Malcolm Fabiyi: INEC is run by partisan individuals — Nigerians shouldn’t expect fairness

Malcolm Fabiyi, co-founder of African Action Congress (AAC), says Nigerians should not expect non-partisan behaviour from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) because it is run by “partisan individuals”.

Fabiyi, a former senatorial candidate for the federal capital territory (FCT), spoke on Sunday during an interview with Rudolf Okonkwo on 90MinutesAfrica.

Fabiyi said the major challenge in the last general election was the reliable transmission of results from polling units.

He said those who want Nigeria to move forward must fashion a way to “ensure that results are truthfully and faithfully reported to the Nigerian people”.

“We cannot expect nonpartisan behaviour from an INEC run by people who are partisan,” he said.

“So, the key question for me is how do we ensure that regardless of what INEC does, we are able to both vote and protect our votes, not only by making sure that the votes are counted in the polling units but that an accurate count goes out in real-time.”

Fabiyi said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was able to win the 2015 presidential election by entering into a coalition with civil society organisations and some media outlets.

He said through the coalitions, election results were transmitted by agents across the 180,000 polling units to the media platforms which were then announcing them in real-time.

“Just after midnight on the day of that election in 2015, over 94 percent of results from all polling units across the country had been announced,” Fabiyi said.

He added that the process “effectively” removed any possibility of manipulation.

“I am hoping that the off-cycle elections that we will have before the next general election in 2027 will be used to test different models of how to ensure that regardless of what INEC does, we can protect our votes and we can make sure that the outcome of the election reflects the true desire of the Nigerian people.”