The Director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts, Sam Amadi, has made a bold accusation against the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), alleging that it compromised Nigeria’s 2023 elections.
Amadi, a former Executive Chairman and CEO of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), stated that INEC officials, not the All Progressives Congress (APC), were responsible for the alleged rigging of the elections.
He shared this explosive view during an interactive conference on electoral reform titled “Setting the Agenda.” The event, organized by the Civil Society Coalition for Sustainable Development, took place on Tuesday at Merit House in Abuja.
“There is no lesson to learn from the last election in Ghana,” Amadi declared.
According to him, Nigeria has the tools to conduct credible elections but suffers from a lack of transparency and accountability.
“Everything Ghana did right, we could also do,” he said.
Amadi pointed out that Nigeria had made progress in areas such as the timely delivery of electoral materials and the digitization of its electoral register.
However, he argued that these improvements were overshadowed by INEC’s alleged partisanship and failure to ensure transparency.
“Our electoral commission is partisan,” he said.
He blamed this partisanship on the practice of allowing the president to appoint members of the electoral commission, often selecting individuals with ties to the ruling party.
Amadi suggested that such appointments compromised the credibility of the elections and the integrity of the results.
“You are organizing elections in a third-world country where digital illiteracy is still a challenge and where openness and transparency are lacking,” he noted.
He drew comparisons with democratic practices in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States.
“In many countries, the salaries of lawmakers are public knowledge,” he said.
“In Nigeria, many of us don’t even know the salaries of our national assembly members.”
Amadi emphasized that public expenditure oversight is critical to ensuring accountability.
He pointed out that lawmakers in countries like the UK have faced severe consequences for misusing public funds, such as spending on luxury hotels or diverting campaign donations for personal use.
“Elsewhere, expenditure is receipted, verified, and monitored by oversight offices,” Amadi said.
He stressed that such transparency is absent in Nigeria, where there is little accountability for how public funds are spent.
He further criticized the secrecy surrounding Nigeria’s electoral process.
Amadi alleged that partisan appointments to INEC have made it difficult to trust the outcomes of elections.
“Here, we give the president the power to appoint his brothers, party members, and loyalists to the electoral commission, and then we expect accurate reporting after the votes are counted,” he said.
He also accused INEC officials of deliberately sabotaging the electoral process, citing the alleged manipulation of the electronic server during the election.
“Or that they will not switch off the server during the process,” he added sarcastically.
Amadi suggested that Nigeria had the potential to conduct a “perfect election” in 2023 but failed due to what he described as deliberate actions by the electoral body.
“We could have had a perfect election in 2023, but we didn’t because the INEC chairman and his members essentially rigged the election,” he said.
He concluded with a striking statement: “I have said it before: APC didn’t rig the election; INEC rigged it.”
Amadi’s remarks have added fuel to ongoing debates about the credibility of Nigeria’s 2023 elections.
Many Nigerians and international observers had criticized the electoral process, citing irregularities and alleged bias by INEC.
The event also highlighted the need for comprehensive electoral reform in Nigeria.
Amadi’s comments serve as a reminder of the challenges facing the country’s democracy, including the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and independence in its electoral processes.
