Projections by Yiaga Africa, a major election monitoring body in the country has revealed that there are indices pointing towards possibilities that the much anticipated 2027 general elections will be highly compromised.

Yiaga Executive Director, Samson Itodo made this revelation on Friday in Abuja during the official launch of the State of Electoral Integrity Report in Nigeria and the accompanying policy roundtable.

According to Itodo, the 2027 elections might also be the most monetized election in history as a result of the economic hardship.

“The attitude of Nigeria’s political class, lack of regard for the rule of and institutional capture are most of the ugly development he disclosed the body has noticed ahead of preparation for elections.

“One of the things our reports have also said is that the chances that the 2027, elections will be compromised is very high because of political opportunism, as well as institutional capture.

“One is the attitude of the political class. We also see cases of the lack of regard for the rule of law. We also highlighted issues relating to the entire political system because we have seen incidences where politicians are approaching the next election as he do or die affair, and that is problematic.

“This capture of institutions across board, and it’s not just capture of INEC, and this is why we are calling on the appointing authority, and in this case, those who will be involved in appointing the next INEC Chairman and Commissioners to uphold certain principles of transparency, non partisanship and accountability, in ensuring that the next chair of INEC is one who does not just have the competence, but is also one who has the moral integrity, the unquestionable integrity, to hold that particular office.”

“Thirdly is the fact that we have also said in our report that the 2027 elections might be the most monetized election in history as a result of the economic hardship, we are anticipating that vote buying and vote selling will increase, and if that is the case, it undermines democratic legitimacy and accountability.”

He went on: “The reason why this report is released at this point is because it is midterm to the 2027 election. Today makes it exactly 603 days to the 2027 election.

Therefore we are raising these issues to draw the attention of those who have the power to make decisions, to avert this risk or mitigate this risk, to take action.

“One of them is the National Assembly. One of the recommendations we have done is to call on the National Assembly to conclude the process of the amendment to the electoral law as well as the Constitution.

“We note that the National Assembly, especially the committees, both the INEC committees and the Senate and the House have done remarkable job but we need to conclude this process early enough to guarantee the legal instruments that will be used for the next election.

“We have also called on INEC to use its powers to regulate the behavior of political actors. We are not yet in the 2027 elections, but we have seen political actors across board.

“It is not just the ruling party, including the opposition parties, are involved in visible campaigns. And that is problematic, because what it simply does is that we are priming the 2027 elections in such a way that it will be compromised even before the time, therefore, INEC should use its powers to regulate the commencement of early campaigns.

“And so we are raising this risk ahead of the 2027 elections, so that those who have the power to make those decisions can take those decisions, but also for citizens, because our conclusion is that if the 2027 elections, if the off cycle elections, if the by elections will be credible, or if the FCT local elections will be credible, they will be credible if only and Only if citizens ensure that they come out to cast their votes, they protect their mandate and they provide vigilance on the process. (The Guardian)