With 113 days to the January 16, 2027, Presidential and National Assembly elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday said it had made significant progress in implementing its 14-point timetable for the general election.
This is even as experts flagged funding, communication and public trust as persistent gaps in the Commission’s preparations.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, spoke on the level of progress while presenting a paper titled “INEC Preparedness for 2027 General Elections” at a Democracy and Governance Forum organised by West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR) in Abuja, under its “Voices for Democracy and Freedoms in West Africa” initiative.
The Director of Planning and Monitoring at INEC, Mrs Helen Ajayi, who represented the INEC Chairman, said the Commission released the revised timetable and schedule of activities for the 2027 elections on February 26, 2026, setting out 14 critical activities.
She disclosed that INEC was currently concluding the ninth activity on the timetable.
“The election timetable has been translated into a coordinated programme of activities across the Commission’s 23 departments and directorates, 36 state offices, the Federal Capital Territory and 774 local government areas,” she said.
According to her, some activities had been completed, others were ongoing, while those scheduled for later were yet to commence.
On voter registration, Ajayi said the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise had been concluded, along with the display of the preliminary register of voters for claims and objections. She said the generation of the PDF register for nationwide display was ongoing, alongside the synchronisation of CVR data.
She added that preparations for the collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were underway, noting that the public would be informed once the cards were ready.
On logistics, she said procurement and delivery of non-sensitive electoral materials to state offices had commenced to provide adequate lead time for distribution and deployment.
On capacity building, she said the Commission had undertaken various training programmes, adding that personnel on Grade Levels 8 to 16 at the state level had been trained.
On voter education, Ajayi said the Commission had commenced preparations for intensified voter education covering voting procedures, accreditation, the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), election day procedures and PVC collection, with emphasis on women, young people, persons with disabilities and citizens in hard-to-reach communities.
On technology, she said improvements in BVAS and the deployment of the EC8A result form were aimed at strengthening end-to-end result visibility and minimising manual interference.
She further disclosed that the Commission had commenced nationwide zonal readiness assessments across the six geopolitical zones, starting with the South-West zone, hosted in Lagos from September 7 to 9. She said the next exercise would be in the North-West, with Kaduna as host, to assess preparedness at state and local government levels, identify operational gaps and engage Resident Electoral Commissioners, Administrative Secretaries, Electoral Officers and other frontline personnel.
Delivering the keynote address, a board member of WADR, Dr Abubakar Muhammad Kudu, said democracy without accountability was “a transaction without receipt”, warning that despite progress, gaps remained in funding, communication and public trust.
He said INEC must continuously educate voters, communicate with stakeholders and earn public trust through transparency, while raising concerns over Sections 63, 137 and 138 of the Electoral Act relating to ballot authenticity and the integrity of election officials.
Kudu insisted that BVAS and the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal were not optional luxuries, stating that although the Supreme Court might regard them as such, for Nigerian youths they remained “the game changer.”
He urged the incoming leadership of the Commission to maintain neutrality, release funds down the implementation ladder and communicate daily, while urging the media to remain conflict-sensitive, fact-check information and be alert to Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven disinformation and deepfakes.
He told the political class that they “cannot love democracy and hate accountability.”
On the panel that followed, pro-democracy activist, Mrs Ene Obi, expressed hope in the future of the country and urged Nigerians to exercise their franchise in 2027, while public policy analyst, Mr Jide Ojo, and veteran journalist, Mr Topsy Gimba, urged the media to hold the political class accountable.
Speaking earlier, the Managing Director of WADR, Agnes John-Thomasi, said the Abuja forum was part of a project supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), titled “Voices for Democracy and Freedoms in West Africa”, aimed at responding to pressures on democratic resilience, including shrinking civic space, disinformation and weaknesses in accountability.
She said Nigeria was one of four countries, alongside The Gambia, Benin and Togo, identified as secondary targets for the project’s communication of balanced and credible information, noting that the country was “critical” as it prepared for elections early next year.
John-Thomasi called on the media to remain professional, respect ethics and report impartially throughout the electoral process.
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