The Executive Director of Alliance for Inclusive Development, AidAfrica, James Ugochukwu, has questioned the state of Nigeria’s multi-party democracy following the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s victory in all 21 chairmanship positions and 239 councillorship seats within the October 17 Kogi State native authorities elections.
His feedback come after the APC swept all 21 chairmanship positions and 239 councillorship seats within the Kogi State native authorities elections held on Saturday, October 17, 2026, with the outcomes introduced by KOSIEC Chairman, Mamman Nda-Eri, on Sunday, October 18.
“If you have a look at all of the native authorities elections which have been performed within the earlier months or this 12 months, a lot of the political events—the ruling events—win or sweep every little thing. That is the language that’s getting used now, ‘sweep everything.’
“It calls to query if we’re nonetheless practising multi-party democracy, within the sense that it doesn’t make sense that in a contested election the place you’ve gotten different political events, what you might be having is one single get together sweeping every little thing as if the opposite ones didn’t take part in any respect.
“Relating that to Kogi now, you see that the outcomes had been introduced—or the pronouncements relatively—as a result of no figures got, or perhaps there’s a totally different clip the place figures had been learn out, however all we had is {that a} specific political get together received all of the 239 wards and 21 native governments.
“So it poses the question: in the Nigerian system this time, are we still having opposition parties at the grassroots level, or what we have is just the ruling party operating at all levels and sweeping all the posts? Another question is whether the opposition political parties are doing anything at all in terms of putting in a contest.”
Ugochukwu welcomed the peaceable conduct of the Kogi election however harassed that the absence of violence alone was inadequate to determine its credibility, including that different features of the electoral course of wanted to be completely scrutinised.
“Kogi has come and gone, and I’m notably blissful that it was peaceable. We all understand how Kogi could be very violent throughout elections, so we can’t affirm or deny whether or not that is because of what’s at stake, or if folks simply determined to end up and begin conducting themselves peacefully than they used to do earlier than.
“The bigger question now is that a peaceful election cannot be used to determine the outcome of an election; credibility too is very, very important. We are yet to see how credible the exercise was because when you say an election is not credible, it doesn’t necessarily imply that there was violence. Other issues in terms of the conduct need to be scrutinized properly.”
Speaking on the Kogi State native authorities elections, Ugochukwu mentioned the opposition events’ efficiency couldn’t be correctly assessed with out detailed outcomes displaying the votes they secured, urging additional scrutiny of whether or not they had a stage taking part in area and had been allowed to take part freely.
“What we need to be critiquing is if the opposition were given a level playing ground to participate. We need to dig further to see if they were given the opportunity to campaign and if they met all the requirements, because at times maybe they didn’t meet requirements to be part of the process and were left out. That is why we are still asking for the figures behind the process—what was their score, what did they get? That is what will now be used to determine.”
He added that the election demonstrated the APC’s robust grassroots construction, warning opposition events to strengthen their presence on the election demonstrated the APC’s robust grassroots construction, warning opposition events to strengthen their presence on the native authorities stage relatively than focus their efforts in Abuja forward of the 2027 common elections.
Ugochukwu additionally urged them to evaluate their electoral preparations, mobilise voters and construct grassroots assist to enhance their possibilities of competing successfully in future elections.
“The indication from that is that APC has demonstrated that they’ve a really robust grassroots protection. Whichever approach you have a look at it, whether or not there’s turnout or not, what it reveals is that APC has a really robust grassroots construction that can provide them outcomes.
“The second level is that it is a critical warning to the opposition events that they’ve to return and begin engaged on their grassroots attain. It is just not sufficient to remain in Abuja and be getting ready for a common election. You must be taking a look at how robust you might be on the grassroots stage. So these are the primary takeaways from this specific Kogi election.
“And of course, the issue of how peaceful or not peaceful it is, is something that the opposition parties need to also critique again, because we are going into the 2027 election. What is the level of their preparation to ensure that they have this grassroots support and prepare people to be part of the election to vote for them in their various local government structures? These are the things that they should be looking at ahead of the 2027 election.”
On the 2027 common elections, Ugochukwu cautioned in opposition to assuming that Nigeria’s expanded voter register would translate into increased turnout, citing uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), insecurity, poor electoral logistics, damaged political guarantees, weak opposition campaigns and vote-buying as components that might affect voters’ willingness to take part.
“I feel we shouldn’t be fooled by that massive determine, within the sense that the 103 million we’re having is an addition to the 90-something million we had beforehand. Out of this now, we’re taking a look at those who have left the nation, folks which might be deceased, and those who have moved from one location to a different.
“Speaking of the added ones now, we’re nonetheless going to see plenty of PVCs that aren’t going to be collected. Even after accumulating all these PVCs, you might be nonetheless going to have lots of people which will have purpose to end up to vote or in any other case. It depends upon the ambiance that the political events will probably be giving us.
“Nigerians are starting to see that they shouldn’t be dying for the political ambition of different folks. If the political events determine to warmth up the polity to the boiling level, having ache of violence and all that, lots of people are going to keep away from the polling items. We’ve already seen that play out in most of our governorship elections.
“That of Kogi is peaceable within the sense that it is a native authorities election. But when the stakes are excessive, once we begin having opposition events contesting for Senate positions, House of Reps, State Houses of Assembly and all that, that’s the place the violence comes into the poll system. At that time, lots of people will keep away from the polling items.
“And once more, the INEC logistics. The new INEC Chairman, that is his first common election he’s going to conduct. So far, the off-cycle elections they performed, they carried out creditably effectively by way of deployment of males and supplies, and opening the polls on time. But it is a common election.
“The logistics and preparation, and early deployment of males and supplies, will decide the extent of voters which might be going to forged their vote. In previous elections, logistics was a really massive problem, and throughout the election, lots of people went again house once they couldn’t vote by 12:00 PM, 3:00 PM, and even 7:00 PM in locations like Abuja right here.
“These are the components that we must be taking a look at. We can’t say that that determine goes to lead to excessive turnout of voters. Of course, the way in which the politicians will probably be giving us their marketing campaign within the coming months will decide the extent of confidence individuals are going to have within the system. When you’ve gotten a sequence of damaged guarantees and all that, folks will query the purpose of going to vote.
“And in fact, the angle of the opposition. If the opposition is just not very critical by way of popping out to do correct campaigns, lots of people could determine, for individuals who need to vote opposition anyway, that there’s no level going to vote for folks that aren’t critical.
“Largely, the vote-buying culture that we’ve created in this country, which anti-graft agencies are not taking seriously, will play a very critical role as well, whether for or against turnout.”
Urging political events to strengthen their grassroots buildings forward of the 2027 common elections, Ugochukwu warned the APC in opposition to assuming its Kogi victory could be replicated nationwide, whereas calling on opposition events to prioritise native authorities politics relatively than focus solely on profitable the presidency.
“Like I mentioned earlier, the political events, particularly the ruling get together, shouldn’t simply use Kogi as a check case to imagine that that’s how every little thing goes to be for them in all of the states, though they management the vast majority of the states. They nonetheless must do their work very effectively to make sure that they strengthen their grassroots construction.
“For the opposition, the message has been clear now that they don’t exist in the grassroots system, and they need to start working towards ensuring that they organize their grassroots structure. They need to start querying those at the grassroots, from the wards to the local government level: “What are you guys doing? Why did you perform dismally poor like this?”
“Another question we should look at again is that most of these opposition parties don’t even exist in the local government system. Most of them are just targeting the presidency, which is actually very wrong in my own assessment, because democracy starts from the grassroots. So at times, it may not necessarily be targeting the presidency.”
On the President’s directive to safety chiefs to make sure that each vote counts within the 2027 elections, Ugochukwu harassed that its success would depend upon the neutrality and non-partisanship of safety companies, urging them to obey the Electoral Act and discharge their duties with out favouring any political get together.
“When it involves the safety companies, we have to replicate again to the actions of a few of them. We must be wanting on the physique language of all these safety companies. What we must be taking a look at is why the presidency is asking them to make sure that all votes depend.
“We should be looking at their level of non-partisanship. They should be able to do this by not being biased or supporting a particular political party. They should rely on themselves to follow the rule book, follow the Electoral Act, and ensure that they are neutral in whatever they are doing.”
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