INEC’s new boss on test in Anambra, as re-election fever ravages Nigeria

Professor Joash Amupitan is going for broke in Anambra on Saturday. After effusive verbal pledges, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s new chairman will face his first test as he supervises the off-season gubernatorial election. Fingers crossed!

It would seem that the biggest business in town these days is “endorsement” of ambitious politicians for 2027. Organic and inorganic crowds are being mobilised for acrobatic dance across the country. Governance is in peril!

Is the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) living or dying? Only the physicians in the party can determine the true answer.

As Amupitan goes to Awka

Without a doubt, Joash Amupitan inherited a commission with bruised integrity. His predecessor, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, left a huge task for him.

Since he mounted the saddle on Thursday, 23 October 2025, as the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the recurring question has been, “Can Amupitan turn the ugly tide?”

The professor has continued to say that he was determined to serve Nigerians by doing the right things. As it is always said, “The taste of the pudding is in the eating.”

Read also: Anambra guber poll: No room for logistics failure, Amupitan warns staff

The first test for the INEC’s new chairman presents itself on Saturday, November 8, 2025, when the off-cycle gubernatorial election will be held in Anambra State.

During the Yakubu era, allegations were rife that the Commission was not impartial, particularly in off-season elections. Yakubu left office with the weighty allegations that he was complicit in the electoral malfeasance that featured under his watch.

As Amupitan supervises the election in Anambra on Saturday, all eyes are on him to see what he will do and what he will not (do). It is said that “first impression is the last impression”.

He will receive the people’s plaudits if the conduct of the election is deemed to be transparent and the outcome not manipulated, but if otherwise, he would have lost the citizens completely.

On the flip side, the perceived failures of the immediate past chairman should make Amupitan’s job very easy and simple, as any slight improvement on the management of elections and their outcomes would be hailed by the Nigerian people who are just crawling out of a dark alley.

Re-election temperature is burning hot

Two years ahead of the next general election, billed to take place in 2027, politicians are all over the place, hosting elaborate ceremonies and endorsing one another for a fresh term. In many states, governors seem to be competing among themselves to endorse President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for re-election. While it may not be completely wrong to plan for the future, there is everything wrong about abandoning a current assignment in pursuit of a utopian one somewhere, to the detriment of the masses.

In the last few months, Nigerians have been witnessing a gale of defections by opposition state governors who collapse all their instruments of government into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Many observers wonder about the motivation for such decampments. Loads of questions are being asked about the real reason behind Governor Douye Diri’s defection to the broom organisation.

The Bayelsa State governor is in the last lap of his second term. Some observers say that he may have decided to ‘port” to have his “sins forgiven” (according to Adams Oshiomhole).

Read also: IGP vows zero tolerance for violence ahead of Anambra governorship election

This political chess being played by the political practitioners in Nigeria is one of the major reasons the country has remained stunted in development terms.

Over the years, governors accused of stealing their states’ funds have neither been prosecuted nor punished. They are all walking the streets as free men, jumping from one party to another.

A former governor of a North Central zone, who is standing trial over alleged N80 billion embezzlement, is today leading the “Hallelujah Chorus” on podiums, moving “motions” on the re-election of his successor-governor and the President. He is not only a free man; he also attends high-profile political events.

A nation that delights in playing politics as opposed to governance will always lead the non-performing nations’ chart.

PDP in chains?

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) appears to be in chains, or rather, the chains are being tightly fastened on its neck, upper and lower limbs.

The aim seems to be geared toward finishing up the party. The tormentors of the party seem to have been sworn by certain gods to see to its demise.

Since after the party’s presidential primaries IN 2022, PDP has been effectively under the control of undertakers. The so-called party leaders were its major destroyers.

They have been mercenaries working for external forces. Umar Damagum and Samuel Anyanwu have at various times been accused of being moles planted by some forces bent on supervising the burial of the umbrella association.

All along, they played their assigned roles and ensured the party did not make any progress. But by the time Damagum realised himself and decided to cut ties with his finances, it had become very late.

Since he decided to turn a new leaf like the biblical Prodigal Son, he has found himself trying to fight off the elements that tele-guided him for a long period of time. But as it is said, “Your sins will find you out.” And the aphorism, “you can’t eat your cake and still have it”, may be playing out before Damagum’s eyes.