78% of Nigerians do not trust INEC, report says

Only 23 percent of Nigerians say they have ‘some’ or ‘a lot’ of confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission, while more than three-quarters (78 percent) have ‘little’ or no confidence in election management. body, according to a joint report by NOI Polls, Afrobarometer and CDD Ghana.

The report titled “Nigerians Want Competitive Elections But Don’t Trust Election Commission,” and published on Dispatch No. 598 from Afrobarometer, also revealed that confidence in INEC had declined by 12 percent since 2017.

The Afrobarometer team in Nigeria, led by NOIPolls, said it interviewed a “nationally representative, random, stratified probability sample” of 1,600 adult Nigerians between March 5 and March 31, 2022.

According to the research network, a sample of this size “provides country-level results with a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points at a confidence level of 95 percent.”

Previous standard surveys were conducted in Nigeria in 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2020 by the organization.

Saturday POINT reports that INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, has continually promised Nigerians that their votes will count in the 2023 polls, assuring them that the rigging season is over.

“In addition to concerns about election quality, a red flag for Nigeria’s upcoming elections is citizens’ weak confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission,” part of the report said.

The report headlined by NOIPolls’ Head of Social Research, Raphael Mbaegbu, and Afrobarometer’s Coordinator for Anglophone West and North Africa also found that confidence in INEC “has been quite weak over the past two decades” and has “declined by 12 percentage points since 2017″. had declined”. ”.

“Popular trust in the INEC is a central issue and mistrust is a major concern, especially in the Southern states. The upcoming elections are an opportunity for the electoral governing body to regain voter confidence by proving that it is independent, credible and competent,” the report said.