The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has called on the newly appointed Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, to sustain and build upon the electoral reforms introduced by his predecessor, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
The National Chairman of IPAC, Yusuf Dantalle, made the call yesterday in Abuja during a colloquium held to review a decade of Yakubu’s leadership of the commission.
Speaking on behalf of registered political parties, Dantalle commended Yakubu for transforming Nigeria’s electoral process and reducing incidences of manipulation through reforms that strengthened transparency and credibility.
According to him, “That doesn’t mean we are where we need to be, but we are not where we used to be. We are challenging whoever is coming after him to build on what he has done because he has done tremendously well. I’m saying this on behalf of political parties.”
Highlighting the impact of Yakubu’s reforms, Dantalle pointed to several elections that reflected the true will of the electorate.
“We saw an election where a sitting governor lost an election to the Senate. It happened in Enugu, Benue and Kebbi because votes counted. We saw a Peter Obi who did not have councillors or local government chairmen anywhere defeating the incumbent president in Lagos because votes counted,” he said.
Delivering a keynote lecture titled “INEC under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu”, Prof. Emmanuel Aiyede of the University of Ibadan said Yakubu’s most enduring legacy was his approach to institutionalising technology in Nigeria’s electoral process.
“Yakubu’s real legacy lies not in the machines themselves, but in the institutional mindset that now governs their use,” Aiyede explained. “He helped shift INEC from seeing technology as a novelty to treating it as infrastructure — as integral to electoral governance as polling booths and ballot boxes.”
Also speaking, the Executive Director of the Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA), Faith Nwadishi, praised Yakubu for deepening stakeholder engagement and enhancing the commission’s internal systems.
According to her, “Yakubu institutionalised continuous voter registration, expanded stakeholder consultations and strengthened INEC’s internal systems. Importantly, he opened INEC’s doors wider to civil society, media and other groups, and prioritised transparency in election management.”
The event brought together representatives of political parties, academia, civil society, and the media, who all emphasised the need for continuity in reforming Nigeria’s electoral process.
