…Nigeria is sinking, insists Bishops
By Obinna Uballa
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has rejected a scathing assessment of the 2023 general elections by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), describing the clerics’ position as “unfair” and “ungodly.”
Reacting to comments by CBCN President and Archbishop of Owerri, Lucius Ugorji, who declared that the polls had eroded Nigerians’ trust in democracy, INEC’s Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said that the Bishops were not in a position to determine the credibility of the exercise.
“It is unfair and even ungodly to narrow down the credibility of the outcome of the 2023 general election to the unfortunate glitch that happened to the INEC Result Viewing portal,” Oyekanmi said in a statement.
He insisted that the elections met legal thresholds, adding that allegations of rigging were baseless. “I want to affirm, without any fear of contradiction, that the 2023 general election was one of the best ever conducted in Nigeria. It was not a perfect election, but it met the threshold of substantial compliance,” he said.
Challenging the bishops directly, Oyekanmi added: “Anyone who has any evidence to the contrary should please come forward with it. And I specifically challenge the Catholic Bishops to come forward with their evidence if they are so sure that the election was rigged—otherwise, they should fear God and hold their peace henceforth.”
The INEC spokesman also defended the integrity of the IReV portal, stressing that while its failure during the presidential election was regrettable, results were first declared and recorded at polling units in the presence of party agents.
“The glitch that happened to the IReV is being erroneously projected as rigging the election. But the IReV does not add, subtract, or collate election results. It only displays the results already declared at the polling units,” he explained.
He compared the malfunction to everyday digital disruptions: “Technical glitches happen every now and then with our phones, social media platforms, the banks, and so on. Why is the IReV glitch being viewed differently?”
But Archbishop Ugorji, speaking Saturday in Akwa Ibom during the CBCN’s 2025 interactive session with lay faithful of the Calabar Ecclesiastical Province, maintained that the 2023 polls undermined public confidence.
“Citizens’ confidence in the electoral process was seriously eroded during the last general elections by electoral malpractice, fraud and the so-called election glitches,” he declared.
The cleric called for sweeping reforms, including constitutional amendments to guarantee INEC’s independence and the real-time transmission of results. He warned that those blocking reform “make violent changes unavoidable.”
Beyond elections, Ugorji lamented that Nigeria was “sinking on many fronts,” citing insecurity, poverty, corruption, and bad governance.
“Our fellow citizens are being daily kidnapped, extorted, dehumanised, killed or forced to flee their ancestral homes,” he said, adding that hardship was pushing young people into crime, migration, and hopelessness.
On education and energy, he decried decaying schools, underfunding, epileptic power supply, and obsolete infrastructure, warning that both sectors were in dire straits.
The Archbishop urged Christians and laity to engage actively in politics, register to vote, and pursue leadership roles as part of efforts to transform Nigeria.
“If we expect much from the laity in the area of national transformation, much has to be given to them in terms of political education,” he said.
