2023: Only 23% Nigerians Trust INEC – New Survey Expresses Concern Ahead Of Polls

With barely three left for Nigerians to go to the polls, a new survey has made a shocking revelation that only 23% of Nigerians trust the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in its conduct of the polls.

Naija News reports that the new development was contained in a report titled “Nigerians want competitive elections but don’t trust the electoral commission,” which was jointly worked on by NOI Polls, Afrobarometer, and CDD Ghana.

It was gathered that the outcome of the survey which is contained in the report published on Dispatch No. 598 of Afrobarometer, also indicated that while only 23% of Nigerians said they “somewhat” or “a lot,” trust in INEC, 78% said they had “just a little” or no trust in the electoral umpire.

This platform understands that the research network used a sample of this size “yields country-level results with a margin of error of +/-2.5 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.”

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

This revelation is coming after several assurances from the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu that the commission would not compromise anything to deliver free, fair and credible elections.

However, the new report said to be headlined by NOIPolls’ Head of Social Research, Raphael Mbaegbu, and Afro barometer’s Coordinator for Anglophone West and North Africa also showed that that trust in INEC had declined by 12% since 2017.

The report added that “In addition to reservations about election quality, one red flag for Nigeria’s upcoming elections is citizens’ weak trust in the Independent National Electoral Commission.

“The trust in INEC had been “fairly weak throughout the past two decades” and had “declined by 12% points since 2017.

“Popular trust in the INEC is a central issue, and distrust is a major concern, especially in the southern states. The upcoming election is an opportunity for the electoral management body to regain the trust of the electorate by proving itself independent, credible, and competent.”

Naija News learnt that the organisation had conducted previous standard surveys conducted in Nigeria in 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2020.