A new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Joash Amupitan, is set to assume office after a routine screening by the Senate and swearing in by President Bola Tinubu. He was approved by the National Council of State, NCS, on Thursday, October 9, 2025.

Like most of his predecessors, Amupitan comes highly recommended because of his track record as a scholar, lawyer and administrator. Prior to his nomination, he was the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos. He is also a Professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN. He is in a comfortable position to navigate the legal framework of his highly challenging assignment.

What matters most to Nigerians is not reputation before INEC job. It is reputation during and after. After all, Professor Maurice Iwu was an innovative Professor of Pharmacy. Nigerians actually clamoured for the appointment of his successor, Professor Attahiru Jega, because he was a well-known academic and activist.

Also, Professor Mahmood Yakubu had a reputation of excellent tenure at the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, though certain allegations later emerged. Each was exceptionally brilliant. At the end, each failed to live up to the expectations of Nigerians. What matters most is personal character.

Once the INEC Chairman is strongly principled, the rest of the team will have no choice but to comply. The late Professor Humphrey Nwosu, who conducted the historic June 12 1993 presidential election, abundantly proved this. Even the politicians will think twice before helping themselves to impunity. Most importantly, Nigerians will appreciate and support him. INEC Chairman’s character is what makes or mars efforts to elect good leaders who will position Nigeria for greatness.

To their credit, Jega and Yakubu pioneered the infusion of technology in our elections, such as electronic smart cards, digital accreditation, BVAS, the election result viewing portal, IReV, electronic transmission of results, and others. Unfortunately, these technologies were still manipulated and rendered ineffective as tools of preventing election rigging.

Due to these failures, Professor Yakubu’s INEC practically transferred the power to elect leaders from the people to the Judiciary; a sad mission failure.

We urge Amupitan to review these technologies and processes, and restore them as instruments of making the people’s vote count. The power to elect leaders must be returned to the people. He should also make elections people-friendly and encourage Nigerians to discard apathy and vote.

Very importantly too, Amupitan should drastically reduce the frequency of “inconclusive” elections. It is a great drain on public resources. It also zaps the pockets of candidates and their political parties which, in turn, fosters corruption and the violent hijacks of election results. A lot of this happened under Prof Yakubu.

We also encourage him to be at the forefront for the continuous review of the Electoral Act (As Amended) to refine our electoral process.

We wish him the best.