Chinwe Odita
Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the 2023 general election, Adewole Adebayo, has said the main contest in the last polls was between opposition parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, not among candidates.
Adebayo stated this last week while speaking on _Politics Today_ on Channels Television, where he described the 2023 election as a “charade” and alleged that the results declared were “fake.”
According to him, the credibility crisis that trailed the polls made it impossible to have a legitimate contest.
“In 2023, I contested against INEC. INEC were the opponents. What happened in 2023 was not good at all. All those numbers were fake. The whole thing was a charade,” Adebayo said.
“Anyone who is making analysis based on the 2023 election is legitimising fraud. Nobody should use the number and go to the Villa and govern anybody because you can’t govern out of fraud or out of manipulation. So, we cannot normalise the number.”
Looking ahead to 2027, Adebayo said the goal should be an election where candidates compete against each other, not against electoral institutions.
“The difference I will want now, hopefully I pray every day for Prof. Amupitan, his fellow commissioners and their other staff, is that this time around, no candidate should see INEC as an enemy.
And I also pray for IGP Disu and the men and women of the police that no candidate should see the police as an enemy.
There is no candidate who should be unfortunate enough to be running against INEC like we were running against INEC in 2023, and that is what we need to change.
To run for election is like writing an examination; your score should reflect your effort.”
Adebayo stressed that fixing Nigeria’s democracy requires more than opposition unity.
He urged all Nigerians, including members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to come together to demand credible elections.
“My point of view is not that the opposition should come together only but that all Nigerians should come together.
Even some people who might be members of APC know that APC itself has been irrelevant and they are facing a system of one-man rule,” he said.
The SDP candidate’s remarks add to growing demands for electoral reforms ahead of 2027, with stakeholders calling for greater transparency, accountability and trust in INEC and security agencies.
