ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) has expressed dismay over the federal government’s decision to earmark ₦135.22 billion for post-election litigation ahead of the 2027 general elections, describing it as a troubling admission that Nigeria’s electoral process was being designed to fail before it even begins.
The Country Director, Dr. Andrew Mamedu, noted that this allocation stood in absolute and unjustifiable contrast to previous election cycles.
According to INEC’s own election project plan, the commission allocated approximately ₦2.104 billion in 2022 under its litigation and prosecution budget, and ₦3.087 billion in 2023 to defend post-2023 general election cases.
Mamedu in a press statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja said the sudden jump to ₦135 billion was unprecedented and raises serious concerns about priorities, planning, and accountability within Nigeria’s electoral system.
He expressed concern that rather than addressing the root causes of electoral disputes, the government appeared to be normalising them through public spending.
He also highlighted that the scale of the proposed budget would make the electoral process excessively expensive, burden the courts, slow down other judicial processes, and create additional costs for the government, INEC, political parties, and citizens.
Mamedu stated, “While post-election litigations are inevitable in a democracy, many could be avoided if the Electoral Act is strengthened.
“What we are seeing is a clear case of choosing to manage crisis instead of preventing them. At the centre of this failure is the handling of Nigeria’s electoral legal framework.
“The Electoral Act 2022, which governs how elections are conducted, had shown clear weaknesses during the 2023 elections, particularly around the lack of certainty in the electronic transmission of results and this lacuna should have been addressed through electoral amendment opportunity which was lost in the Electoral Act 2026 review process.
“ActionAid Nigeria therefore demands that the President immediately decline assent to the budget as currently proposed, and reassess the ₦135 billion allocation to benefit the people.”
