The Independent National Electoral Commission has once again tested the patience of Nigerians who still believe in the possibility of credible elections. Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2026 is unambiguous: not later than 90 days before a general election, INEC must display or publish a copy of the voters’ register for each Local Government, Area Council or Ward for public scrutiny at every registration area” and on its official website” (or any website it establishes for that purpose).
The subsequent subsection gives the public 14 days after such publication to raise claims and objections.
INEC set the display window for 9–15 October 2026, correctly recognising the statutory timeline ahead of the 2027 polls.
Physical display at registration areas largely took place. What did not happen, as the Foundation for Investigative Journalism and ordinary citizens have documented, is the mandatory online publication.
By the close of the statutory period and beyond, the full preliminary register was nowhere to be found on INEC’s platforms.
This is not a technical glitch or a minor administrative delay. It is a deliberate or negligent disregard of the law by the very institution charged with safeguarding the franchise.
Under Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Commission routinely published registers online and maintained mechanisms through which citizens could check, query and object.
The contrast is stark and unflattering. The current leadership under Professor Joash Amupitan has chosen opacity where the law demands sunlight.
Why this should concern every patriotic Nigerian
The voters’ register is the foundation of every subsequent electoral activity.
Accreditation, result management and the final declaration of winners all rest on its integrity. When the public cannot easily inspect it nationwide, several dangers immediately arise:
– Ghost voters, underage registrants, non-residents and the deceased” become harder to detect and expunge.
Physical display at scattered registration areas is practically inaccessible to millions of Nigerians in remote communities, the diaspora, the elderly and those with mobility challenges.
An online register levels that access.
– Public trust collapses further.
After the controversies of 2023, many citizens already approach INEC with scepticism. Withholding the register online signals that the Commission prefers to control the narrative rather than submit itself to scrutiny.
Distrust breeds apathy; apathy hands the process to those prepared to manipulate it.
– The rule of law is undermined.
An electoral umpire that ignores a clear statutory duty cannot credibly demand compliance from political parties, candidates or citizens.
Section 19(5) even creates an offence for officials who fail to display or publish the register. Impunity at the top invites impunity everywhere else.
– Claims and objections are rendered ineffective.The law contemplates a 14-day window for objections precisely because public scrutiny is expected to improve the register. Without the online version, that window is largely theoretical for most citizens.
What the failure implies
It implies that the final register that will be used in 2027 may contain errors, duplications or deliberate padding that the public never had a realistic chance to challenge.
It implies that the biometric cleanup and ABIS processes INEC boasts about were not subjected to the full sunlight the law requires.
It implies a regression from the modest transparency gains of the Yakubu years. And it implies that the Commission under its current chairman is comfortable prioritising administrative convenience or other interests over the letter and spirit of the Electoral Act.
With over 103 million names now on the register after the Continuous Voter Registration exercises, the stakes could not be higher. An opaque register is an invitation to post-election litigation, street protests and the further erosion of democratic legitimacy.
A call to the Chairman and stakeholders
Professor Joash Amupitan and the National Commissioners must immediately publish the complete preliminary (and subsequently the final) register online in a searchable, downloadable format, with a clear, functional portal for claims and objections.
Anything less is a continuing violation of the law.
Political parties, civil society organisations, the National Assembly’s relevant committees, the media and ordinary citizens must refuse to treat this as a routine bureaucratic shortcoming.
They should demand public explanation, independent verification of the register’s integrity, and consequences for the failure. Silence now will be interpreted as complicity when the inevitable disputes arise in 2027.
A patriotic Nigerian does not ask for perfect elections. A patriotic Nigerian demands that the institution responsible for them obey the law it is sworn to uphold.
Publishing the voters’ register online is the bare minimum. INEC’s refusal to do so, even after the statutory deadline, is a red flag that no one who values Nigeria’s democracy can afford to ignore.
The Commission must correct this failure without further delay. The country is watching.
-Pamela O.
Daily Buzzwire
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