By Esohe Aifuwa
Senate Approves Amupitan As New INEC Chairman
The Senate gave its stamp of approval Thursday to Professor Joash Amupitan as the next head of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, ( INEC), clearing the way for him to tackle the country’s shaky election system.
The 58-year-old law expert, picked by President Bola Tinubu and backed by the National Council of State last week, faced tough questions from senators for more than two hours. They grilled him on fixing INEC’s reputation and rolling out real changes to make votes count fairly.
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Amupitan, stepping in as the sixth full-time INEC chairman after Mahmood Yakubu’s time ended, promised to dive into the Electoral Act right away. He wants to iron out messy timelines that confuse elections and build trust so losers shake hands with winners.
“Imagine a fair vote where the person who loses says, ‘You earned it,’ just like a criminal nodding to a judge’s fair sentence,” Amupitan told the senators. He believes that kind of trust will get more Nigerians excited to vote.
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Senators also dug into rumors tying him to last year’s presidential election fights. Amupitan denied these speculations by pulling out official records to prove he never joined President Tinubu’s defense team, or those for opposition figures like Labour Party’s Peter Obi or the PDP.
“I wasn’t there, not at the tribunal or the Supreme Court,” he said firmly to Senator Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa West and Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
With the nod now official, Amupitan’s focus turns to delivering elections Nigerians can believe in.
