The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has called for far-reaching constitutional and electoral reforms, including a 50 per cent threshold for presidential elections and the resolution of electoral disputes before the swearing-in of declared winners.
The Guild also called for reforms to the appointment of the Chairman, National Commissioners and Resident Electoral Commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as well as State Electoral Commissioners.
The resolutions were contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the 22nd All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC 2026), held in Enugu from September 24 to 26.
The communiqué was signed by the NGE President, Eze Anaba, and General Secretary, Onuoha Ukeh.
The conference, with the theme, “The Ballot, the Media and the Task of Keeping Democracy Alive,” was chaired by the Obi of Onitsha, His Royal Majesty Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, while the Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja, His Eminence John Cardinal Onaiyekan, delivered the keynote address.
Vice President Kashim Shettima participated virtually as Special Guest of Honour, while Enugu State Governor, Dr Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, was the Chief Host.
More than 500 editors, publishers and senior media practitioners from print, broadcast and digital platforms, alongside political, traditional, religious, academic, regulatory and development-sector leaders, attended the conference.
The Guild said it examined challenges confronting Nigeria’s electoral democracy ahead of the 2027 general elections, particularly artificial intelligence, misinformation, disinformation, electoral insecurity and declining public confidence in the electoral process.
It noted that while the ballot remained the principal instrument through which citizens exercised their sovereign will, its value depended on credible information, public confidence and the assurance that votes would be properly counted and respected.
The editors identified voter apathy as being influenced by poor governance, electoral violence and intimidation, administrative shortcomings, declining public confidence and concerns over the relationship between electoral outcomes and subsequent judicial decisions.
The Guild expressed concern that judicial interventions in some electoral disputes had created perceptions in sections of the public that court decisions could displace outcomes recorded at the ballot box.
It, however, stressed the need to respect judicial independence while calling for electoral adjudication that is timely, transparent, predictable and impartial, with genuine electoral irregularities appropriately addressed.
On presidential elections, the NGE recommended consideration of an appropriate constitutional threshold and provision for a run-off where the candidate with the highest number of votes fails to secure up to 50 per cent of votes cast.
It also called for the resolution of electoral disputes within appropriate timelines, preferably before the swearing-in of declared winners.
The Guild further advocated a review of limitations on ordinary voters seeking to challenge electoral results and called for a constitutional framework permitting independent candidacy.
On emerging technology, the editors identified generative artificial intelligence, deepfakes, voice cloning and automated networks as major threats to electoral information integrity.
It warned that synthetic content could be used to fabricate election results, clone the voices of public officials, forge documents and result sheets, and produce fake reports attributed to established media organisations.
The Guild therefore urged newsrooms to institutionalise fact-checking and verification systems and integrate digital verification, deepfake detection and forensic tools into their editorial workflows.
It also urged news organisations to adopt the Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage (Revised 2022) and train journalists and other editorial staff on its provisions ahead of the 2027 elections.
The editors stressed that editorial neutrality meant impartiality among legitimate political contenders and did not require journalists to remain silent in the face of verified wrongdoing or create false equivalence between established facts and unverified claims.
The Guild also called for evidence-based journalism that neither exaggerates failures nor suppresses verified achievements and developments.
On election security, the NGE said the safety of journalists must form part of the broader security of the electoral process.
It called on security agencies and political actors to protect journalists and ensure they could observe and report electoral events without intimidation, obstruction or attack.
The Guild urged INEC to sustain nationwide readiness assessments, strengthen cybersecurity and electoral technology partnerships, ensure the technical integrity of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and protect the institutional independence of the commission.
It also stressed that all technology deployed during elections must remain subject to human oversight, transparency, accountability and legal verification.
On terrorism reporting, the conference endorsed the principle, “Inform, Don’t Amplify”, urging newsrooms to identify terrorist claims as claims until independently verified and avoid reproducing propaganda, recruitment messages, slogans or graphic material except where editorially justified.
