May 24, 2026
In every democracy, there is usually an Election Management Board (EMB) which serves as the electoral umpire to determine the winner of an electoral game. Nigeria’s EMB is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) whose name has challenged severally over the years. At a point, it was known as the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO).
It was simply National Electoral Commission (NEC) when it conducted the famous June 12, 1993 presidential election internationally recognized as the country’s best. Thereafter, it was changed to National Electoral Commission of Nigeria NECON – a body which did not conduct any election before it was abrogated. Before the current commission was set up in 1998, it was generally agreed that what was at stake was not name change but a body that would function independently.
Although the term ‘Independent’ has since been added to its name, Nigeria’s electoral body has remained unstable with different interest groups making it impossible for the commission’s operations to be smooth. What precisely is the job of INEC? This is one question that looks easy to answer but hard to comprehend. The law appears to allow the commission to regulate its operations but what is not certain is the boundary of the regulation. INEC had imagined from the beginning that the electoral game would be hard to manage if every association can automatically become a political party that would participate in the electoral process. To this end, it registered some 5 political associations to which it was willing to add just one or two.
