INEC wants three times what 2023 cost. And still can't promise real-time results.

INEC presented its 2027 election budget to the National Assembly yesterday. The number: ₦873.78 billion. That is not a typo. Eight hundred and seventy-three billion naira for one election cycle.

The 2023 elections cost ₦313 billion. INEC wants nearly three times that for 2027. Some of the increase reflects real costs: inflation has been brutal, and running 176,846 polling units nationwide is not cheap.

But listen to what else came out of that same budget presentation. INEC still has no dedicated communications network. The IREV portal that Nigerians were promised would allow real-time result monitoring in 2023 was not even in the Electoral Act. It existed only in INEC's own internal regulations. When it didn't work as promised, INEC had no legal obligation to fix it. The lawmaker who raised this in the hearing was direct: "Be careful how you make promises."

INEC is now asking the government to scrap envelope budgeting entirely and give the commission flexible, urgent access to funds as needed. ₦209 billion of the proposed budget is for election technology. You'll remember what happened the last time election technology was the headline promise.

The credibility gap between what elections cost and what elections deliver in Nigeria has been growing for years. ₦874 billion is a lot of money to spend on a process that still hasn't earned public trust.