Obidients Say No to AI at INEC, and Honestly, Can You Blame Them?

Gather round again, because INEC has done another one of its "hold my beer" moments. Professor Amupitan, the INEC chairman, came out to say the commission has started using Artificial Intelligence to prepare for 2027, apparently to catch mistakes and fight fake results. Beautiful idea, on paper. Except the Obidient Movement heard "AI" and immediately replied with the Nigerian equivalent of "ah ahn, wait first."

Their argument, and honestly, it's not a bad one: this is the same INEC that still hasn't explained the result transmission wahala from 2023, now saying, "don't worry, we've upgraded to robots." Yunusa Tanko, their national coordinator, basically said introducing AI into a system that hasn't fixed its old faults isn't reform; it's just adding Wi-Fi to a generator that was already smoking.

And they have questions, real ones. How does the AI work? What exact problem is it solving? Who's checking it doesn't get "adjusted" the same way certain result sheets have allegedly been adjusted before? Because if the AI itself can be trained, then somebody, somewhere, is going to ask if it can also be "trained" to like a particular political party a little bit more, if you understand.

They even side-eyed INEC's ICT leadership directly, asking pointed questions about who exactly is running point on this new AI division. Because in Nigeria, "trust the system" only works until you remember who's inside the system.

Meanwhile, INEC is standing there like, "guys, we're trying to fight deepfakes and fake result sheets; this is the good kind of AI," and Obidients are responding like, "yes, and light is also good, but NEPA still hasn't explained where our own light went."

Look, nobody is against progress. Technology is fine. But when the same body hasn't answered 2023 questions is now asking Nigerians to trust it with 2027's robots, forgive us if we bring popcorn instead of applause. Publish the roadmap, let independent people test it, and maybe, just maybe, earn the AI trust the old-fashioned way: with receipts.