07/06/2026
Party Primaries Heist: Why INEC's Silence Is the Smoking Gun
By
Umar Ardo, Ph.D
Something dangerous is happening across Nigeria; something that is an existential threat to the very soul of our republic. In state after state, party after party, the process by which we choose who will contest for the highest offices in the land has been reduced to a criminal enterprise masquerading as politics. The 2027 primary elections, across the APC, PDP, Labour Party, SDP, ADC, NDC and all other parties, have not been elections at all. They have been coronations by cabal, selections by subterfuge and daylight robberies conducted with the shameless confidence of those who believe they will never be held accountable.
2. Consider the mathematics of this madness. In open counting processes, Nigerians have witnessed counts that defy logic and insult intelligence: "1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 30, 31, 32, 40, 41, 48, 50, 56, 85, 100, 150, 1000....” Numbers leapfrogging like kangaroos, skipping the arithmetic of accountability, landing wherever the puppet masters decree. Electors who stood in the sun for hours watched with amusement as results were hushed up, changed overnight or simply invented. Candidates who never contested woke up to find themselves "winners." Those who spent months campaigning, mobilizing and connecting with the people discovered that their efforts meant nothing against the arithmetic of anointing. This is not politics. This is not democracy. This is a travesty; a word too gentle for the abomination we have witnessed.
3. Where was INEC in all these? This is the question that should haunt every patriotic Nigerian, that should be screamed from the rooftops of Abuja to the streets of Lagos, from the hills of Enugu to the savannahs of Kano. From the man in Ogoja to the woman in Kojoli. Where was INEC? The Independent National Electoral Commission is not a passive observer in our democratic process. It is not a ceremonial body that wakes up