The Emeritus Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, His Grace, John Cardinal Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, has listed hurdles against free, fair and credible elections, proffering solutions to what he described as growing ugly malaise destroying the Nigerian political space.
Onaiyekan spoke during his keynote address on “The Ballot, the media and the task of keeping democracy alive”, he presented at the International Conference Centre, Enugu, during the 2026 All Editors Conference (ANEC).
The cleric listed ancient Greek, the Yoruba and other traditional rulerships in Nigeria, lamenting that it appears nothing is being learnt from the gradual destruction of democratic ethos in our clime.
He said: “Democracy must be governance for the good of the people. The leaders must be serving the interests of the governed, and people must be at the center of governance—what we call the common good, all to the glory of God. This is the kind of democracy that Nigerians have been dreaming about.
“There are those who say it is utopian, it is not possible, we just manage with whatever we have. But we are many who believe that it is not necessarily so, that we can indeed work towards a democracy that respects the wishes of the people and works for the common good of the nation.
“In a democracy, leadership is chosen by the people through elections. And this brings us to the question of elections.
“In Nigeria, we have had several elections since 1999. It is difficult to believe that we have been making progress.
“In fact, it seems that the quality of the elections has been reducing from one election to the other, and this is not good news at all.
“There is the conduct of politicians who have an attitude of do-or-die, to win at all costs.
“This is because they see elections as a struggle for power, which brings wealth and influence. In all this, the people hardly count at all. Rather, they are just pawns on the political game.
“Our Constitution has many provisions about Federal Character and State of Origin, meant to ensure equity and inclusivity in our national affairs.
“But its implementation in many cases has led to injustice and exclusion of Nigerians. This rears its head often during elections, when quality is sacrificed to ancestral place of origin.
“The growing system of zoning is also a cause of great concern, which is more for elite rivalry than for the good of the people at the grass roots in the zones. Our Nigerian citizenship is crying to be given greater value and recognition.
“State institution, INEC, that is supposed to conduct the elections has its own issues and problems, mainly because it is set up by government and controlled by the government, which itself, during elections, is no longer only government, but also a contestant in the electoral struggles.
“The INEC is supposed to be independent by definition, Independent National Electoral Commission. But it is doubtful how independent it is or can be.
“INEC is often under pressure from politicians who try to force it to play in their favour. But when the politicians are themselves the government in power, it becomes very problematic for INEC to be truly independent and transparent.
“Another issue is the challenge of government neutrality during elections. We often hear about the factor of incumbency during elections. Regimes in power at both national and state levels have found it difficult to allow a level-playing field for other political contestants with whom they are competing.
“State resources are blatantly captured and deployed for partisan political activities, with little or no qualms.
“We see this when a state governor can boast of delivering 100% of the votes in his state to his preferred presidential candidate. If it is a joke, it is very bad taste.
“Where is the freedom of the people of the state to vote according to their individual consciences? Or does the governor intend to vote for everybody in his state?
“We must also raise concern about the security agencies, which are supposed to secure the environment and give people the space to freely cast their votes.
“They are supposed to work with professionalism, no intimidation, no harassment of the people. But when security agents, with their paraphernalia of force, are all over the place with sirens blaring everywhere, people are intimidated and many are even afraid to come out to vote.
“The overwhelming presence of security agents during elections is not a good thing for our nation. We can borrow a leaf, from other countries who conduct their elections quietly, without declaring public holidays or curfews across the nation.
“The judiciary, which is supposed to be the last stage in the electoral process. It should be stressed that the judiciary is not to determine elections about who wins, but rather to adjudicate disputes when they arise.
“If elections were well conducted, there ought not to be any need for judicial cases.
“The tribunals were supposed to be there just in case. But our experience in the recent past has almost become that we have been witnessing a situation where our elections are being determined not at the polls, but in the courts by the tribunals.
“And this gives a field day for high-class lawyers with high-level fees, doing their best to manipulate issues on technicalities.
“There are allegations that are difficult to deny of unjust judgments by some judges in election tribunals.
“The performance of the judiciary in recent elections has seriously dented the image of this hallowed institution. I do hope that efforts are being made to regain the trust of the people in the courts in these matters.
“On the whole, therefore, we need an improved legal framework for our elections. There have been frequent demands for improvements in this regard.
“Our National Assembly, which ought to make sure that this is done, so far has shown scarce interest for serious change in this matter.
“There are allegations that the present members of the National Assembly prefer to retain the porous system that we now have so that they can take advantage of it for their own selfish reasons.
“It seems that politicians have studied all the loopholes in our system and have perfected the art of taking advantage of those loopholes to win elections by hook or by crook, by whatever means.
“If that is the case, it would not be in their interest to plug those loopholes. But it is certainly in our own interest so to do.
“But I do believe that even with our deficient electoral laws, we can still conduct free, fair, and credible elections if the rules are followed with sincerity of purpose. We can only hope that this will happen.
“However, as we go for the 2027 election, we still need to start thinking about working for an improved framework with the next National Assembly, which we hope will be peopled with better caliber of legislators who will have the will of the people as priority.
“We need to review the method of appointment of the INEC, the Chairman and the commissioners. They should not depend on Mr. President and the governors, who are themselves contestants in elections.
“The approval of the legislature, which is supposed to provide checks and balance, has become mere routine. This is more blatant at the level of the State Electoral Commissions, where they routinely fill the state houses of assembly with the governor’s boys and girls. We need to borrow a leaf from other nations where formulae have been designed to ensure an independent electoral commission that does not depend on the government in power.
“We need to set up a special election tribunal whose duty will be to do nothing else but to settle all election cases with minimum delay. In such a special tribunal, the onus of proof should now be squarely on INEC where charged. As at now, INEC hardly ever needs to prove anything. Whatever INEC says is taken as the authentic position of things.
“The candidates that contest and are complaining against INEC are told that they have no legal right to present issues about how the election was conducted. We saw this playing out so blatantly in the last 2023 election, with disastrous outcomes.
“Our laws should make provision for the citizen as citizen and as electors to challenge results of the election at tribunals. As at now, only candidates have locus standi to challenge election results. But we who cast the votes and whose votes are at stake have no room to complain. This must change.
“While the candidates have a right to complain in the tribunal, we too should have the right to present our case if we believe that the votes we cast have not been properly counted.
“More seriously, we must do all that is necessary to dispose of all tribunal cases before swearing in any candidate. A situation where a candidate has been declared a president still going to tribunal to defend his position using state means and state resources to defend himself against his opponents is not serious as far as natural justice is concerned.
“It is surely possible to dispose of all cases before swearing in. This is what is happening in many countries.
“Whatever the situation, a special election tribunal should be able to give itself a time limit during which all cases are disposed of. There should be no room left for clever lawyers to play technical delay tactics in this matter.
“Can we make provisions for independent candidates, finally? It had been mentioned several times, even in the National Assembly, but nothing seriously has been done. I believe firmly that independent candidates will be useful for our nation, if not at the level of the presidential election certainly at the local level, lower-level elections.
“For example, at the local government level, a local community can decide on somebody whom they respect who doesn’t belong to a political party, and they want him to be their local government chairman.
“He should be able to stand election and be voted in, without having to start looking for a political party that will adopt him or her. It is about time we curb the tyranny of the political parties and their ruthless godfathers
“For the presidential election, we should insist on at least 50% of all votes cast before declaring any victory.
“In the absence of 50% at the first vote, a second vote should be called among the first two highest scorers to determine the winner.
“A situation where a candidate is declared a winner and our president with only 30% of the votes cast, puts doubt on the authenticity of the victory. It is a victory by minority votes.
“A 50% minimum would ensure that whoever becomes our president has a traceable margin of endorsement by the Nigerian people.
“We saw this playing out in the last presidential election in Turkey, where President Erdogan had to present himself for a second round of voting, which he narrowly won by about 51% of the votes.
“Finally, there is need for more stringent rules to control frivolous and selfish cross carpeting in the parliament , both national and state.
“A legislator who wishes to change his/her political party to another different from the party under which he/she was elected to the house by his constituency should be obliged to go back to his constituency to seek re-election under his new party in a bye-election.
“It is not fair for the constituents to watch their legislator changing the party they voted for without their consent.
I repeat that all the above seven points are for the consideration of the new National Assembly to be voted into the house in the next 2027 elections.
“The media has an important role in upholding democracy, to keep the people informed about the true state of the nation.
“It means reporting on actions and policies of government, positively where they are considered so and critically when they need to be reviewed. They should also operate with professional autonomy.
“They should resist pressure from those who are funding them, whether it is the state or it is private organizations and corporate bodies. And all this should be for the common good of the nation. This is not an easy task, as all of you know very well. But it is not impossible for any high caliber journalist or media person.
“AI is already working wonders in the communication space, though not without its dangers if it is allowed to spin out of human control. Pope Leo XIV has some serious wise warning on this matter in his recent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.
“Since they are technology-driven, they require knowledge, skill, and commensurate costs. In all this, there are challenges as well as opportunities”.
