A former Director at the Independent National Electoral Commission, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, has cautioned that holding elections with a compromised voter register will severely undermine the credibility of the upcoming 2027 general polls in Nigeria.
Osaze-Uzzi shared these concerns on Friday while appearing on Channels Television's current affairs programme, Politics Today, where discussions centered on the state of the nation's electoral framework ahead of the next electoral cycle.
He emphasized that the existing national voter database remains riddled with inconsistencies and requires urgent remediation to meet the threshold of free, fair, and transparent democratic exercises.
"A compromised voter register cannot guarantee credible elections. What we have now cannot give us credible elections in 2027 if we don't fix it," Osaze- Uzzi stated during the interview.
What reforms are needed for the voter register?
The former electoral official urged the commission to initiate a comprehensive audit to expunge ineligible entries, including deceased individuals, underage registrants, and duplicate profiles that frequently bloat the database.
Furthermore, he advocated for transparency by calling on the electoral umpire to make the updated register accessible for public scrutiny well ahead of the election dates, ensuring that citizens and civil society groups can independently verify the records.
Background on Nigeria's electoral challenges
Concerns regarding the integrity of Nigeria's voter roll have been a recurring subject among election observers and civil society organizations. Following the controversies that trailed the 2023 general elections, stakeholders have continuously pressured electoral authorities to leverage technology and administrative reforms to restore public trust in the democratic process.