By Kingston Magare 13.6.2026
Nigerians have been called up to gird their loins to protect their votes during the 2027 general elections.
Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate Peter Obi sounded the clarion call warning to citizens, stating that politicians who rig elections can only be stopped if voters paid more attention to what is happening at the polling stations.
According to him, the integrity of elections cannot be guaranteed by politicians alone.
“Elections are rigged in Nigeria because Nigerians want it to be rigged. It’s as simple as ABC. I will do whatever is possible to protect the votes, but unless Nigerians decide that their votes will count, it will not count,” he said.
“If you vote and you stay in your polling booth and say that the votes must be counted here, it will be counted, but because our politics is transactional, the average Nigerian doesn’t know who his problem is.
“So, an average Nigerian will vote and then go home or go to night vigil, whilst his night vigil should actually be to stay and let them count his votes. But he will vote and go to night vigil on Saturday and start praying because he thinks he is the only one that God created, that God will solve all his problems.” he said.
The 2023 presidential elections was generally believed to have been rigged. The Independent National Electoral Commission failed to live up to expectations, glaringly compromising the integrity of the elections when it failed to upload results to its online portal IREV.
Recently the Nigerian Senate voted to ensure that INEC does not rely on uploading results, but also stick to manual transmission since there was poor mobile telecoms services and lack of electricity in most parts of Nigerians.
Political commentators and social activists interpreted this as open sesame to rig the elections in 2027.
Peter Obi...presidential hopeful.