Imagine this.

You're watching a football final, Nigeria vs Argentina. The match starts, and barely 5 minutes in, a player elbows another in the face. No card. Play on. Ten minutes later, a defender grabs the ball in the box with both hands. No penalty. The referee sees it all, but turns a blind eye. By halftime, chaos has taken over. Players are throwing punches, fans are running onto the pitch, and somehow, the scoreboard still counts goals scored in clear offside positions. At this point, is it even football? That’s exactly what Nigeria’s electoral process has looked like for decades: a match where the rules exist, but no one enforces them.

Since 1999, over 1,830 Nigerians have lost their lives just trying to vote, defend their votes, or were used to foment trouble in general elections. That’s not a typo. One thousand, eight hundred and thirty. These aren't just numbers; these are human beings- daughters, fathers, breadwinners, brothers, silenced by a political system that treats elections like war zones.

In 2011 alone, over 800 people were killed in just three days of post-election violence. That's more than the total capacity of most football stadiums in Nigeria. Can you imagine a stadium wiped out in 72 hours, because people wanted to choose their leaders?

And yet, what has been the scorecard for justice? Let’s rewind a bit. In 2019, over 1,100 people were arrested for electoral offences. How many were convicted? Just 24. That’s less than 5%. In football terms, imagine catching 100 players cheating in a tournament and only handing out red cards to 5, then letting the rest go on with the tournament.

You see the problem? The referee in this case, INEC, is overwhelmed. It's like asking the coach of the Super Eagles to also be the sporting director, kit manager, scout, referee, legal director, linesman, the referee, VAR operator and the stadium security. No matter how well-intentioned, he can’t do it all. INEC was never designed to prosecute electoral offenders across 774 LGAs. The truth? They’ve said it themselves. They don’t have the capacity.

So, what do we need? We need another entity to ensure electoral offences are prosecuted. A body whose only job is to enforce the rules, ensure the red card is shown to the guilty, and make sure those who corrupt the game of democracy face real consequences. That’s why we need the Electoral Offences Commission — not tomorrow, but now.

The idea isn’t new. Justice Uwais’ Electoral Reform Committee recommended it in 2008. So did the Sheikh Lemu Panel after the 2011 bloodshed. So did the 2014 Constitution and Electoral Reform Committee. Yet, here we are in 2025, still passing the ball around, dodging the real tackle. Let’s call it what it is — impunity. A rigged match where the players cheat, and they are let off the hook.

And what’s the action? The National Assembly must delete Section 146(2) of the Electoral Act 2022 and pass an Act to establish the National Electoral Offences Commission. This body should have one mission: investigate, arrest, prosecute and jail electoral offenders. Whether it's ballot box snatchers, vote buyers, thugs in party colours, or godfathers in agbada. Nobody should be above the red card.

Because until we start holding people accountable for electoral crimes, we are just pretending. Pretending to run elections. Pretending to be a democracy. You can’t build a winning team with a broken league. This isn’t just about laws and institutions. It’s about trust. Every act of unpunished electoral violence chips away at Nigerians' faith in democracy. Every thug that walks free tells young people that votes don’t count, that justice is optional, that violence wins.

We can’t afford another cycle of bloodshed in 2027. We can’t keep mourning victims after every election like it’s normal. It’s not normal. We need a commission with teeth. Not just to bite, but to lock jaws on this culture of impunity and shake it down to its roots.

If football taught us anything, it's that rules only work when there are consequences. So why should elections be any different? Let’s stop playing games with people’s lives. It’s time to bring back fairness to Nigeria’s democracy. It’s time for the National Electoral Offences Commission.