The aftermath of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria has continued to be haunted by the controversy surrounding the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV) and the Bimodal Voter Registration Systems (BVAS).
The malfunction, which raised questions about the transparency and integrity of the electoral process, has prompted a fresh demand for accountability from former INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega.
INEC officials faced challenges during the February 2023 presidential and National Assembly polls. Electronic upload of election results to the IReV, as mandated by Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022, encountered difficulties at various polling units.
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The resulting public outcry led opposition parties to vehemently protest against the manual collation of results and the declaration of winners.
Prof Attahiru Jega, former INEC Chairman and Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, attributed the breakdown to the alleged infiltration by desperate politicians seeking victory “by hook or by crook.” He expressed disappointment in the actions of these politicians, accusing them of attempting to compromise the systems designed for accreditation and electronic transmission of votes.
Jega acknowledged INEC’s consistent efforts to enhance transparency through technological advancements but highlighted the perpetual challenge posed by reckless politicians. According to him, these politicians strive to stay a step ahead, constantly trying to outsmart the electoral body.
“In 2023, INEC did its best under very difficult circumstances and a lot of these difficult circumstances were caused by the mindset of our selfish politicians who wanted to win by hook or by crook,” he said.
“INEC has over time introduced technology to make the process of election results very transparent with integrity but from my own experience when I was in INEC from 2011 to 2015;
“…and I suspect that a lot of that has continued to be so up to 2023, our reckless politicians try to be a step ahead of INEC; if you introduce something today and you try it, they try to be a step ahead of you and beat it by the next election.
“And of course, they can also use ways and means to not only truncate but also bypass something that has actually been put in legitimately to add to the integrity of the process.
“If you ask my opinion, I feel very strongly that INEC needs to tell us more about what happened with the IReV. In fact, at one point, I was even calling for a thorough public inquiry about what happened with regard to IReV.
“I feel that something has happened, that in spite of the confidence and the very articulate manner the INEC chairman (Mahmood Yakubu) had spoken about the IReV and it then failed.
“I believe that some of our reckless politicians may have infiltrated it and truncated it but INEC will take the blame for that.”
He stressed the need for a thorough public inquiry into the IReV failure, questioning the system’s integrity despite the chairman’s initial confidence. “We need to go back to the bottom of what happened with the IReV,” he said.
The controversies stemming from the IReV failure are multi-faceted. Opposition parties, dissatisfied with the manual collation of results, challenged the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was declared the winner of the presidential election by INEC.
The electoral body’s admission that certain glitches hampered real-time result transmission further fueled suspicions. This, coupled with its successful attempt to block the move of opposition parties to inspect election materials, cast a shadow over the credibility of the entire electoral process.
The controversies surrounding the IReV failure prompted questions about the effectiveness of INEC’s safeguards and raised concerns about the susceptibility of Nigeria’s electoral infrastructure to external interference.
The compromised IReV and BVAS systems have left an indelible mark on the 2023 presidential election, giving rise to a cascade of controversies and casting doubt on the efficacy of INEC’s technological mechanisms.
Jega’s call for a public inquiry into the 2023 election is one of many, including international observers, who advocated the need for transparency and accountability in addressing the failures and ensuring the integrity of future electoral processes. The IReV failure remains a focal point in discussions about the state of Nigeria’s democracy and the challenges faced in safeguarding the electoral process against manipulations.