their numbers to cast their votes in their wards and they get the actual results of their coming out, but in a situation where the process is eroded with violence and wrong results, they will not be encouraged to come out again”.

Victoria Bamiduro, IT Worker: “There should be independent electoral supervisors, and they should not be bribed while at it. Also, there should be greater security for each polling unit. At my polling unit in the last election, the police officer there was given food and alcohol and was put in one place while violence was going on”.

Vincent Nysome, Civil Servant: “In the previous election, we could see the security personnel were not active enough to take control over the insecurity incidents at some voting units, which led to fear in the people and their fear of coming out to vote as they did not want to lose their lives, even on the transportation of ballot boxes/ papers. The security aspect should be worked on. The technologies used in the previous elections were not as effective as they promised they would be, as there were issues of malfunctions, so I feel this should be worked on. Also, They should try to make the issue of Registration and collection less tiring and annoying. There were even situations of threats and bullying by INEC officials on the issue of voters’ cards”.

Erupre Gift, NGO Worker: “Electronic voting would greatly improve the efficiency and credibility of elections. It’s time for Nigeria to embrace technology in the electoral process. It is now a civilised world, I mean, if they want to do this, they know what to do. Create a website or develop a system that will fix all of that.”

Aremu Alarape, Driver: “The best reform I believe in is to go back to the 1963 constitution during the western region, no amount of fixing they do to this military made 1999 constitution that we are using. No matter how we patch it, we will still be having similar issues during the election and that is affecting our government. The politicians are just conducting elections for the sake of it, they know that the system will always favour them to rig the elections, whether they perform well or not”.

The above summary shows Nigerians still have hope in the electoral process and would want amendments that would strengthen their hope and trust in the system more. The amendment to the Electoral Act should happen early and be tested to be fool-proof before the general elections in 2027.

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