PLAC director says electoral body must win public trust, calls on parties to focus on issues as JFCN warns Nigerians against taking democracy for granted
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must not introduce artificial intelligence into Nigeria’s electoral process without clear, transparent and verifiable procedures, the Executive Director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Dr Clement Nwankwo, has warned.
Nwankwo said any deployment of technology in elections must strengthen transparency and protect the will of voters, cautioning that an unfamiliar or poorly explained system could undermine public confidence in the electoral process ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He also urged Nigerians dissatisfied with governance or the conduct of elections to participate actively in the democratic process rather than withdraw from voting, insisting that credible elections required responsibility from the electoral umpire, political parties and citizens.
Nwankwo spoke in Abuja on Tuesday at the eighth annual public lecture of the Just Friends Club of Nigeria (JFCN), themed “From Concern to Action: Making Our Votes Count in the 2027 General Elections.”
The event examined the challenges confronting Nigeria’s democracy, including economic hardship, insecurity, declining civic participation and the need to strengthen public confidence in elections.
Addressing questions on the proposed use of artificial intelligence in elections, Nwankwo said the legal framework and operational details must be clear to voters and other stakeholders before any new technology was introduced.
He maintained that the electoral process must remain anchored in procedures prescribed by law, warning against technological innovations that citizens and political parties could neither understand nor independently verify.
“INEC needs to be careful that its so-called use of AI in elections does not result in use of technology to circumvent the vote of the people,” he said.
Nwankwo argued that the electoral commission needed to explain precisely what it meant by using artificial intelligence and how the technology would interact with existing procedures for voting, counting and collating results.
He said technology could be useful to political parties in independently checking results announced by INEC, but warned that the commission should not introduce systems that lacked public understanding and verifiability.
“For the collation of results, for the parties, yes, the use of AI in collated results, so they can cross-check what INEC is doing, is going to be so very important,” he said.
“But INEC should not introduce a system that people do not understand. People cannot verify for use in elections in this country,” he added.
His comments come amid wider concerns about how electoral technology is deployed, explained and scrutinised, with stakeholders seeking assurances that innovations will improve the credibility of elections rather than create additional uncertainty.
Nwankwo stressed that public trust must be earned at every stage of the electoral process, particularly by the body responsible for managing elections.
“Citizens have to trust the electoral process, trust the election management body, and the election management body has to, at every stage, convince Nigerians that it is doing the right job,” he said.
He urged political parties to demonstrate what they could offer Nigerians through issue-based campaigns rather than allowing electoral contests to be dominated by recriminations and accusations.
He also called for increased voter participation, arguing that citizens who were angry with the electoral process or dissatisfied with governance should use their votes to express their concerns.
For INEC, he said, the responsibility was to demonstrate that it was conducting credible elections, warning that Nigerians would not accept a poorly managed process.
The chairman of the event, Hussaini Abdu, Country Director of CARE Nigeria, also underscored the importance of protecting democracy and ensuring that citizens understood their responsibility in sustaining democratic governance.
Abdu said the annual lecture series was established to address topical issues affecting Nigerians and contribute to national development. He noted that the club’s decision to focus this year’s edition on the 2027 elections reflected the importance of citizen participation at a critical moment for the country.
He cautioned that Nigerians, particularly younger people who did not experience military rule, risked taking democracy for granted without appreciating the struggles that secured the country’s return to civil rule.
Democracy, he argued, was a precious legacy that must be preserved and passed on to future generations. Losing it could expose younger Nigerians to the same struggles endured by those who fought for democratic governance.
Abdu said the club had therefore brought experts and political stakeholders together to discuss practical ways of improving the democratic process.
He also stressed that institutions involved in elections, including INEC and security agencies, must not only be transparent but must be seen by the public to be transparent and independent.
According to him, citizens’ confidence in the electoral process depends significantly on whether the institutions responsible for managing and protecting elections are perceived as impartial and accountable.
The President of JFCN, Amaechi C. Aloke, said the lecture’s theme was deliberately selected to challenge Nigerians to turn their concerns about governance into meaningful participation.
Aloke observed that Nigerians regularly complain about insecurity, unemployment, corruption, infrastructure deficits, the cost of living and the quality of public services, but insisted that expressing dissatisfaction alone would not transform the country.
“What do we do with that concern? Concern, by itself, does not change a country. It must become knowledge. Knowledge must become participation. Participation must become responsible citizenship. And responsible citizenship must extend beyond Election Day,” he said.
The discussion also highlighted concerns about the apparent weakening of the middle class and its declining willingness to organise around shared interests.
Speakers argued that many relatively affluent Nigerians increasingly rely on private alternatives to compensate for failing public services, including generators and solar systems for electricity, private schools and hospitals, and medical treatment abroad.
Although such measures may provide individual relief, the speakers warned that they could also reduce collective pressure on government to improve public services.
They cited an example from an affluent Abuja neighbourhood where residents reportedly complained through a WhatsApp group about levies imposed by local authorities but failed to translate their grievances into coordinated action.
The discussion questioned whether such private coping mechanisms and fragmented responses to shared problems were weakening the ability of citizens to demand accountability from public institutions.
The speakers also raised concerns about voter apathy, particularly among eligible voters in affluent communities who reportedly stayed away from polling units instead of participating in elections.
They urged Nigerians to move beyond private complaints and social media exchanges by voting, monitoring electoral processes, protecting their ballots and documenting results at polling units.
The JFCN, established in 2013, began its annual public lecture series in 2014. Its previous speakers have addressed subjects ranging from economic reform and public debt to national security, electoral politics and the cost of governance.
At the seventh edition in 2025, retired Lieutenant-General Abdulrahman Dambazau delivered a lecture on Nigeria’s security challenges and national cohesion, emphasising a people-centred approach to security and investment in human development.
Beyond the lecture series, Aloke said the club also undertook philanthropic activities, including visits to homes for older people and orphanages, support for children with disabilities, career guidance in public schools and sponsorship for eight indigent secondary school students in Abuja.
As the 2027 elections approach, the speakers’ message was that protecting democracy requires more than periodic voting. It demands trusted electoral institutions, transparent procedures, issue-based political campaigns and citizens prepared to participate actively and hold those in power accountable.
For Nwankwo, the credibility of the next election will depend in part on whether INEC can demonstrate that its procedures are lawful, transparent and capable of being independently understood and verified by the people whose votes determine the outcome.
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