By Joy Odor | Reportcircle News
What the public sees on election day are ballot boxes, party agents, voter queues and final results.
What Nigerians rarely see are the bruises, threats, near-death escapes and silent trauma suffered by the journalists who bring those moments to national consciousness.
That hidden battlefield was forced into the spotlight this week at the Electoral Institute for Training and Research, as Nigeria’s election managers, media leaders and democracy advocates converged for the unveiling of a new political chronicle now being described as one of the most important democratic documents of the decade INEC Press Corps: Chronicles of Nigeria’s Election Journalists.
The event became more than a book launch. It turned into a reckoning of power, politics, bloodlines of reportage and the dangerous cost of telling the electoral truth in Nigeria.
Rising before a packed hall, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Jaosh Amupitan, SAN, delivered what many described as one of the most politically loaded endorsements of election journalism in recent years.
He declared that Nigeria’s democracy now stands on three pillars: the ballot, the institution and the press.
“This book is not just storytelling,” Amupitan said. “It is a strategic documentation of political accountability and an enduring national legacy. If you are clever, one of the greatest legacies you can leave is not just words, but the documentation of your experience and knowledge. That is true mentorship.”
Describing the author, Segun Ojumu as a chronicler of democratic risk, the INEC boss said the book exposed the brutal realities journalists face while covering Nigeria’s politically volatile elections.
“This work captures the sacrifices, the risks and the buried experiences of reporters who cover our complex electoral landscape. It pulls our democracy out of abstraction and places it inside danger,” he stated.
In one of the strongest political messages of the day, Prof. Amupitan described election journalists as the critical bridge between INEC and over 90 million Nigerian voters.
“You validate the integrity of the process for the entire nation,” he said. “Elections do not succeed on technology alone. They succeed in public trust and public trust flows through your reporting.”
He warned that even the most sophisticated electoral system can be destroyed by misinformation and distortion.
“At a time when false narratives spread faster than truth, your professional documentation is needed more than ever. If you destroy confidence in the system, you weaken the nation itself.”
He cited journalists’ role in past elections including the Anambra governorship election, FCT polls and the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration as evidence that Nigeria’s political stability increasingly depends on media credibility.
The political intensity deepened as Ms. Praise Ukpai, the Book Reviewer, delivered what many in the hall called a searing autopsy of the dangers behind election headlines.
“This is not just a book,” she told the audience. “It is a record of what it truly means to report elections in Nigeria where every assignment can become a life-or-death mission.”
Written by a journalist who has covered INEC continuously since 2014, the book pulls readers into:
Violent polling units
Hostile political actors
Collapsing electoral technology
Chaotic collation centres
Threats that never make official reports
According to the review, the book blends memoir, professional testimony, historical documentation and practical newsroom survival guidance, making it both a political archive and a survival manual.
The book also dissects the fragile but unavoidable relationship between INEC and the media:
INEC depends on journalists for legitimacy, mass communication and public trust.
Journalists depend on INEC for access, security, transparency and data.
But the book exposes how this relationship has repeatedly come under strain through misinformation, political pressure, poorly trained officials and institutional breakdowns.
“These moments nearly broke the process,” Ukpai said. “And sometimes they nearly broke the journalists.”
At what became the emotional peak of the event, Ms. Ukpai delivered a single-line verdict that froze the room:
“If I must summarize this book in one sentence: it is a book about courage.”
She spoke of:
The courage to enter violent political spaces with nothing but a microphone
The courage to report truth where lies are sponsored
The courage to continue when fear becomes routine
“It reminds us that democracy is not defended only by soldiers, courts and politicians. It is defended daily by journalists standing between power and the people.”
The reviewers acknowledged minor weaknesses: The stories are journalist-centric, with less space given to voters and security agencies. Some chapters rely more on interviews than analysis.
But these gaps, observers said, do not dim the book’s force.
Instead, it now stands as:
A tribute to journalists who risk their lives
A tribute to Nigeria’s electoral struggle
A tribute to the nation’s unfinished democratic journey
“It documents our past, explains our present and prepares the future of election reporting,” Ukpai declared.
Returning to the podium, Prof. Amupitan issued a direct political charge:
“The era of unverified information is over. If you are in doubt, verify directly with INEC. Our digital platforms are now authoritative channels.”
He warned that fake news, propaganda and weaponized disinformation now pose a bigger threat to elections than logistics or technology.
“The media must stand against deliberate falsehoods that suppress turnout and undermine results. Together, we must ensure that our history is remembered for unity, not distortion.”
The book’s essential audience was listed as:
Young journalists
Mass communication students
Election observers
Media trainers
Policy makers
Security agencies
Democracy advocates
For them, the book is not just literature it is a political survival guide.
At a time when fake news, political intimidation and digital propaganda now shape election outcomes,
Chronicles of Nigeria’s Election Journalists arrive not merely as a publication but as a democratic weapon.
It reminds the nation that behind every result announced on television, someone stood in danger so Nigeria could know the truth.
And in a country where democracy is still being negotiated daily, that truth hard, bloody and unfiltered may be the most powerful vote of all.
