Permanent ‘Technical Glitch’: Inside Nigeria’s Billion-Naira Scam Industry

In Nigeria, the phrase “technical glitch” has become more than an excuse; it’s an institution. It arrives like clockwork, at the exact moment citizens need a system to work;

On election day, during exam result releases, in the peak of passport applications, or in the middle of crucial banking transactions.

Each time, the script is the same: unexpected “technical glitch”, a promise of swift maintenance, and another round of billion-naira budgets to “upgrade the system”. Yet year after year, billions of naira are budgeted to prevent these failures, and year after year, the failures return, right on schedule. Behind this cycle lies a billion-naira industry that thrives on keeping systems broken.

Over the past decade, Nigeria has spent staggering sums on ICT infrastructure. In 2023 alone, budget records show more than ₦300 billion allocated across agencies for “digital upgrades,” “system modernisation,” and “capacity building.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received tens of billions for its Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and result-upload portal.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and other national exam bodies like WAEC and NECO have been given repeated allocations to improve their digital platforms.

Ministries from immigration to banking regulators receive annual ICT funds meant to ensure smooth operations.

But when the moment of truth comes, election day, result release, or application deadline, the servers crash, the screens freeze, and the public is told to be patient.

These systems fail with predictable precision. Exam portals freeze on release day. INEC’s servers go dark during live result uploads. Passport offices suddenly “lose network” for days.

In a country where contracts are awarded to politically connected companies, every breakdown is an opportunity. A failed portal justifies another “emergency procurement.” A crashed server means another billion-naira upgrade.

And because there’s no public auditing of what’s delivered, the same contractors can be re-hired year after year, even if they’ve presided over the same failures.

When the system works, everyone gets equal access. When it fails, only those with money or connections get through. That’s how power is maintained.

For students, these glitches are life-altering. WAEC and NECO portals regularly collapse on result release days, delaying admissions and forcing desperate parents to seek “backdoor help.” JAMB candidates face frozen computers in test halls or weeks-long delays in getting scores.

For voters, it’s worse. In 2023, INEC’s result-upload portal, the centrepiece of Nigeria’s “transparent” election, malfunctioned in key areas, forcing officials to revert to manual collation. Opposition parties cried foul, but INEC blamed “network issues.”

If a WhatsApp video can reach the other side of the world in seconds, why can’t election results travel from a polling unit in Lagos to INEC’s central server without ‘network problems’?

In 2027, the same story will play out. The excuse is already prepared. They’ll tell Nigerians:

‘We warned you about technical glitches.’

Nigeria’s “glitch culture” is a deliberate mechanism of control.

When systems work, they serve everyone equally. When systems fail, only those with money, influence, or political loyalty can bypass the breakdown.

• Need your passport urgently? Pay a “facilitation” fee.

• Missed a university admission deadline because the portal failed? Someone “knows a way” to fix it, for a price.

• Election result not uploading? There’s a “manual collation” process, overseen by people loyal to those in power.

In other words, the glitch is the filter, and those who control it decide who gets through.

The price of Nigeria’s glitch culture is measured not just in billions wasted, but in lost trust. Citizens have come to expect that critical systems will fail at the worst possible moment, and that no one will be held responsible.

• No high-profile resignation after INEC’s 2023 failures.

• No prosecutions have been made over repeated exam portal collapses.

• No accountability for “system downtime” in passport processing.

Instead, the public gets another promise of upgrades and another inflated contract for someone’s political ally.

The pattern is too consistent to be a coincidence:

Predictable timing — breakdowns happen at peak demand.

No accountability — officials remain in office, contractors keep contracts.

Financial reward — failures trigger more funding.

In effect, Nigeria’s “permanent glitch” is not a technical flaw. It’s the operating system.

If history is any guide, Nigerians can expect another high-budget, high-tech election in 2027, with another spectacular system collapse at the critical hour.

By then, billions more will have been spent on “modernisation” and “server capacity,” only for the portals to go dark, the excuses to roll out, and the results to be decided in the shadows.

Until someone in power is held accountable for these failures, and until transparency becomes more profitable than manipulation, Nigeria’s most reliable system will remain the permanent glitch.

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