23rd May 2026, NewsOrient, Opinion, Column, Politics, Governance And Development, Law And Society, News
By Samuel Egburonu Esq

As part of our preparations for the 2027 General Elections, Nigerians should begin now to marshal out plans on how we can protect our votes.

It is one thing to dare the sun and the rain just to vote for the candidate we so passionately root for but another thing to ensure that all our votes are ultimately added  to the total votes officially recorded as our candidates’ final scores.

I say this because even if the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, succeeds in conducting free and fair elections in Nigeria come 2027 but it turns out that the results are finally tampered with or simply snatched and switched, Nigeria and Nigerians would have only succeeded in mocking democracy and wasting resources.

So, the first thing to do, if we truly want to get it right this time around, is to agree on how to protect our votes.

This may sound simple but I think it’s the most important thing to do in order to save Nigeria and her democracy. For as long as the political elite in Nigeria, who buy or steal votes continue to take the electorates for granted, ignoring true outcomes of elections and writing their own fake election results in their hotel suites, for so long will the people continue to take government and the so-called  elected government officials as a huge joke.

Why not? Of what use is a President or a Governor, who the people know, or at least believe never won the election? He will never be seen as being anything better than a shameless thief, a robber who is holding the people, the real owners of the house and the wealth, hostage.

Each time I try to take a sympathetic look at the frustrations faced by the image managers of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I always wonder why it seems it never occurs to them that part of the primary reasons most common Nigerians have blatantly refused to give Tinubu a chance  may be that up till today, such Nigerians still feel their votes did not really count in 2023.

This is notwithstanding the claim of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that the 2023 Presidential Election IRev Bimodal device glitch did not change the results then.

Perhaps because Tinubu’s image managers failed to or neglected the task of truly convincing common Nigerians that Asiwaju actually won that election, most
Nigerians are still convinced and pained that their votes in 2023 were stolen.

It was a huge public relations blunder for Tinubu’s men to have merely dismissed such an important matter and to have instead mocked doubting Nigerians and political opponents, derisively telling them to go to court.

If you ask me, I will say Asiwaju, who probably trusted in the ability of his image managers then to paint him in good and acceptable colour, has suffered so much image deficit instead.
Since he became President in 2023, it is highly debatable if his public image has risen above what it was when he was only the Jagaban, the Asiwaju that made Lagos and Southwest politics tick from his Palace in Ikoyi. Given his political elevation, should his public image not have risen higher? Should he not be enjoying wider acclaim and acceptance three years as the Leader in Aso Rock?

As an analyst, I personally believe his image managers should have paid more attention on whether or not he actually won the election.

This should have been the starting point but they failed to see it or simply neglected it out of pride.

As a result of this failure, no matter how much Tinubu may have tried to do his best for the country, it is not a surprise that majority of the common Nigerians only see in him a President who hijacked the mandate of the people of Nigeria, ran away with it to Aso Rock and mocked that they can go to court with data evidence that had already been taken care of by a mysterious glitch.

So, as we prepare for 2027 General Elections, I advice here that for the sake of acceptance during and after the elections, one of the first matter that must be settled is the issue of the security of our votes.

The people’s votes must never be tampered with, stolen or switched.

It is believed that the national distrust and disagreement all through the Presidency of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, from 2023 till date, is a true testimony to the fact that unless the people’s votes are made to count; unless the common people of Nigeria are convinced that the man going to sit in Aso Rock as President from 2027, will be the same they will freely vote to occupy that position, it may never be well both for the illegal occupant of the high office and perhaps for the people who will continually feel insulted, betrayed and cheated.

In the interest of all, I propose that Nigeria must begin to lay the foundation of her democracy only on truth and transparency. We must, as a people, work together to ensure that it is only the candidate majority of us voted for that would be declared winner and allowed to take office as our Leader at all levels.

Of course, this leaves so much responsibility on the common people. We must know that for our votes to count, we must personally police them to ensure no one steals them.

Come 2027 Elections, none of us who desire emergence of true leaders, should cast our votes and just go home to sleep. No way!

It is incumbent on us to watch over our votes until the votes in our polling booths are counted, documented and declared.

We should always bear in mind that the desperation we see here in Nigeria, where some politicians  do anything to impose themselves on the people, is not limited to our clime. Even in the most developed democracies, it has been said that some political leaders in quest of power also display desperation.

The difference will therefore be how the government and the people react to the prospects or allegations of being cheated.

Unlike “you can go to court” response in Nigeria after 2023 Elections, in better developed democracies such matter cannot be treated with levity.

The alleged 2020 Election frauds in the United States of America, and the extent officials, private vote security experts and the common people went to confirm it or to disprove it is still fresh to memory.

We, as a nation in love with democracy, should give transparency a chance to guide and brighten our political path.

We should also stop viewing ourselves as spectators and understand that election is no longer part of the politics but an opportunity where the people, after listening to the pleas of the politicians and after verifying the evidence that is in their scorecard, should sit as judges to pass judgement on whether or not the politicians should lead.

So, if the people, who should sit in judgement, demean their high standing by opting to be mere bystanders, how will they not destroy the beautiful sitting they are supposed to preside over?

I call on Nigerian electorates to wake up and take their pride of place in the polity.

They should ensure their votes are protected, counted and documented at all the polling booths.

No voter, who really wants his or her vote to count, should leave the polling booths after voting. We should all wait until the result from the booth is announced and then, all the youths present and elders who can, should all record the outcome with their mobile phones- audio, video and pictures.

Those who still think results of votes cast will miraculously change as they are being transported from polling booths to the so-called collation centres must be taught the hard truth of our digital age.

On security of the electorates and the votes, I suggest that from now, the common people should begin to remind the nation’s security leaders to ensure there is enough security men and women properly trained for the special assignment.

It is not enough to announce on the eve of elections that certain number of security operatives have been posted to each polling booths. Yes, enough security operatives are required, but they must be more than just the numbers. They must be security operatives who know what they are supposed to do and who understand that their loyalty is for the country and not for an incumbent who may or may not be a contestant.

A senior citizen, Elder Okoronkwo Mba, captured this same feeling when I asked him what Nigerians can do to make 2027 Elections more rewarding for the people and for the development of Nigerian democracy. He said: “I will recommend three basic simple steps: One, the Nigerian electorate should be educated to vote and remain at the polling booth through out, untill the end of the election. This will help to make it difficult for corrupt politicians to steal opponents’ votes.

“Two: The votes should be counted at each polling unit and the result should be publicly announced immediately at the polling booth.

“Three, the announced result should be signed by the party agents. Unlike what happened in 2023, all political parties that is able to field a candidate should endeavor to have agents who will be on the ground to monitor and protect their votes. Such an agent should also sign to authenticate the result.”

As Elder Mba advised, the issue of protecting our votes in 2027 is our responsibility as a people. The politicians and the police or other security operatives alone will not effectively do this all important job for us.

This being the case, we should insist that the votes are counted in our presence in our various polling units. We should take our individual record and ensure it tallies with the finally announced results.

We should also resist attempts to snatch the ballot box. At worst, we may at least alert the security operatives on the ugly development and use our mobile phones to alert the world.

Direct confrontation may of course be risky, so if it gets too dangerous, my advice is that we should just resort to the use of our digital cameras to capture the activities to be used as evidence.

Even our security operatives should be adequately trained on how to take advantage of the digital power of our time. There may be no need for shootout with touts aiming to impress their desperate masters. No! They do not therefore need to be armed to the teeth before they can effectively protect our votes. What they need more are hidden cameras, communication gadgets and firm knowledge on how to make effective use of them in the most difficult situations.

Nigeria must get it right this time around. Already, digital power has further empowered the common people to play their parts more effectively and therefore to complement security operatives to ensure free, fair and successful elections.

Ours is a digital world, so, we can really conduct an election and contain touts or hooligans without having to spill citizens’ blood.

– Samuel Egburonu Esq, a veteran journalist and lawyer, is a current affairs analyst

~ Published By NewsOrient Network

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