Media, INEC, voters and path to credible elections — by Sylvester Akhaine

Being keynote address delivered by Professor Sylvester Odion Akhaine at the Fourth Annual Lateef Kayode Jakande Lecture, organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria, on July 23, 2026.

Preamble

I want to thank the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) for inviting me to deliver this year’s Jakande Memorial Lecture, the fourth in the series. Indeed, I consider it a great honour.

The Jakande years, that is, the Second Republic, have always been of comparative value to me in analysing the prevailing contradictions of the Fourth Republic. Its hindsight benefit is that those years affirmed the slogan of the social action movement: “Another Nigeria is Possible.”

The theme of this lecture, Media, INEC, Voters and Path to Credible Elections, is appropriate for three reasons.

First, the lecture is coming up in the build-up to the 2027 general elections. It is hardly surprising that the theme has three independent variables and one dependent variable. For credible elections to take place in our country, the media, INEC and voters all have a role to play.

Second, there is the state of the Nigerian state. The Nigerian state is emasculated, a pathology that scholars (Bayart, 1993; Onuoha, 2008) have theorised as state capture. It manifests when the component elements of the state lose their relative autonomy to the extent that the state can no longer be regarded as an impartial umpire in the social relations of production. The executive arm of government rides roughshod over the other arms, blurring the imagined boundaries, or checkpoints, contemplated by Montesquieu.

Side by side with state capture is the reality of negative sovereignty, as swathes of the country are controlled by non-state actors. The situation has created a security dilemma so severe that constitutionally established security agencies are now complemented by local vigilantes.

Third, our political culture is deeply impoverished. The beliefs, values, sentiments and practices that permeate our political system are troubling. The elite recruitment process shuns merit, enthrones mediocrity and has become heavily monetised, leading to elite closure. There is also a huge trust deficit and a prevailing sense of political subordination, fitting Almond and Powell’s (1978) category of subject political culture, where citizens see themselves not as participants but as subjects of government. O’Donnell (1993) described citizens in such a situation as having “low-intensity citizenship.”

These realities shape our discussion. The context of this conversation is liberal democracy, the system adopted by the Nigerian ruling elite in 1999 and previously practised in earlier republics. Liberal democracy is a Lockean construct embodying a cluster of freedoms, including political freedom, the right to property and the enjoyment of security (Locke, 1988 [1690]).

According to Potter (1997, p. 4):

“A type of political regime in which binding rules and policy decisions are made not by the entire community but by representatives accountable to the community. This accountability is secured primarily through free, fair and competitive elections in which virtually all adult men and women have the right to vote and stand for elective office.”

I now turn to the variables in our conversation.

Defining the Variables: Media, INEC, Voters and Credible Elections

Defining the media before practitioners may seem unnecessary. However, for the sake of clarity and because scholarship offers multiple meanings, I will provide a working definition.

Media is derived from the Latin word medius, meaning “middle” or “intermediate.” It refers to the channels through which information is disseminated to the public for purposes of information, education, entertainment and the shaping of public opinion (Amirize, 2004). These include newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, cinema, the internet, social media, mobile phones and others (O.P. Jindal Global University, 2024). These channels, together with the practices and dynamics surrounding them, make the media an institution.

Throughout this lecture, I shall use media and press interchangeably, while recognising the distinction between them. My usage is limited to their convergence within journalism-focused institutions such as print, broadcast and digital newsrooms.

Historically, the invention of the printing press in the 15th century revolutionised the media. Since then, the media has continued to shape public discourse.

Downing (1980, p.145) traces the political origins of the media to class conflict in society:

“The changing structure of public debate was of course a parallel to the growing demand by the well-to-do for freedom from government interference in their economic activity. Just as market forces should be allowed to work themselves out freely, ran the arguments, so should ideas about politics and government… It was not advances in printing technology that caused the newspaper, but changes in certain economic and political relations which stimulated the need for news-sheets and newspapers.”

Curran (2002, p.4) reinforces this perspective in his account of British media history:

“The liberal narrative is the oldest and best established of the competing interpretations of British media history. It comes out of an historical tradition which celebrates the evolution of constitutional government… culminating in the introduction of mass democracy.”

Historically, the media evolved into the Fourth Estate of the Realm. The Nigerian media, which predates the Nigerian state itself, has always possessed a libertarian orientation. The principle of freedom shaped much of its engagement with colonial rule.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is Nigeria’s Electoral Management Body (EMB). EMBs are generally responsible for organising elections, either wholly or partially. Election management includes organising elections, monitoring them and officially recognising election results (Mozaffar & Schedler, 2002, cited in Langford et al., 2012).

Mozaffar and Schedler further describe EMB functions using Almond and Powell’s (1966) threefold typology of rule-making, rule application and rule adjudication. EMBs are established through the constitutions of their respective countries.

The end of bipolarity and the triumph of liberal internationalism gave rise to the third wave of democratisation (Akhaine, 2010), which led to the rapid spread of EMBs. In democratising societies, legitimate elections are essential for political stability and the institutionalisation of democratic norms.

As Langford et al. (2022) observed:

“Following the third wave of democratization, the number of EMBs has expanded dramatically, especially in Latin America, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia…”

By 2013, about 54 per cent of countries had constitutional provisions establishing electoral oversight institutions. Their numbers have continued to increase since then.

Today, however, many African democracies are experiencing democratic backsliding, and most EMBs lack the autonomy required to conduct genuinely credible elections.

Nigeria’s electoral management history has been chequered. The Electoral Commission of Nigeria (ECN) conducted the 1959 elections. It was succeeded by the Federal Electoral Commission (FEC) in 1960, which organised the 1964 federal and 1965 Western Regional elections.

Military rule suspended democratic institutions until the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) was established in 1978 to conduct the 1979 and 1983 elections. After another military takeover, FEDECO gave way to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in 1986 under General Babangida.

General Abacha later replaced NEC with the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON). Following Abacha’s death, General Abdulsalami Abubakar dissolved NECON and established INEC in 1998.

Each of these institutions was created to oversee elections and facilitate democratic transition. Their performances have been extensively studied and need not detain us here.

Voters

The next variable is the voter.

A voter is a person legally qualified to participate in an election. While voter and electorate are often used interchangeably, the latter has a broader meaning, referring to the body of citizens in whom popular sovereignty resides.

The right to vote is anchored on the principle of universal adult suffrage, ensuring political equality without discrimination. In Nigeria, a voter must be at least 18 years old and duly registered under the electoral laws.

Voters matter because, as Bill Clinton once remarked:

“You Americans are the boss. Today you are the boss; tomorrow you are the boss; and in the future you are the boss.”

Without voters, there is no democracy. They are the central actors in the democratic process. Through elections, they exercise the sovereignty that ultimately legitimises the state.

Elections/Credible Elections

Ayanleye (2013), in examining elections in Africa, describes elections as tools of democratisation.

Jinadu (1997), cited by Ayanleye, argued that elections are central to competitive politics because they “provide the opportunity for yesterday’s winners to become today’s losers and vice versa.”

Beyond their obvious meaning, elections perform several important functions. They stabilise the polity by allowing peaceful alternation of power, reducing the likelihood of violent conflict. They also enable citizens to hold leaders accountable and confer legitimacy on governments chosen through free and fair processes.

Elections further provide voters with meaningful political choices in multiparty democracies.

Chigudu (2016, p.508) summarises elections as follows:

“An election is a decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold a formal office… The due process of law must be adhered to in order to avoid irregularities and chaos.”

The National Democratic Institute (NDI), however, warns that genuine elections involve much more than technical procedures. They are rooted in the broader framework of civil and political rights and reflect the strength of democratic institutions.

While defining elections is relatively straightforward, defining credible elections is more difficult. Goodwill-Gill (2006), quoted by Chigudu (2016), noted that terms such as free and fair often lack objective and universally verifiable meanings.

Chigudu therefore argues that it is often easier to identify what does not constitute a credible election by looking for practices such as ballot stuffing, gerrymandering, vote-buying and voter intimidation.

The quest for credible elections has produced numerous international legal instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Harare Commonwealth Declaration, the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, and the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.

These frameworks emphasise citizen participation, political tolerance, freedom of association and transparent elections. Unfortunately, they are more often breached than observed.

Chigudu identifies four determinants of credible elections: incumbent political parties, interested parties, the legal framework and electoral contestants. I would add a fifth—the media.

Ruling parties often exploit state resources to gain electoral advantage. Interested parties may seek to shape public perception regardless of the facts. Electoral laws require careful interpretation, while defeated candidates frequently allege electoral fraud.

The media, through its reporting and framing of events, can either strengthen public confidence in elections or deepen cynicism about the democratic process. Nigeria exemplifies all these contradictions.