We have read the statement credited to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan, at the Beyond the Ballot Summit in Abuja, where he said, “AI is not an enemy of democracy.”
With due respect to the learned Professor, he missed the point.
The threat to Nigeria’s democracy ahead of the 2027 general election is not Artificial Intelligence. The threat is Artificial Integrity — the human manipulation of the electoral process by INEC itself.
Nigerians are not worried that AI will clone voices or generate deepfake videos. Nigerians are worried that INEC will again upload wrong results on IReV, that BVAS will fail in strongholds of the opposition, that results written in polling units will be changed at collation centres, and that glitches will only happen when it favours the ruling party.
Prof. Amupitan said AI can help with voter registration, logistics, and data analysis. We agree. But let us be frank: INEC has not even perfected the ordinary technology it has. BVAS and IReV, which were supposed to be game-changers in 2023, became a national embarrassment. You are talking about AI when you have not fixed BI — Basic Integrity.
The INEC Chairman warns about deepfakes and disinformation. But what is more dangerous than a deepfake video? A deepfake result. What misleads voters more than AI-generated audio? An announcement by a compromised Returning Officer declaring a loser as winner at 4 a.m.
We want to remind Prof. Amupitan:
1. Technology does not rig elections; people do. AI will not decide 2027, but INEC officials and compromised collation officers can.
2. Nigerians do not need a lecture on AI. They need assurance that their votes will count, that results from polling units will be transmitted live and unaltered, and that INEC will be truly independent and not a department of the ruling APC.
3. If INEC wants to deploy AI, it should start by deploying it to track its own officials, detect result manipulation, audit collation in real time, and expose internal sabotage.
The 2027 election will be the largest in Africa, with over 103 million voters. That is not a time for grammar and summits. It is a time for trust-building. And trust is not built by telling Nigerians that AI is safe; trust is built when INEC conducts free, fair, and credible off-cycle elections that we are seeing now.
Until Nigerians see an INEC that can conduct a clean election without excuses of glitches, stories of AI being a friend of democracy will sound like a distraction.
We urge Prof. Amupitan to focus less on algorithms and more on credibility, transparency, and accountability. Let INEC fix the human virus before preaching about the artificial one.
Algorithms may not have a conscience, as he rightly said, but the question Nigerians are asking is: Does INEC have one?
Signed:
Comrade James Onifade
Media Executive to Hon. Toyin Anibire Adams a.k.a. Obailukan
Founder and Convener, Obailukan Strategic Support Group for Atiku (OSSAT)
