The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that it is yet to receive budgetary allocations for the conduct of the 2027 general elections, even as it has commenced critical preparations to ensure a smooth electoral process.
INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Mohammed Haruna, made the disclosure on Thursday during a cross-sectoral interactive session organised by the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA) in partnership with Legis360 in Abuja.
Haruna, however, assured Nigerians that the delay in funding does not violate the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2026, which stipulates that election funds must be released to the commission no later than six months before a general election.
Despite awaiting the release of the proposed N873.78 billion election budget, Haruna said the commission had already begun preparations, including the procurement of new election materials and the replacement of damaged or missing Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices.
“Our Director of ICT just returned from China regarding procurement because not all the BVAS devices used during the last general elections were recovered. Orders need to be placed, and these things take time,” he said.
According to him, INEC is also planning mock presidential election exercises to test its technological infrastructure and prevent a repeat of the technical failures that affected the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal during the 2023 presidential election.
Responding to criticisms over the estimated cost of the 2027 elections, Haruna argued that the expenditure was reasonable when viewed on a per-voter basis.
“This N800 billion-plus sounds enormous, but when you calculate the average cost per voter, it is about six dollars, which is reasonable for a country such as Nigeria,” he said.
He explained that Nigeria’s dependence on imported election materials, including BVAS devices, coupled with exchange rate fluctuations, significantly contributes to the overall cost.
Haruna also identified conflicting court orders as one of the major operational challenges facing the commission.
He revealed that INEC received last-minute court orders between 24 and 48 hours before the recent Ekiti governorship election directing it to include additional political parties, including the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), forcing the commission to reconfigure its software and redesign election materials under severe time constraints.
“When a court gives a last-minute injunction to include parties, we are forced to reconfigure the software and update physical materials instantly. This leaves very little room to test the systems extensively, though we still manage to achieve substantial compliance,” he stated.
On the recent controversy surrounding an alleged data breach, Haruna assured Nigerians that the commission maintains strict data protection protocols.
He disclosed that an electoral officer who deliberately leaked sensitive information out of personal vendetta had been suspended, adding that the matter had been reported to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), while the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services (DSS) continue criminal investigations.
Reviewing the Ekiti governorship election, Haruna described the exercise as largely successful, noting that BVAS achieved a 98 per cent voter accreditation success rate.
He acknowledged minor biometric verification challenges involving elderly voters but said INEC’s technical teams resolved the issues promptly.
The commissioner, however, expressed concern over the increasing prevalence of vote buying, revealing that some voters openly queued to receive financial inducements before casting their ballots.
Meanwhile, PAACA Executive Director, Ezenwa Nwagwu, called on the Federal Government to release election funds to INEC early to prevent avoidable logistical challenges.
He warned that delayed funding creates emergency procurement processes that often increase the risk of corruption and undermine electoral credibility.
“Whenever you create an emergency situation, corruption is very close behind. When things are not done when they should be done, people resort to bypassing rules, and politicians exploit such situations,” Nwagwu said.
He stressed that early release of funds would enable INEC to meet international procurement timelines, particularly for replacing critical election equipment such as BVAS devices damaged during previous election cycles.
Nwagwu also urged civil society organisations and Nigerians to hold political actors accountable for creating institutional bottlenecks rather than placing the blame solely on INEC whenever election logistics fall short.
He further argued that many conflicting court orders could be avoided if frivolous political cases were resolved administratively instead of being litigated up to the Supreme Court.
Other stakeholders at the forum called on INEC to institutionalise continuous training programmes for ad hoc staff, particularly members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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