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The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has called for sweeping constitutional and electoral reforms, including a 50 per cent threshold for presidential elections and the resolution of electoral disputes before the inauguration of declared winners.

The Guild also demanded 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 demands 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, and 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,” brought together more than 500 editors, publishers and senior media practitioners from print, broadcast and digital platforms, alongside political, traditional, religious, academic, regulatory and development-sector stakeholders.

The conference 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 Peter Mbah was the Chief Host.

The editors said the conference examined challenges confronting Nigeria’s electoral democracy ahead of the 2027 general elections, particularly electoral insecurity, declining public confidence, misinformation, disinformation and the growing threat posed by artificial intelligence.

According to the Guild, although the ballot remains the principal instrument through which citizens exercise their sovereign will, its value depends on credible information, public confidence in the electoral process and the assurance that votes will be properly counted and respected.

It identified poor governance, electoral violence and intimidation, administrative shortcomings, declining public confidence and concerns over the relationship between electoral outcomes and subsequent judicial decisions as some of the factors contributing to voter apathy.

The NGE expressed concern over perceptions in some sections of the public that judicial interventions in electoral disputes could displace outcomes recorded at the ballot box.

While stressing the need to respect judicial independence, the Guild called for electoral adjudication that is “timely, transparent, predictable and impartial,” with genuine electoral irregularities appropriately addressed.

It specifically called for electoral disputes to be resolved within appropriate timelines and preferably before the swearing-in of declared winners.

The Guild also recommended consideration of a constitutional threshold requiring a presidential candidate to secure up to 50 per cent of votes cast, with a run-off where no candidate achieves the threshold.

It further advocated a review of limitations on ordinary voters seeking to challenge electoral results and called for a constitutional framework permitting independent candidacy.

AI, deepfakes threaten elections

The editors identified generative artificial intelligence, deepfakes, voice cloning and automated networks as major emerging threats to electoral information integrity.

They warned that synthetic content could be rapidly deployed to fabricate election results, clone the voices of public officials, forge documents, manipulate result sheets and produce fake reports purportedly originating from established media organisations.

The Guild said the greater danger was the erosion of public trust when citizens could no longer distinguish authentic information from fabricated content.

It consequently urged newsrooms to institutionalise fact-checking and verification systems and integrate digital-verification, deepfake-detection and forensic tools into their editorial workflows.

The NGE also reaffirmed the Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage (Revised 2022), jointly endorsed by the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria, Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Nigerian Guild of Editors, Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers Union and Guild of Corporate Online Publishers.

It urged news organisations to adopt the Code and train journalists and other editorial staff on its provisions ahead of the 2027 elections.

Editors demand protection for journalists

The Guild declared that election security must include the safety and protection of journalists covering elections.

It warned that the electoral process could not be fully transparent where journalists were threatened, attacked, obstructed or prevented from independently observing and reporting electoral events.

The NGE therefore called on security agencies and political actors to protect journalists and ensure that they could perform their constitutional and professional responsibilities without intimidation.

It also urged INEC to sustain nationwide readiness assessments, strengthen technical partnerships for cybersecurity and electoral technology, ensure the technical integrity of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and protect the institutional independence of the electoral commission.

The Guild stressed that all technology deployed in elections must remain subject to human oversight, transparency, accountability and legal verification.

‘Inform, don’t amplify’ terrorism

The conference also addressed the challenge of reporting terrorism, noting the need to balance the public’s right to know with the danger that irresponsible reporting could amplify terrorist propaganda, aid recruitment, compromise security operations or traumatise victims.

It consequently endorsed the principle: “Inform, Don’t Amplify.”

The Guild urged newsrooms to identify terrorist claims as claims until independently verified and avoid reproducing propaganda, recruitment messages, slogans or graphic material except where compelling editorial justification existed.

It said terrorism should be reported responsibly and accurately without giving undue publicity or “oxygen” to terrorist organisations or inadvertently encouraging further violence.

‘Pro-Nigeria, pro-ballot, pro-people’

The editors reaffirmed the media’s responsibility to provide accurate, verified and independent information while scrutinising governments, political parties and other centres of power.

It, however, stressed that media scrutiny should not amount to suppressing legitimate achievements.

The Guild called for evidence-based journalism that neither exaggerates failures nor suppresses verified achievements and developments.

It further clarified that editorial neutrality means impartiality among legitimate political contenders and does not require journalists to remain silent in the face of verified wrongdoing or create false equivalence between established facts and unverified claims.

The conference urged governments at all levels to remain transparent and accountable and cooperate with the media in the legitimate exercise of its watchdog role, including scrutiny of public programmes and expenditure.

It also called for equitable access to media space for government and opposition voices while respecting editorial independence.

The Guild declared that the media should remain “pro-Nigeria, pro-Ballot and pro-People,” rather than align itself with any political party.

It said the credibility of Nigeria’s democracy ultimately depended on an electoral process in which citizens could make informed choices, cast their votes freely and have confidence that their votes would be accurately counted and respected.