Interesting from Nigeria’s electoral umpire: “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has taken a major step toward integrating advanced technologies into Nigeria’s electoral process with the creation of a dedicated Artificial Intelligence (AI) Division under its ICT Department. Announced on Thursday, the initiative is part of a broader reform drive aimed at modernizing election management systems and strengthening the credibility of future polls—especially the 2027 general elections.”
Good People, INEC’s problem is not lack of AI or technology. The problem in my opinion is that INEC is protected by the Constitution and the Electoral Act to remain unaccountable. Sure – what is this village guy saying about the law? Pardon me because when it comes to the nation, we can all have voices.
This has been my suggestion: we need a system, where as part of an election dispute resolution, the aggrieved candidate would sue the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) instead of the opponent, on issues of not conducting elections as written in the rule book. This would represent a significant shift from the current system, where candidates typically challenge the election results by suing the declared winner.
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Yes, two people contested an election and one was declared a winner. Then, a few days later, you sue the opponent because you do not agree with the outcome. Why is that so? Why not the umpire which managed the election, and let it prove that the results are indeed valid.
Until Nigeria changes the rule book, INEC will not have any incentive to evolve. And this is not an area AI has been trained to handle! Indeed, by the time INEC has been sued and it begins to lose cases in court, invalidating the outcomes of electoral results, both the winner and loser will challenge INEC to put its house in order! Then change will happen!
My position is this: if you sue INEC and it loses, both the winner and opponent will be impacted. And that means everyone will be worried if INEC is not following the rule book. The implication is clear: even as you are projected to win, you need to be concerned if INEC is not following the rule.
Today, INEC is not a player, it is just showing “present” because it has nothing to lose. But a system where both the winner and loser are concerned that if INEC loses, everyone is affected, things will change. Think deeper into my idea: it is a mutual destiny playbook, connecting winner and loser to a shared destiny.
INEC Creates AI Division to Bolster Electoral Reform in Nigeria, But Critics Say Human Factor Still The Problem
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