Dr Sam Amadi, Director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, has said Nigeria urgently needs credible, free and fair elections in 2027 more than it needs any particular political leader.
Amadi stated this on Tuesday in Abuja during a policy dialogue organised by the Abuja School to review its draft document titled “Nigeria 2027 Election Integrity, Citizen Participation, and Democratic Resilience Strategy.”
He warned that failure to guarantee the integrity of the 2027 general elections could worsen the country’s existing political, economic and security challenges.
According to him, the electoral system has been identified as one of four critical structural vulnerabilities threatening national stability.
“Nigeria needs free and fair elections more than Nigeria needs any particular leader at this point.
“If Nigeria fails to have a free and fair election, Nigeria will suffer dearly, because the level of consequences that is already building up is too much.
“A rigged election in 2027 could be the trigger for a very devastating outcome for the country,” Amadi said.
The former Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said reforming the electoral framework was essential to addressing broader national challenges, including poverty, insecurity and economic stagnation.
“If Nigeria fixes elections, they can fix poverty, they can fix conflict, they can fix other things.
“But if Nigeria doesn’t fix elections, there is no chance they will fix these other things, because you need a basic stable state to develop the economy and enterprise,” he said.
Amadi also stressed the need to rebuild public trust in democratic processes, arguing that confidence in elections was critical to strengthening national stability and tackling challenges such as banditry, kidnapping and terrorism.
He advocated an “elections-first” approach, maintaining that democratic legitimacy depends more on the credibility of the electoral process than on the identity of the eventual winner.
“We need to have a system where people can, at least, vote and be satisfied that the process was credible, then we can see what those elected can do.
“I’m an apostle of election first, winner second. Fix the election, make it free and fair first. Then whoever wins in a free and fair election is good enough. That’s what democracy is all about,” Amadi said.
