Adewale Adebayo, the Social Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, has offered a pointed clarification of what he believes INEC’s actual job is, arguing that the electoral commission exists to publish candidate information submitted by political parties, not to investigate whether that information is true.
Speaking on Sunday Politics, Adebayo drew a deliberately simple comparison to make his point. “INEC is our servant. It’s working for the public. INEC is just like the post office. Its role is to collect the information submitted by political parties and candidates and make it available to the electorate. It’s not INEC’s job to vet the information,” he said. In his framing, the responsibility for scrutinizing candidates’ claims, and challenging any that turn out to be false, belongs to voters and other stakeholders, who can pursue formal legal channels if discrepancies arise.
That distinction mattered to Adebayo partly because of his own recent appearance on INEC’s published list as the SDP’s presidential candidate, a development some had linked to reports of internal party turmoil. Adebayo rejected that framing outright, describing the party’s nomination process as peaceful and transparent throughout. He noted that his name wasn’t published in isolation, pointing out that INEC also released the names of the SDP’s vice-presidential candidate along with 109 senatorial and 360 House of Representatives candidates in what he characterized as a routine, unremarkable administrative exercise rather than evidence of any crisis.
Adebayo used the appearance to steer the conversation toward what he considers the more pressing concerns ahead of the 2027 general elections, urging Nigerians to spend less energy on political intrigue and speculation and more on the substantive issues shaping everyday life, including poverty, insecurity, weak governance, and the broader economic pressures facing the country.
