Ahead of the 2027 general elections, Abayomi Mighty, a Pan African leader and leader of the 4th Tribe, has sparked a critical discourse on the Nigerian Electoral Act 2022 and the capacity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to guarantee free, fair, and credible elections.
Abayomi Mighty has quarried the ambiguities and systemic limitations in the Electoral Act 2022; alongside the structural weaknesses of INEC as a commission which pose significant threats to the credibility of elections in Nigeria.
He emphatically stressed the vagueness in word choice in the Electoral Act, 2022 bothering on electronic transmission of results. Abayomi Mighty referenced Section 50, subsection 2 which states that voting and transmission of results shall be done in a manner determined by INEC. He criticizes this provision as obviously empowering INEC to arbitrary employ discretion which could be exploited to undermine transparency.
Abayomi Mighty added that the Electoral Act also fails to address mandatory requirements for the electronic accreditation of voters across all polling units, thereby creating loopholes that compromise the integrity of the electoral process. He mentioned cases in the last general elections of 2023 where technical glitches and inconsistencies in the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) were widely reported, which led to alleged manipulation and disenfranchisement.
Abayomi Mighty also queried INEC’s independence. He facetiously asked “how can a commission be funded by the executive arm and yet remain independent?” He also condemned the un-uniformity in the implementation of electoral guidelines across the federation which are reflected in the disparities in voters’ registration, PVC distribution, and polling unit management.
Abayomi Mighty exclusively highlighted the exclusion of diaspora voting. He critiqued the absence of a legal provision for diaspora voting, a deliberate act he says minted on disenfranchising millions of Nigerians living abroad.
Abayomi Mighty also added that the Electoral Act fails to harmonize electoral timelines and address vote-buying effectively. He unequivocally calls for the amendment of the Electoral Act to address these concerns and asks that INEC be granted financial autonomy to disallow executive interference.
Abayomi Mighty carefully recalled the controversy that sprang from Section 134 of the Constitution in the last general elections which requires a presidential candidate to secure at least 25% votes in two-third of the states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). He demands that such provision be resolved to eliminate interpretative controversies.