Lagos local government election 2025?
On July 12, 2025, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, Lagos, held its local government elections to elect 57 chairmen and 377 councillors across 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas.
But despite the posters, promises, and party drums, the real headline wasn’t who won, it was who didn’t show up.
With voter turnout in many LGAs falling below 30%, the real story was the growing silence of the electorate, and what it means for Lagos politics going forward.
This wasn’t just a quiet day at the polls. It was a warning signal that can’t be ignored.
The Power of Low Numbers in the Lagos Local Government election
Lagos is home to over 20 million people.
It is the economic lifeblood of Nigeria, a city that never sleeps until election day, apparently.
On the day of the LG polls, most polling units were calm.
There were no long queues.
Some units saw fewer than 50 people in total.
And when LASIEC(Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission) began collating results, many polling officers had little more than a handful of ballots to count.
Democracy in Retreat?
For democracy to function, participation must be active.
And yet, when citizens begin to opt out in large numbers, the implications are dangerous.
Below-30% turnout in many parts of Lagos isn’t just an electoral statistic, it’s an expression of frustration, fatigue, and failure.
Many Lagosians, particularly younger voters, no longer believe their votes make a difference. Some have grown tired of recycled candidates.
Others see the LG polls as stage-managed events where the ruling party dominates regardless of the people’s will.
Let’s be honest...
Local government elections in Nigeria have rarely been competitive.
They are often run by state electoral commissions appointed by governors, and most times, the ruling party sweeps nearly all available seats.
Lagos, for years dominated by APC’s political machinery, has followed this same pattern.
In 2025, APC again claimed majority wins, while opposition parties cried foul and cited irregularities.
But even if those claims are valid, the bigger concern is that the people simply didn’t show up to care either way.
The Apathy Gap: Why the People Stayed Home
You can’t blame Lagosians for being tired.
For years, promises made at the grassroots level rarely translated into change.
Ask the average resident who their local government chairman is, and many won’t know.
Ask what the chairman has done for their ward or community, and you’ll likely be met with a cynical laugh.
This is the core of the problem: local governments are the closest tier of government to the people, yet they are also the most invisible.
When drainage systems overflow during the rainy season, when refuse piles block inner roads, when primary health centres lack medication, it’s the LG authority that should step in.
But Lagosians have grown used to seeing state-level actors intervene instead, or worse, nothing being done at all.
And so, when election day came, the people responded with silence.
Not because they’re lazy.
Not because they don’t understand democracy.
But because they’ve seen the cycle before, and they’re tired of being lied to with no follow-through.
When Participation Drops, Manipulation Rises
Low voter turnout creates fertile ground for rigging.
When only a small portion of voters participate, it becomes easier for powerful interests to influence outcomes.
With fewer eyes at the polling units and little civic monitoring, votes can be manipulated, inflated, or outright manufactured without much resistance. That’s not democracy.
In several parts of Lagos, candidates allegedly won with just a few hundred votes in wards that had thousands of registered voters.
In some LCDAs, candidates ran unopposed. This isn’t competition, it’s coronation.
And when elections become ceremonial rather than contested, the people lose power.
Worse still, they lose trust.
The 2027 Shadow
The 2025 local government election is a mirror for what’s coming in 2027.
If the trend of low turnout continues, especially among youth and first-time voters, the future of governance in Lagos will remain locked in the hands of a political elite that operates unchecked.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Political parties must understand that they can no longer rely solely on structures and endorsements.
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