Jane Salihu
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urged electoral management bodies across West Africa to strengthen cybersecurity safeguards against the misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI), warning that its growing influence makes responsible management critical to electoral credibility.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN, gave the advice on Tuesday in Abuja while receiving a delegation of the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC), following the adoption of regional guidelines on AI use in electoral processes. He said electoral institutions could no longer ignore the technology, noting that “AI is already embedded in everyday systems, including mobile phones,” making adequate security measures necessary to protect institutions and citizens.
Acknowledging concerns about the dangers associated with AI, Amupitan said the focus should be on developing the capacity to prevent its misuse rather than avoiding the technology. “When we say we want to use AI, it means that you want to have features or cyber skills that will prevent your own phone system from being used against you,” he said, stressing the need to pay particular attention to protecting young people.
The INEC chairman identified voter registration and public information services as areas where AI could improve electoral administration, explaining that the technology could help electoral commissions respond to enquiries and provide information to citizens. He said public confidence remained essential to credible elections and called for responsible innovation backed by transparency, institutional accountability and effective security measures.
Amupitan also identified electronic transmission of election results, records management, logistics, risk assessment, personnel training and election planning as priority areas for regional cooperation. He called for preventive regulation of political parties to improve compliance with electoral laws and reduce disputes, while advocating stronger collaboration on voter education, responsible media engagement, electoral security and the inclusion of women, young people and persons with disabilities.
He said the discussions were particularly relevant as Nigeria prepares for the 2027 General Election, noting that institutional readiness, legal certainty, transparent communication and public confidence would be critical to the process, reaffirming INEC’s readiness to work with ECONEC and other regional partners to strengthen electoral administration and democratic governance across West Africa.
Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Mr. Serigne Ka, Head of the ECOWAS Electoral Assistance Division and Permanent Secretary of ECONEC, said the visit followed a two-day meeting in Abuja to validate guidelines developed by a regional working group established after the network’s symposium on AI and election integrity in Dakar, Senegal, in November 2025.
Ka explained that participants at the symposium had agreed to establish the working group to develop a framework for guiding electoral commissions on AI use. He said the guidelines had now been adopted, adding that attention would shift to their implementation across the sub-region. “AI is here to stay anyway. There’s no way we can do away with AI anymore. How we are going to manage it, that’s what we are thinking about,” he said.
He noted that the delegation included information technology experts and emphasised the importance of sharing practical experiences among electoral commissions, while acknowledging Nigeria’s progress in the area,he noted that INEC already had a unit working on AI-related matters, and called for wider international support to ensure effective implementation of the guidelines.
The regional initiative is aimed at helping electoral commissions harness the benefits of emerging technologies while addressing the risks they pose to electoral integrity, transparency and public trust.
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