The new broom (no pun intended) is assuming office at a time INEC suffers from grave reputational deficits and there are anxieties about the forthcoming 2027 general elections, which from all indications would be conducted under him. This comment is not an appraisal of Professor Mahmoud Yakubu’s tenure, as we have seen from the trajectory of the institution that there is no magician that can lead INEC without drowning in a sea of criticisms. Two things in which Nigerians claim expertise more than the man who has the main job: football, as we all seem to know it better than the coach, and elections management.
Last week, 7 October, the announcement was made of the exit of Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, chair of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from 2015 to 2025, and his replacement in an acting capacity by Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu, chairperson of Legal Services, Clearance, and Complaints Committee (LSC &CC). She is now likely to hold the record of being a placeholder for a short period of time. The only other Acting Chairman in the history of INEC was Ms. Amina Bala Zakari (June – November 2015). She spent about five months in the office. Mrs Mbu may not be that lucky. For, by 9 October, the National Council of State unanimously approved the nomination of a new INEC chairman, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, whose name had been in circulation, for weeks, as President Tinubu’s preferred choice, and whose nomination will now go before the Senate for confirmation. That should be considered a done deal. It is not this Senate that will reject such a high-profile appointment by the president.
While we congratulate Professor Amupitan, we should also pity him because he has just accepted the most challenging assignment that anyone can ever wish for. The job of Nigeria’s chief electoral umpire is a thankless one. There is no one who has done this job in recent memory that has not been vilified, abused, and called names. Nigeria’s political environment is toxic, the politicians are desperate, the institutions are weak, election matters often end up in tribunals and courts, and the judiciary gets dragged into an ecosystem of distrust. Electoral reforms, consistently argued for and pursued by civil society stakeholders, have not necessarily changed the core defects in Nigeria’s political culture. Professor Amupitan got his first baptism of fire the moment his name was announced.
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President Tinubu reportedly described Amupitan as “a man of integrity and a non-partisan professional,” the first person from Kogi State, North Central Nigeria, to be nominated for the position. The nominee indeed has strong credentials. Amupitan, 58, is a professor of Law, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the current Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Jos, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Ayo Babalola University, author of wieldy referenced law books on Company Law, Law of Evidence, Corporate Governance, and Trust, and a law teacher for about three decades. But even with this impressive profile, critics – including the opposition, his own colleagues – that is lawyers, ethnic gladiators, and civil society activists, have rushed to every available platform to discredit him. This is typical Nigerian behaviour, not necessarily a request for information and accountability; more so as most of the allegations raised do not stand the test of close scrutiny. In a curious indication of the depth of cynicism that has overtaken the land, the first target was Amupitan’s school certificates!
One PhD holder claims to have discovered holes in Amupitan’s qualifications, noting that nobody knows the names of the primary and secondary schools that he attended, and that he purportedly attended Kwara State Polytechnic at the age of 15, he got a law degree within three years instead of five, he became a Head of Department in 2006 without a PhD, and a Dean of the Faculty in 2008, a year after his PhD. The gentleman claims to have “a fair understanding of the academic system.” He apparently does not. In response to his posers, Kenway Davidson, FCA, who was Amupitan’s schoolmate and a childhood friend has disclosed that they both attended LEA primary School in Ayetoro-Gbede, Kogi State. He left the school from Primary 5 (which is not an offence) and proceeded to St. Barnabas Secondary School Kabba. From there, he gained admission to the School of Basic Studies at the Kwara State College of Technology for his A Levels. Law studies in Nigeria used to be for a period of four years only. An A level qualification meant that you would only spend three years instead of four. For the benefit of the man who claims to be familiar with the academic system, he needs to be told that a PhD, even professorship, is not a qualification for appointment to the Headship of a Department, or the Deanship of a Faculty. It depends on the circumstances of the Department and Faculty.
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Law teachers in many of our universities are also assessed differently: on the basis of both scholarship and legal practice under the A&P process, which is why it is possible to become a law professor without necessarily having a PhD, which is compulsory for any advancement beyond a certain grade in most other disciplines. Amupitan was also attacked by a group of lawyers, over 1,000 of them under the aegis of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP), who wrote to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters to ask that Amupitan’s nomination should be rejected on the grounds of conflict of interest he, having been lead counsel to the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2023 presidential election petition at the Supreme Court. ALDRAP’s gamble provides good justification for the claim that lawyers are part of the problem with Nigeria. A simple check would have revealed the truth, now provided by non-lawyers, and Babatunde Ogala (SAN), coordinator of the legal team, that indeed Amupitan was never part of the APC legal team. ALDRAP quoted this and that and sent its petition to anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies. That body owes Amupitan a public apology. Whoever signed that petition should be queried for exposing lawyers to public ridicule and seeking to incite the public. It is now established that Amupitan has no conflict of interest, and that this is not a Lauretta Onochie situation as ALDRAP claimed.
What else? The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has questioned President Tinubu’s motive, arguing that by appointing Amupitan, he merely wants to consolidate his control over the nation’s electoral process, and he has prioritised loyalty over competence. HURIWA has not provided any evidence to back up its allegation but it seems to echo the sub-text of some of the objections, which is the ethnic view that Amupitan, being a Yoruba from Kogi State, would naturally protect the interest of his kinsman who is seeking a second term as president of Nigeria. Professor Farooq Kperogi, in an essay, writes about the “New INEC Boss and Tinubu’s Visibilization of Northern Yorubas.” Professor Amupitan is not just the first person from the North Central state of Kogi to be chair of the country’s electoral body, he is also the first Yoruba man to be appointed to that position. Playing the ethnic card is too cheap. Nigerians are quick to play politics with the divisive and contentious issues at the heart of the national question. It certainly won’t be long before a group of noise makers also protest that Amupitan is a Christian. The fact, however, is that out of the 14 chairpersons of Nigeria’s electoral body since 1959, the South-South has produced seven; the South-East, three; the North-West, two; the North-East, one; the North Central and the South West, none. In the midst of it all, his nomination has been praised by the ruling APC; the founder of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) – Dr Boniface Aneibonam; Secretary General, NNPP, Comrade Sunday Oginni; the Lagos State Chapter of the APC; the Ade Olamife Campaign Vanguard; Okun Youths; and the Yoruba Council of Elders. Thus, in less than a week, Amupitan’s nomination has already divided the public, which is a sign of what is to come. His season of innocence is over.
He must contend with and manage other disadvantages. Non-Yorubas already assume that he has been given the job in order to defend Tinubu’s interest. They will not stop discrediting him. The entrenched forces at INEC headquarters would see him as an outsider. He will need to win their confidence, otherwise they will sabotage him. If he has any doubt about what such forces within a public institution are capable of doing, he should try and find out what Engineer Bayo Ojulari’s eyes are seeing, as Yorubas would say, as the GMD/CEO of NNPCL. NNPP’s Aniebonam may have welcomed his appointment but he can be sure that other leaders of the opposition would not be so kind to him. They think he is Tinubu’s agent and for as long as the INEC chairman is appointed by an incumbent president, they would be seen as the stooge of the man in power. For this to change, it will require an amendment of Section 154 of the 1999 Constitution, which currently vests the power to appoint the INEC Chairman, as well as National and Resident Electoral Commissioners in the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate. Other stakeholders, including citizens, feel left out. Professor Amupitan will need to build trust. He must back up his performance with the deft skills of public communications and diplomacy. His state governor, Ahmed Ododo says he is “a man of integrity”. Nigerians do not know that. He will need to prove it.
He will also do well to study the experiences of his predecessors and what he can learn from their strengths and weaknesses: Justice Ephraim Akpata conducted the 1998/1999 elections. He died in office. Dr Abel Guobadia oversaw the 2003 elections. Nobody praised him. Professor Maurice Iwu presided over the 2007 elections. He was removed in April 2010. Professor Attahiru Jega conducted the 2011 and 2015 general elections. It was under his watch that the biometric voter registration smart card readers were introduced. He managed to complete a tenure of five years. Since 1998, it is only Professor Mahmoud Yakubu that has spent 10 years as INEC chairman. He conducted the 2019 and 2023 general elections, but he too had issues with the credibility and integrity of the electoral process. None of the chief electoral umpires before 1999 ended up as a hero either. They include Ronald Edward Wraith (Electoral Commission of Nigeria, ECN, 1958); Eyo Ita Esua (ECN, 1964-1966); Michael Ani (FEDECO, 1976–1979); Victor Ovie-Whiskey (FEDECO, 1980–1983); Eme Awa (NEC, 1987–1989); Humphrey Nwosu (NEC, 1989–1993); Okon Edet Uya (NEC, 1993–1993); and Sumner Dagogo-Jack (INEC, 1994-1998).
The new broom (no pun intended) is assuming office at a time INEC suffers from grave reputational deficits and there are anxieties about the forthcoming 2027 general elections, which from all indications would be conducted under him. This comment is not an appraisal of Professor Mahmoud Yakubu’s tenure, as we have seen from the trajectory of the institution that there is no magician that can lead INEC without drowning in a sea of criticisms. Two things in which Nigerians claim expertise more than the man who has the main job: football, as we all seem to know it better than the coach, and elections management. Every Nigerian is a chief electoral umpire. Each one of us has an idea about how elections must be conducted. Professor Amupitan is already being inundated with suggestions and directives from virtually every stakeholder. His primary task is to re-build the reputation of INEC. His first major field tests would probably be the Anambra Governorship election on 8 November, Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on 21 February, 2026, the Ekiti State Governorship election on 20 June, 2026, and the Osun State Governorship election on 8 August, 2026 – all already contained in the schedule of elections that he would be inheriting from the Yakubu INEC. It would also be his duty to continue with the Continuous Voter Registration exercise and to get INEC ready ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He has his work already cut out for him. But there are bigger issues: the urgent need to restore credibility and reform the electoral process, respect for court orders by INEC, calls for the prosecution of electoral offenders, and a review of INEC’s operational capabilities.
Reuben Abati, a former presidential spokesperson, writes from Lagos.
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