By Adesola Akinsanya
The Question We Must Ask
Imagine this.
It is election season. A citizen receives a message directing them to a website where they can obtain important electoral information. The website looks official. The logo is familiar. The language sounds convincing. The citizen clicks.
But how does the citizen know that the digital destination is genuine?
How do we know that the information has not been manipulated?
And if citizens cannot confidently establish who they are communicating with online, can we really expect them to place complete trust in the digital systems supporting democracy?
These questions take us into an area that is often overlooked in conversations about election technology: digital trust.
As Nigeria prepares for another election cycle, the conversation about technology in election management must go beyond electronic systems, artificial intelligence, data analytics, digital voter services and online communication. We must also examine the invisible infrastructure that makes trusted digital interaction possible.
This is where the lessons from DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) become particularly relevant.
The Situation: Elections Are Becoming Digital
Nigeria’s electoral process increasingly operates within a digital environment.
Citizens search online for election information. Political parties communicate through digital platforms. Government institutions publish announcements through websites and social media. Journalists verify information online. Election stakeholders exchange data electronically.
The election therefore does not begin when a voter arrives at the polling unit.
In many respects, the voter’s journey begins much earlier—on a smartphone, computer or other connected device.
That creates a new question:
If the first point of contact between a citizen and an electoral institution is digital, shouldn’t that digital encounter be trustworthy?
This is not merely a technology question. It is a governance question.
It is a democracy question.
The Task: Building Confidence Beyond the Ballot Box
The responsibility before election stakeholders is therefore larger than deploying technology.
The task is to create an ecosystem where technology contributes to confidence, transparency, security, accessibility and accountability.
And this requires us to examine the entire digital chain.
Who owns the website?
Is the website authentic?
Can citizens distinguish official information from fraudulent information?
Can a malicious actor redirect users to a deceptive destination?
Are government and electoral digital platforms adequately protected?
What happens when an official digital channel is compromised?
And perhaps the most important question:
Are we designing electoral technology around what systems can do, or around what citizens need to trust?
These questions deserve greater attention.
The Action: What DNSSEC Teaches Us About Trust
At NiRA, our responsibility around the .ng domain places us within an important part of Nigeria’s digital infrastructure.
One of the lessons from DNSSEC is that trust must be built into infrastructure—not added as an afterthought.
The Domain Name System, DNS, helps translate human-readable domain names into the numerical addresses that computers use to communicate. DNSSEC adds a layer of cryptographic authentication that helps users and systems verify that DNS responses are authentic and have not been tampered with.
For the ordinary internet user, this may sound highly technical.
But the principle is simple:
Can we trust that the digital destination is what it claims to be?
That principle has a powerful connection with election management.
Imagine a citizen looking for information about voter registration, polling arrangements, electoral guidelines or election results.
If that citizen lands on a fraudulent website designed to resemble an official platform, the consequences can extend beyond individual inconvenience.
It can create confusion.
It can spread misinformation.
It can undermine confidence.
It can influence behaviour.
And ultimately, it can affect perceptions of the electoral process.
So, shouldn’t digital authenticity be treated as part of election integrity?
The Result: From Infrastructure to Democratic Confidence
The connection between DNSSEC and democracy is not that DNSSEC itself conducts an election.
It does not.
Rather, the lesson is about layers of trust.
A credible election requires trusted institutions.
Trusted institutions require reliable processes.
Increasingly, those processes depend on digital infrastructure.
And digital infrastructure requires appropriate security mechanisms.
Therefore, as elections become more digitally enabled, the security of the underlying digital ecosystem becomes increasingly important.
We should not wait for a major incident before asking these questions.
Shouldn’t election technology be designed with security from the beginning?
Shouldn’t official digital channels be clearly identifiable?
Shouldn’t citizens be educated on how to verify legitimate sources?
Shouldn’t election-related digital infrastructure undergo continuous security assessment?
And shouldn’t public communication strategies recognise that misinformation can exploit both human behaviour and technological vulnerabilities?
The Research Gap: What We Still Need to Understand
There is, however, a significant opportunity for further research.
Much of the public conversation around election technology focuses on voting technologies, biometric identification, electronic transmission, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data protection.
These are important.
But there appears to be less public discussion about the security and trust architecture surrounding the digital information ecosystem through which citizens interact with electoral institutions.
This creates several research questions.
- Digital Trust and Voter Behaviour
How does confidence in the authenticity of an electoral website influence voter behaviour?
Do citizens know how to distinguish official electoral websites from fraudulent ones?
- DNS Security and Election Infrastructure
To what extent are election-related government and institutional domains protected by modern DNS security mechanisms?
Are DNS security practices being considered within broader electoral cybersecurity frameworks?
- Misinformation and Digital Authenticity
How much misinformation originates from, or is amplified by, citizens being redirected to fake or lookalike digital destinations?
Could stronger digital authentication mechanisms reduce some forms of election-related deception?
- Digital Literacy
Are Nigerians sufficiently equipped to verify election information before sharing it?
Because let’s be honest: how many of us verify before we forward?
- Trust Across the Digital Election Chain
Who is responsible for digital trust?
Is it the electoral management body?
Government?
Technology providers?
Domain registrars?
Internet infrastructure operators?
Social media platforms?
Or the citizen?
Perhaps the answer is all of us.
The Behaviour We Must Change
There is another dimension to this conversation: our own behaviour online.
We live in an environment where information can travel faster than verification.
A message appears on WhatsApp.
Someone forwards it.
Another person posts it on social media.
A blog publishes it.
A commentator discusses it.
And suddenly, thousands of people believe it.
But where did it come from?
Who published it?
Is the website legitimate?
Is the information current?
Has anyone verified it?
Should we really forward information simply because someone we trust forwarded it to us?
Digital citizenship requires a new discipline:
Pause. Check. Verify. Then share.
This behaviour is particularly important during elections.
A responsible citizen should not become an accidental distributor of misinformation.
And technology companies, government agencies, election stakeholders and civil society organisations also have a responsibility to make authentic information easier to find and verify.
After all, shouldn’t legitimate information be easier for citizens to identify than fraudulent information?
Beyond the Forthcoming Election
The forthcoming election provides an important opportunity to test and strengthen Nigeria’s digital trust architecture.
But this conversation must not end when the election ends.
Election technology should not be treated as a temporary project activated only during election season.
Digital trust is an ecosystem issue.
The infrastructure being strengthened today will support tomorrow’s digital government services, financial transactions, education platforms, healthcare systems, business communications and citizen engagement.
The question is therefore bigger than elections.
What kind of digital society are we building?
Are we building one where citizens can confidently identify authentic institutions?
Are we building one where government digital services are secure by design?
Are we building one where cybersecurity is understood as an enabler of trust rather than merely a technical requirement?
And are we preparing citizens—not only systems—to operate safely in this environment?
The Reflection: Trust Is the Real Technology
Technology can make elections faster.
Technology can make services more accessible.
Technology can improve efficiency.
Technology can help institutions communicate with millions of citizens.
But none of these benefits can reach their full potential without trust.
That is the connection between DNSSEC and democracy.
DNSSEC reminds us that trust can be engineered into digital infrastructure.
Democracy reminds us that trust must ultimately be earned by institutions and systems.
The two therefore meet at a critical point:
secure infrastructure + authentic information + responsible behaviour = stronger digital trust.
As Nigeria continues to modernise its electoral processes, we must therefore resist the temptation to ask only, “What new technology can we deploy?”
Let us ask better questions.
Is it secure?
Is it authentic?
Is it accessible?
Can citizens verify it?
Can they trust it?
And when the election is over, will we have merely introduced more technology—or will we have strengthened Nigerians’ confidence in the democratic process?
That is the real challenge.
Because in the digital age, democracy is not protected only at the polling unit. It is also protected in the networks, platforms, domains, systems and behaviours that connect citizens to the democratic process.
And if trust is the foundation of democracy, shouldn’t digital trust be one of the foundations of digital democracy?
The conversation must continue.
The research must deepen.
The standards must improve.
The infrastructure must become more resilient.
And our behaviour must become more responsible.
From DNSSEC to democracy, the message is clear: technology can enable trust, but we must deliberately build, protect and sustain it.
Mr. Adesola Akinsanya is the President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA)