My Appointment As INEC Chairman Will End My Public Engagement – Amupitan

By Ayodele Oni 

To secure public trust on his assignment, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Joash Amupitan, has declared that he will not accept any political or diplomatic appointment after completing his tenure at the electoral body.

Amupitan was appointed INEC chairman this year succeeding Mahmood Yakubu, for a five year tenure, which is renewable.

Amupitan made the declaration while speaking at a Chatham House panel in London, titled “Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Democratic Trajectory and Regional Stability Beyond the Ballot.”

During the discussion, the INEC chairman was asked whether he would reject political or diplomatic appointments after leaving office, particularly in light of the decision by his predecessor, Mahmood Yakubu, who was recently designated as Nigeria’s non-career ambassador to Qatar.

Responding, Amupitan said his decision to serve as INEC chairman was based on public trust and his commitment to protecting the credibility of Nigeria’s electoral process.

He maintained that he has taken an oath to remain neutral and ensure that elections conducted under his leadership were free, fair and credible.

“I’m not going to accept any appointment from anybody because coming to serve here is based on trust.”

The professor further described his position as a national responsibility, noting that public service should not be treated merely as a route to securing another political or government position.

Amupitan also spoke about the need to rebuild public confidence in INEC, acknowledging that technical difficulties experienced during the transmission of election results in the 2023 general elections had weakened trust in the commission.

According to him, the commission has reviewed the challenges associated with result management and identified weaknesses, particularly at collation centres and during the electronic transmission of polling unit results.

He explained that INEC was introducing additional safeguards ahead of the 2027 general elections to prevent inaccurate polling unit results from being uploaded to the commission’s Result Viewing Portal, known as IReV.

Amupitan disclosed that the new measure would ensure that results failing to meet accuracy requirements at the polling unit level would not proceed to the IReV platform.

He noted that during the 2023 elections, some results allegedly containing discrepancies and figures indicating over-voting were uploaded to the portal, contributing to concerns about the transparency of the electoral process.

The INEC chairman expressed confidence that the measures being developed would help strengthen result management and improve the credibility of the 2027 elections.