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| Prof. Joash Amupitan |
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, has pledged not to accept any political or diplomatic appointment after leaving office, saying his service at the electoral commission is anchored on public trust, neutrality and credible elections.
Amupitan made the pledge on Thursday during a panel discussion at Chatham House in London, themed “Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Democratic Trajectory and Regional Stability Beyond the Ballot.”
He was asked whether he would turn down political or diplomatic appointments after his tenure, a question that came after his predecessor, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, accepted an ambassadorial nomination from President Bola Tinubu following the 2023 general election.
Yakubu was among 32 ambassadorial nominees forwarded to the Senate by President Tinubu in November 2025. He was later designated Nigeria’s non-career ambassador to Qatar.
Responding, Amupitan said he would not accept an appointment from anyone after leaving INEC, stressing that his role demands impartiality and a firm commitment to conducting free, fair and credible elections.
“I’m not going to accept any appointment from anybody because coming to serve here is based on trust,” he said.
He added: “And then I took an oath of allegiance, not only to be neutral, but to ensure that the conduct of the election is free, fair, and credible.”
The INEC chairman described his appointment as a national assignment, noting that he had spent much of his life in public service. He said he would prefer to pursue personal interests after completing his tenure rather than accept further government appointments.
“I’m not going to accept any appointment from anybody because coming to serve here is based on trust,” he said.
He added: “And then I took an oath of allegiance, not only to be neutral, but to ensure that the conduct of the election is free, fair, and credible.”
Amupitan’s declaration comes amid heightened scrutiny of the independence of Nigeria’s electoral institution ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan, a professor of corporate governance, also made reference to opportunities in the private sector, saying he understood where wealth was held and could explore such opportunities after leaving office.
On preparations for the 2027 general election, he acknowledged that the controversy surrounding the electronic transmission of results during the 2023 polls had damaged public confidence in INEC.
He said the commission had identified problems at collation centres and was introducing safeguards to prevent inaccurate polling-unit results from being uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal, IReV.
“We found, for instance, that the problem of election result declaration and management in Nigeria is not even at the polling unit, it’s at the collation centres,” he said.
Explaining the difficulties experienced during the 2023 election, Amupitan said the electronic transmission process was affected by the failure to upload results to IReV.
He said INEC had now developed a system to ensure that results that fail accuracy checks at polling units would not be uploaded to the portal.
The chairman also disclosed that the commission had reduced the number of voters assigned to each Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) device from 1,250 to 850 to improve the speed of accreditation.
He added that INEC was strengthening its collaboration with security agencies to improve the safety of voters during the 2027 elections.
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