By Kingston Magare 3.8.2026
Cardinal John Onaiyekan has stressed the need for a free and fair election ahead of the 2027 general elections warning that rigged elections will always lead to bad governance.
The Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese Abuja, fresh from stirring the hornets’ nest following his interview on Arise TV where he spoke about the Catholic Bishops’ visit to President Bola Tinubu, said there is a general fear the 2027 elections may be rigged in favour of the ruling party All Progressive Congress.
Cardinal Onaiyekan who was speaking on Monday during a chat on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu said: “Genuine democracy is built on free and fair elections.
“Any democracy that cannot do free, fair, and credible election cannot come up with good governance. Elections have consequences… Bad elections lead to bad governance, and bad governance leads to misery among the people.
“My fear is that if it becomes very clear to Nigerians that no matter what happens, the APC will win, then most people won’t even bother to go to the election.
“And even if the government, the real power wins, it will not bring a real victory actually. And it is not going to be possible to deliver good government.”
He added that it is not enough to claim that the Independent National Electoral Commission will be neutral as recent elections have proved that there was a lot of intimidation of voters by security agencies and thugs hired by political parties.
“Even if INEC is neutral, as you know, the election outcome is also affected by the activities and the performance of the security agents who claim to be securing the election, but who often end up intimidating people with sirens all over the place, which doesn’t happen in decent democracies.
“We are also talking about why it’s always difficult for INEC to even perform well, with all good intentions. The rules that guide these activities, there is a lot of room for improvement. We have been talking about reforming the electoral rules.
“We know that the government in power appoints the INEC. We have to figure a way out of that because if the government in power appoints the INEC, then It’s difficult to have a fair game. Unless you have a very strong chairman of INEC who decides to stand up against all pressures.