The Independent National Electoral Commission is planning to carry out a full review of its election technology and may conduct a mock presidential election before the 2027 general elections.
The move is aimed at checking the strength and reliability of the systems that will be used during the elections and addressing possible problems before the actual polls.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this in Abuja during the 13th Annual International Conference of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria.
Amupitan, who was represented at the event by an INEC National Commissioner, Prof. Sanni Adam, said the planned review would help the commission identify weaknesses in its technology and improve its preparedness for the 2027 elections.
The conference brought together communication experts, journalists, policymakers, electoral officials and other stakeholders to discuss the effect of new technology on elections and democratic governance in Africa.
The commission is considering a technology audit that will examine areas such as backup systems, security testing and plans for recovering election systems in the event of a major failure.
The review is expected to help INEC discover possible weaknesses early enough and take corrective steps before the 2027 elections.
The electoral body is also considering a mock presidential election as part of its preparations.
The exercise would allow INEC to test key parts of the electoral process, including voter accreditation, the transmission of election results and access to results through its viewing platform.
The proposed exercise would be designed to closely resemble the conditions that could be experienced on election day.
This would give the commission an opportunity to identify technical or operational problems and make necessary changes before the real election.
The plans followed concerns over the performance of some electoral technologies during the 2023 general elections. INEC is seeking to ensure that the systems to be deployed in 2027 are properly tested and able to cope with the demands of a nationwide election.
However, Amupitan said election technology was only one part of the wider electoral process. He pointed to the growing problem of false information and other threats within the information space surrounding elections.
The National Orientation Agency Director-General, Lanre Issa-Onilu, also called for greater cooperation among the media, fact-checkers, universities, civil society groups, security agencies and technology companies.
Issa-Onilu said the growing use of digital platforms in political campaigns had made it easier for citizens to take part in political discussions. At the same time, he said the same platforms had made it easier for false information, hate speech and deliberately misleading content to spread.
He urged Nigerians to be more careful when receiving and sharing political information online. Citizens, he said, should check where political messages come from and consider whether the information can be trusted before forwarding them to others.
The National President of ACSPN, Prof. Rotimi Williams Olatunji, also called for a coordinated system to protect the integrity of electoral information ahead of 2027.
Olatunji said the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, social media, digital platforms, algorithms and data-based political communication was changing the way Nigerians received political information and made decisions.
He said the changes had created new challenges for elections, particularly with the growing use of AI-generated content and other digital tools to influence public opinion.
The stakeholders therefore called for stronger cooperation between electoral authorities, communication experts, media organisations, technology companies and other groups to reduce the spread of false and harmful information before and during the 2027 elections.
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