The newly appointed National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, yesterday, began his tenure on a promising note, assuring that under his watch, elections will be so credible that losers will congratulate winners.
NEW INEC CHAIRMAN
However, Amupitan said he will accomplish this with the support of relevant agencies like the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, and others.
He spoke in the Senate during the process of his confirmation as INEC chairman following his appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, TheMediaGood Newspaper can report.
“Our ultimate goal is to make elections so credible that even the loser will be able to congratulate the winner in good faith just as a judge delivers judgment and both sides accept it as fair and just,” he told the lawmakers while answering a question.
Answering a series of questions from the Senators, Amupitan, the Kogi-born Professor of Law, among others, said: “I did not lead the legal team of the President at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. I did not appear at the Tribunal either at the Court of Appeal or at the Supreme Court.”
He also said he did not serve as part of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, or Labour Party, LP, legal teams.“I was not a member of any team,” Amupitan, who was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jos (UniJos) in Plateau State, said.
On his core election job, Amupitan said: “Mr President, distinguished Senators, the concern raised is indeed a major one, and it reflects the worry of many Nigerians. One of the first things we must do at the commission is to establish a credible internal mechanism to monitor the conduct and behaviour of officials.”
Answering another question, he vowed that he would conduct an audit of the INEC results viewing (IReV) portal to address glitches that undermined public confidence during the 2023 elections, noting that the purpose of the bimodal voter accreditation system, BVAS, and IReV, was to ensure the integrity of elections, a goal shared by election technologies worldwide.
His words: “I believe what happened in 2023 was subsumed as a glitch. Before the election, my understanding, based on a review of Supreme Court decisions, was that there was no clarity as to the purpose of IReV.”The IReV portal was part of the technologies introduced by the commission to improve the transparency of the electoral process.INEC had assured Nigerians that polling unit results would be uploaded to the portal in real-time during the 2023 presidential election, but the portal remained inactive for an extended period, even after voting was concluded at some polling units, prompting suspicion from many Nigerians.The INEC Chairman noted that the Supreme Court later clarified that INReV was not an electronic collation system, a position that was not adequately communicated by INEC before the election.
He said: “The IReV was supposed to be a safeguard for comparison because the laws made by this distinguished Senate did not do away with manual collation. However, IReV was supposed to provide some guarantee for checks and balances.“
On the issue of court decisions and technological systems, there has been confusion over certain innovations introduced by INEC, such as the electronic collation system. The Supreme Court has clarified some of these matters. When we assume office, we will assess the infrastructure on the ground, review the technology, and adopt the best approach that enhances transparency and credibility in elections.
“I have to audit the system, if I’m given the opportunity, to see what is actually wrong and whether we have what it takes as it is now. Because it is not just the INEC’s responsibility, but also the other agencies like NCC, NIMC and the service providers that will have to work together to ensure that we give Nigerians the technology that everybody will be happy about.
“There will definitely be an audit of the system we are meeting and especially of the logistics of the election itself and ensure that the proper strategy is put in place. We all know the problem. So, we’ll find a proper strategy to be able to confront those problems headlong.”
The President of the Nigerian Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio said Amupitan was approved without any dissenting voice, and asked the INEC chief to ensure that every vote counts in future polls.
With the confirmation, Amupitan succeeded Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who served as chairman of the electoral body for 10 years and quit on October 7.