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Renowned electoral advocate and Executive Director,  Centre for Transparency and Advocacy, Faith Nwadishi, has opposed the proposal to hold all national and state elections in a single day, warning that Nigeria’s current electoral infrastructure and logistical systems are not capable of handling such a complex exercise.

With over two decades of experience in promoting transparency, governance, and civic accountability, Nwadishi is a prominent figure in Nigeria’s civil society space. She is also an engineer, gender rights advocate, a chartered mediator, and a peace and conflict resolution expert. Her work has spanned electoral monitoring, extractive industry reform, and citizen empowerment.

Speaking on  Electoral Reform Half Hour, Nwadishi stated, “I am not in support of the single day election. The logistics are too heavy, even for the three elections we currently hold together. Now imagine adding two more.”

She broke down the implications: if Nigeria were to hold all five elections—presidential, Senate, House of Representatives, governorship, and State Assembly—on a single day, every polling unit would need to accommodate party agents for each of the 18 political parties, multiplied by five. “That’s about 90 party agents in one polling unit. It’s unmanageable,” she said.

Beyond logistics, Nwadishi also discussed the importance of building a centralized and efficient voter database. She advocated for harmonization of voter registration data with the National Identity Number (NIN) and other federal databases, but warned of infrastructural challenges. “We don’t yet have the internet coverage or real-time data-sharing capacity needed for full harmonization,” she noted.

On the topic of gender inclusion, she welcomed legislative proposals to reserve additional seats for women in federal and state legislatures but insisted that the reform must go deeper. “Political parties need to enshrine women’s participation in their constitutions. Reserved seats are good, but sustainability lies in internal party reforms,” she said, citing Rwanda as an example where gender quotas were institutionalized within party structures.

Nwadishi also weighed in on ongoing legislative proposals at the National Assembly, including bills on early voting, age limits for candidates, and shifting final governorship election appeals to the Appeal Court. She opposed age limits, calling it undemocratic, and rejected restricting electoral disputes from reaching the Supreme Court, arguing that citizens deserve access to the highest level of justice.

Discussing vote buying, she emphasized that legal reform alone is insufficient without civic education. “The solution is simple: if voters are not selling, no one will buy. We need more citizen awareness,” she said.

She concluded by listing her top three priorities for electoral reform before 2027: streamlining and prioritizing electoral laws, sustained voter education, and stronger regulation of campaign financing, possibly through a body independent of INEC.

LISTEN TO THE FULL DISCUSSION HERE