 and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have clashed over the credibility of the 2023 general elections.){kind=link}
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have clashed over the credibility of the 2023 general elections.
At the weekend, the bishops faulted the polls, insisting they eroded public confidence in Nigeria’s democracy. But INEC swiftly dismissed the criticism, describing the clerics’ stance as “ungodly.”
Speaking in Akwa Ibom State during the 2025 interactive session of the CBCN with lay faithful of the Calabar Ecclesiastical Province, CBCN President and Archbishop of Owerri, Lucius Ugorji, lamented that the country was “sinking on many fronts,” stressing that the elections deepened Nigerians’ distrust in the system.
The Archbishop identified corruption as the root of the nation’s woes, likening it to “moral rottenness spreading unchecked like a deadly cancer.”
He accused politicians of focusing on 2027 rather than governance.
“While the country is faced with serious existential threats, many politicians at the national and sub-national levels seem more preoccupied with the 2027 general elections and less concerned with fulfilling their campaign promises,” Ugorji said.
He further warned that Nigeria risked collapse without urgent reforms.
On the electoral process, he declared:
“Citizens’ confidence in the electoral process was seriously eroded during the last general elections by electoral malpractice, fraud and the so-called election glitches.”
Ugorji pressed for sweeping changes, including constitutional amendments to guarantee INEC’s independence.
“Most appointments to the electoral body so far could neither be seen as non-partisan nor independent. This calls for the amendment to the Constitution to strengthen the independence and credibility of INEC and protect it from political manipulation,” he said.
He cautioned that frustrating reforms could fuel unrest:
“Fundamental reforms are necessary for the preservation of social stability, and those who try to frustrate such peaceful changes make violent changes unavoidable.”
But INEC, in a statement yesterday by the Chief Press Secretary to its Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, dismissed the bishops’ verdict.
“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.
He described the bishops’ remarks as misleading and without proof.
“The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria is not in the position to determine the credibility of the 2023 General Election because it does not have the evidence to do so,” he said.
Maintaining that the election met legal requirements, he added:
“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.”
Challenging the clerics, Oyekanmi said:
“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.”
INEC also defended its Result Viewing portal, stressing that the failure recorded during the presidential election had been blown out of proportion.