Aisha Yesufu: INEC not the problem—Nigerians working inside it are
Human rights activist Aisha Yesufu says Nigeria's electoral failures aren't INEC's fault—the Nigerians staffing it are the problem. In a viral social media post today, she argued the same rot infects the police, military, and judiciary: "These people are not aliens; they are part of us. Let everyone call their people to order."
Yesufu's point cuts to an uncomfortable truth: institutions don't fail themselves; people fail institutions. No law or structure survives operators who refuse to do the right thing. She challenged politicians, families, and communities to stop hiding behind attacks on "the system" and start holding their own accountable—whether it's a cousin collecting bribes at a polling unit or a neighbor manipulating court records.
The intelligence here isn't new, but the framing shifts responsibility from abstract institutions to specific people we know. Every compromised official has a family, a community, a network that either enables or ignores their behavior.
What would change if you actually called out the person in your circle compromising the system next election?