Human rights advocate and lawyer Chidi Odinkalu has expressed doubts about the ability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), under the leadership of Chairman Joash Amupitan, to conduct credible elections.
Speaking on Monday as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Odinkalu criticized Amupitan, stating that he could not be trusted to oversee free and fair elections in 2027.
“INEC failed,” the guest said while assessing the recently conducted council polls in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“Amupitan’s INEC failed woefully. On this evidence, nobody can trust Joash Amupitan to organise credible elections in 2027.
“There’s nothing else to it; it is not about the law. It is about the failure of will, the failure of electoral administration,” he added.
He charged electoral administrators to conduct their homework or resign their positions for others to do the task.
When asked if it was premature to judge Amupitan given his recent appointment late last year, Odinkalu noted that the new INEC chairman had already overseen a governorship election in Anambra State.
He highlighted problems with election logistics in the nation’s capital, describing them as poorly managed.
Odinkalu also criticized INEC for reassigning voters without adequately notifying them of changes to their polling units on election day.
Odinkalu challenged the electoral body to admit to the challenges and apologise to Nigerians for some shortcomings.
According to him, Amupitan can tell Nigerians that “I take personal responsibility, this is a chastening experience. I am learning, some of these things I saw cannot happen on my watch”.
“But to simply pretend as if these things did not happen and say this is the standard to which elections are organised will be irresponsible,” he stated.
Odinkalu further noted that Nigerians are not asking for perfections but evidence of commitment to improvements by the electoral body.
“A chairperson of INEC who is committed to credible elections would admit that there are failures that should never have happened on the watch of a credible electoral administrator and will say, ‘We will do something about it, enlist citizens who have no partisan commitments to see how we address these issues,’” he added.