By Jide Ajani, General Editor
LAGOS — Barring any last-minute change, President Bola Tinubu may present his nominee for the post of the chairman of the National Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, to the National Council of State, today at Aso Rock, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The tenure of Professor Mahmood Yakubu as INEC chairman ends next month, and on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, he handed over to the most senior National Commissioner, Dame May Agbamuche-Mbu.
Of the three nominees pencilled down to replace Yakubu, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan “came highly recommended” and would be announced after the Council of State has been briefed.
A presidency source told Vanguard that Professor Amupitan, who hails from Kogi State (North Central), has already “undergone security screening.”
He is currently the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) at the University of Jos.
Born on April 25, 1967, in Aiyetoro-Gbede, Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State, Amupitan is a Professor of Law, with specialisation and experience in Law of Evidence, Corporate Governance, Corporate Law and Privatisation Law and has taught in the university for years.
Tinubu’s move will be a clear departure from what his predecessor, late President Muhammadu Buhari, did during his eight-year tenure.
The four-man quorum expected at INEC was not formed until four months later, leaving the commission in limbo.
INEC appointments
The appointment of members to INEC is primarily governed by Section 153(1) and the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
It establishes the commission and outlines its composition.
Appointments are made by the President, with confirmation by the Senate, and must follow due consultation with the National Council of State.
The Constitution and the Electoral Act specify qualifications and non-partisanship required for appointed members.
However, some of the appointments already made by President Tinubu into INEC did not enjoy the benefit of the constitutionally-required consultation with the Council of State, as a number of National Commissioners and Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, have already been appointed, confirmed by the Senate and sworn-in.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, had called out President Tinubu on the appointment of at least three alleged All Progressives Congress, APC, members into the leadership of INEC.
Aso Rock sources told Vanguard that President Tinubu took more than a casual interest in the process leading up to the choice of the new INEC chairman.
At press time, however, there were conflicting signals that the president may tarry with the expected presentation of his choice, today.
Avoiding former President Buhari’s error
In the absence of any change in plans, President Tinubu will be avoiding the unnecessary furore that his predecesor generated at the expiration of the tenure of Professor Attahiru Jega in 2015, if he is able to appoint a substantive chairman before next month, since the process of setting a date for the meeting of the National Council of State is not easy.
On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, something very curious but strangely indecipherable, happened when then President Buhari, threw INEC into a cesspit of needless controversy, by not appointing a substantive national chairman for INEC until Jega’s tenure ended.
Acting in line with statutes and order of seniority, Jega had handed over to Ambassador Ahmed Wali to head and supervise the activities of the commission until a substantive chairman was appointed “in consultation with the Council of State” – as stated by the constitution.
However, within 24 hours, Buhari, who had just been sworn-in barely 36 hours earlier, overruled Jega and appointed a familial, nay filial relation, Mrs Amina Bala Zakari, as acting head of INEC.
At the time, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr Danladi Kifasi, who conveyed the appointment in a letter, stated that the appointment took effect from June 30, 2015, until the appointment of a substantive chairman.
At that time, both Wali and Zakari were National Commissioners of INEC. But in terms of seniority, Wali trumped Zakari.
Interestingly, Buhari, who had been declared winner of the presidential election of March 2015 and who ought to have been briefed by his transition team on appointments he needed to make immediately he assumed office, either had no clue about what was happening in INEC or had made up his mind to appoint Zakari as INEC chairman.
Zakari’s competence was never in doubt, but the relationship with Buhari, as well as the fact that Ambassador Wali was the most senior national commissioner at that time, made Buhari’s decision embarrassingly more curious.
The furore Buhari’s mis-step generated in the country at that time threw INEC under the bus and it took several investigative stories by Vanguard, accompanied by opposition from patriotic activists in the country to stop Buhari from appointing his ‘sister’ as INEC’s substantive chairman.
It was not until Wednesday, October 21, 2015 — almost four months after — that Buhari announced Professor Mahmood Yakubu as substantive INEC chairman, after a series of lobbying and counter-lobbying to get a ’suitable replacement’ for Jega. That ‘suitable replacement’ conducted the two controversial 2019 and 2023 general elections.
Whereas the former was immersed in a controversy over the presence of a server in INEC, the latter suffered incalculable damage when its much- touted BVAS and IReV platforms were rendered ineffective through the instrumentality of a glitch.
It is soothing that the president is not going to allow such to happen under his watch.
Taking charge and why Tinubu is concerned about credibility of polls
Aso Rock insiders have reliably informed Vanguard that President Tinubu understands the importance of credible polls.
According to a source close to the President, “his declaration sometime ago that NYSC members should be used to support the conduct of the coming census is not just about saving cost alone but about ensuring credibility of the process.
‘’It is the same way he is looking at the appointment of who will succeed Professor Yakubu. He wants a credible process, and he wants to help ensure that Nigerians’ confidence in INEC is not shaken.”
Vanguard learned that the president has been subject to intense pressure from powerful politicians who presented names of their nominees to him as far back as last year.
Vanguard was also made to understand by Aso Rock insiders that the president discovered that the interests of some of those lobbying for their wards to be made INEC chairman, ranged from outright control of INEC activities, to possible mouth-watering contracts that would be awarded by the Commission and sentiments fed by pecuniary considerations.
Some of the nominees politicians bombarded Tinubu with included but were not limited to former national commissioners, RECs and outright outsiders. The president was said to have maintained a studied cool-headedness while all the lobbying went on.
Yilwatda’s institutional guidance
In fact, Vanguard was informed that the institutional input of the current APC National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, who served as REC for Benue State between July 2017, and December 2021, was also sought by Mr. President. It was learned that Professor Yilwatda, known for his fair-mindedness, did not encumber Tinubu’s decision. He was said to have provided institutional guidance.
Vanguard was also told by an Aso Rock insider that the APC Chairman ensured that he “did not do anything that would create negative optics of interference in the choice of Yakubu’s replacement.”
What Tinubu stands to benefit
Nigerians remember President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan because of his legacy of the free, fair, and credible general elections of 2015. That is why he enjoys international recognition as a credible election observer and mission head.
Before Jonathan, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar enjoyed plausible international recognition after he handed over to a civilian administration and completed a transition programme that saw a credible election process in 1999.
Owu-born former military and civilian president Matthew Okikiolakan Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo continues to enjoy international acclaim because of his 1979 transition programme, which birthed the Second Republic. This was when African Heads of State were transmuting into civilian presidents.
These speak to global recognition of the critical role credible elections play and the primacy of integrity of the leader under whose watch such elections are conducted or vice versa.
The major challenge confronting him is whether his choice of nominee would be a fitting replacement in the mould of a Jega, as was done in Ghana, when Kwadwo Afari-Gyan’s tenure ended and Madam Jean Mensa was appointed to continue the good works Afari-Gyan started.
Registration of new parties caused hasty exit of INEC boss
Meanwhile, fresh information available to Vanguard suggests that the registration of new political parties by INEC may have caused the hasty exit of Yakubu. Vanguard was informed that having officially registered about a dozen out of the 110 applications for registration as political parties, Yakubu’s end-game was to leave a lasting legacy at the commission.
Unfortunately – and unbeknownst to Yakubu – one of the parties registered was to serve as a fall back option for a powerful politician hoping to vie for the governorship of one of the states in the South East geo-political zone.
It was the sitting governor of the state who hurriedly rushed to Abuja to complain about the development. Last month, Yakubu was told to handover to the most senior national commissioner, commencing his final exit from the commission.
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