Ladan Salihu, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), says Nigeria’s democracy is deteriorating under President Bola Tinubu, blaming the conduct of Saturday’s by-elections on widespread irregularities and failure by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Speaking during an interview with ARISE News on Tuesday, Salihu said Nigerians were “disgusted” by what transpired in the 12 states where the polls were conducted.
“Nigerians have watched with disgust and with appalling dispositions what played out in the by-elections,” he said.
He rejected claims that the polls offered any credible insight into what to expect in the 2027 general election.
Salihu stated: “These elections do not in any way represent a barometer for gauging what is to come in 2027.
“The issue at stake now, the empirical issues to discuss, are the issues of transparency and integrity of the election process.”
He pointed to numerous cases of voter intimidation, financial inducement and violence, citing Zamfara, Kano, and Kebbi as examples of a compromised process.
He said: “You have 300 thugs arrested by security agents. In one local government in Kano, 200 have been arrested. There’s an individual that was caught with ₦25.9 million trying to buy votes in Zamfara State.
“For the first time in our election history, soldiers were deployed in a ward in Sakajiki where there was daylight box snatching.”
Salihu accused INEC of missing a historic opportunity to redeem its image.
He said: “INEC has not lived up to the expectation of Nigerians. If anything, INEC has missed out on a history to redeem itself.
“The same processes that we’ve seen in 2023 played out. Nothing has changed. So there’s nothing to celebrate. And it is the responsibility of the state, especially the president, to midwife a process that will make this democracy dependable and full of integrity for the youth and generations to come.”
He dismissed suggestions that the ADC’s poor performance was a sign of weakness, noting that the party was still in a rebuilding phase and only fielded a limited number of candidates.
His words: “The ADC was not literally on the ballot. There were people that had emotional attachment to their constituencies that on their own as individuals contested under the platform of the ADC.
“And they did so while this party, as we speak, is barely three months into calibration, repositioning, and catching our breath.
“We expected this narrative to come out of the APC to suggest that 2027 is almost a foregone conclusion. No, it’s not yet. It is not.
“When you are on the ballot in a by-election, you are up against the awesome power of the instruments that control violence and control the process.
“In Zamfara State, soldiers were deployed to literally supervise the process, which is illegal under our own laws. So we are up against a system that is not only full of tricks and treachery, but a system that has a midwife that is not given to integrity.”
He ended with a stark warning about the future of Nigeria’s electoral process, urging Nigerians to demand systemic reform.
“What we are saying is not about even this by-election, no. We are saying that the democratic environment that we have today is on a downward spiral, and that INEC is complicit.
“INEC is partly and almost entirely responsible, because it is the umpire. It is now left for Nigerians to do a surgical analysis of what they expect to have as a free and fair election going forward.
“But with this contraption, I’m not convinced that we have transparency upon ourselves. A leopard does not change its spots,” he stated.