FEATURE: After ‘Shambolic’ LG Election In Lagos, Activists Say Democracy Under Threat

…Want INEC To Handle LG Elections

Despite being the tier of government closest to the people, local government elections in Nigeria continue to record abysmally low voter turnout, raising concerns about weakening democracy at the grassroots level.

The July 12 local government elections in Lagos State once again highlighted this trend. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) swept all 20 constitutionally recognized local government areas and 37 local council development areas (LCDAs), winning all chairmanship positions and 375 out of 376 councillorship seats. The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured only one councillorship seat in Ward D of Yaba LCDA.

However, opposition parties including PDP, Labour Party, Social Democratic Party (SDP), and Youth Party have criticised the exercise, alleging ballot stuffing, voter suppression, and restricted access to polling units.

The Youth Party’s Lagos Chapter Chair, Francisco Doregos, described the poll as “shambolic” and “blatantly rigged,” accusing the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) of bias due to the appointment of alleged APC loyalists as commissioners.

Civil society groups also decried the low turnout. Enough Is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stated: “Turnout today is painfully low again. @LasiecLagos didn’t do its job: poor planning, zero transparency, last-minute information. But citizens too didn’t show up. That silence gives the system room to keep failing us. We must do better.”

Lagos has over seven million registered voters, with 6.2 million permanent voter cards collected. Yet, turnout was again low, continuing a pattern evident in past elections. In the 2021 local government elections, only 7,779 of 741,587 registered voters in Alimosho LGA voted (1.04%), while Kosofe recorded 2.58 percent turnout. Ibeju-Lekki, with 13.35 percent, had the highest participation.

Why Voters Stay Away

The Chairman of the Grassroot Development and Peace Initiative, Comrade Kalu Onyedikachi, blamed the apathy on voters’ lack of confidence in the process, describing most local government elections as predetermined.

“How do you expect voters to participate when you already have your results? It pains us that the resources being expended in local government elections can be channeled to other areas than this normal celebration of ‘we’ve conducted a local government election’ — wasting resources, when you’ve already known your results,” he told THE WHISTLER.

According to Kalu, the State Electoral Commissions (SECs) lack independence, allowing ruling parties to dominate the polls.

He highlighted another issue with the local government elections in Lagos, noting that while the APC primary was keenly contested, the main election was not, despite the participation of about 19 political parties. According to him, this is because of the widespread belief that winning the APC ticket is equivalent to winning the general election.

Kalu added that leaders who emerge through this process often govern without accountability, disregard the people, and are primarily answerable only to their godfathers, their party, or the governor. This, he explained, is why many of them fail to deliver meaningful results.

Kalu called for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take over local government elections nationwide, arguing that grassroots politics shapes national politics.

He emphasised that, ideally, SECs should have been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting House of Assembly elections if they had proven capable. However, he noted that since the commissions have failed to conduct credible elections at the local government level, they cannot be considered for higher responsibilities such as overseeing House of Assembly elections.

The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Mr. Auwal Musa, cited electoral violence as another reason for voter apathy.

“Electoral violence is getting more intense, and people’s right to peacefully elect candidates is being taken over by thuggery,” he said.

Musa also linked poor turnout to a lack of confidence in the electoral process, saying that after rigging themselves in, leaders still go to court to defend mandates not given to them by voters.

“Nigerians have simply lost confidence in this democratic process with determination by the practioners of democratic process in Nigeria to undermine every tenets of democratic rights in the country,” he told THE WHISTLER.

Musa described the perennial low voter turnout in Nigeria’s local government elections as “a shame,” warning that grassroots disengagement undermines accountability and fosters corruption.

“If people at the grassroot level are not able to participate in local governance, we will not have public participation in grassroot governance,” he said.

According to Musa, low voter turnout represents a vote of no confidence in the system. As a result, people become disinterested in governance at the local government level, creating room for “more looting, more stealing, and more diversion of public funds” to continue unchecked.

Similarly, the Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Mr. Debo Adeniran, said poor turnout reflects citizens’ belief that local government administrators lack the capacity to meet their needs.

“And until the constitution is amended to ensure complete separation of powers between the states and the local government areas according to the judgment of the Supreme Court, the people at the grassroot may not repose so much confidence in the capacity of local government administrators to meet their expectations,” he told THE WHISTLER.

Implications For Governance

Experts agree that declining grassroots participation has dangerous implications for Nigeria’s democracy. Musa warned that weak local governance erodes transparency and denies citizens the opportunity to groom quality leaders at the community level.

“It will undermine accountability, run down transparency and undermine grooming of leaders at local level,” he said.

Adeniran added that it produces “low quality, less acceptable leadership at the grassroot,” in the country.

While acknowledging that assigning the conduct of local government elections to INEC might make some difference, Adeniran stressed that the real solution lies in ensuring that local governments are truly autonomous and free from state government control.

For Kalu, the solution is clear: “INEC should take over the conduct of (local government elections’) exercise because the SECs have failed.”

Appearing before the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC and Electoral Matters in July 2024, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, stated that the commission is fully capable of conducting local government elections across the country if provided with the required resources.

Responding to questions from lawmakers on INEC’s position regarding the Supreme Court judgment on local government financial autonomy, Yakubu affirmed that the commission, under his leadership, has the capacity, competence, manpower, and experience to manage elections in all 774 local councils in Nigeria.

He highlighted INEC’s successful conduct of elections in the six Federal Capital Territory Area Councils as well as numerous off-season and bye-elections as evidence of its readiness to handle local government polls nationwide.

Yakubu stressed that INEC’s consistent track record in managing federal and state elections further demonstrates its ability to oversee local government elections effectively.

“If this responsibility for the conduct of local government elections is transferred to INEC, can INEC cope? The answer is yes, INEC can cope. What are we? By definition, INEC is the Independent National Electoral Commission. Right now, we do national elections, state elections, and local government elections,” he said.

Local governments in Nigeria receive significant monthly allocations, yet how these funds are utilised often remains unclear.

At its May 2025 meeting, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) distributed a total of N1.681tn to the three tiers of government as Federation Allocation for April 2025, drawn from a gross total of N2.848tn.

From this amount—which includes Gross Statutory Revenue, Value Added Tax (VAT), Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and Exchange Difference—the Federal Government received N565.307bn, States received N556.741bn, and Local Government Councils got N406.627bn. Additionally, oil-producing states received N152.553 billion as 13 percent derivation from mineral revenue.

FEATURE: After ‘Shambolic’ LG Election In Lagos, Activists Say Democracy Under Threat is first published on The Whistler Newspaper