By Promise Adiele PhD
From afar or a reasonable distance, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, projects the image of a successful, reasonable man. He comes across as an accomplished legal luminary, an academic of repute and a distinguished citizen by any stretch of the imagination. He is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). His slow, measured elocution in matters of socio-political issues endears him to the public. Having served in various positions at the University of Jos and other universities, nobody will doubt his ability to serve society in any capacity. But it all stops there, and nothing more. Professor Amupitan’s nomination and subsequent appointment as the INEC Chairman reveal him as a man of meagre, unstable convictions. His current integrity struggle in his exalted position affirms his unsuitability and ill-preparedness to function dispassionately in office.
At a time in the history of our country when many people manifest acute integrity deficiency and an abysmal lack of the slightest shred of honour, Amupitan’s ascension as INEC chairman resonated around the country, conveying multiple messages in the political atmosphere. While some people argued that an INEC chairman nominated by the president will never be impartial, other people, knowing full well the political antecedents of President Bola Tinubu, argue that a man he nominated would definitely pander to his haemorrhaging whims and caprices. Still, some people believed that Amupitan was a man with some level of integrity, no matter how small.
It did not take long before Amupitan proved his doubters right. When he stepped out to dance as the country’s electoral drums sounded in the Anambra State off-cycle governorship election, he danced with weak, unconvincing footsteps. The election was marred by fraud, vote-buying and other forms of inducements. Yet, many people gave him the benefit of the doubt. When another round of elections took place in FCT, Rivers State and Kano State early this year, where the All Progressives Congress (APC) swept the polls, many people were convinced that INEC’s Amupitan is incapable of engineering a credible election. Still, the INEC chief continued to dance with wobbling legs, tossed about by the powers behind his appointment.
Gradually, the legal luminary started to speak from both sides of his mouth, talking at cross-purposes with feeble promises of electoral transparency. Then, the debate began. Can Professor Amupitan guarantee a free and fair election in 2027? Is he honourable enough to remain apolitical and rescue the country from political demons who are deliberating leading the country to Golgotha for ultimate crucifixion? Expectedly, he became the most popular person in Nigeria as his name danced on social and mainstream media with varying degrees of determined intensity.
Then, Amupitan’s dance of shame, which started in 2023, became public knowledge in 2026. Nigeria’s legion of digital excavators unearthed his X account when he was an unknown, uncelebrated professor of Law at the University of Jos, showing his support for APC and Bola Tinubu, the president. Given the content of the tweets, Amupitan’s dance of shame makes him ineligible as the executive umpire of Nigeria’s electoral body. His apolitical image and neutrality are called into question. The above scenario justifies the belief by millions of Nigerians that he is incapable of conducting a free and fair election in 2027.
For a distinguished Professor of Law, his shameful public display of partiality signals the appropriateness of his immediate resignation as INEC chairman. Having been caught supporting a political party in a contest where he is the arbiter, he has dishonoured his ancestry, academic training as a lecturer, and professional training as a lawyer. Yet, there is still a leeway for him to regain his honour and banish shame from his repertoire – resign. Resignation is the most honourable way for him to exit the electoral body because the possibility of being sacked by the president is remotely farfetched.
As a private citizen, Amupitan reserves the right to support any political party of his choice or align with any political ideology. But it becomes an invidious behaviour to conceal those biases and accept being an umpire, knowing full well that his political convictions are compromised ab initio. That Amupitan would hide his support for APC and President Bola Tinubu and accept being INEC’s chairman designates him as the number one enemy of the Nigerian state and its lumbering democratic culture. His mischievous tendencies were in full display when his X handle suddenly changed from @joashamupitan to @sundayvibes00.
The denial that the original account did not belong to him is shameless and primitive, yet the argument was pushed into public space for consumption. At this time of digital sophistication, it is impossible to completely erase Archival indexing. The original messages supporting APC and Bola Tinubu were traced to the first account, which is Amupitan’s verified X account. To underscore the treachery in the entire scheme, the new X account that transmuted from the original Amupitan’s X account was immediately labelled a parody account and access to it was summarily restricted. Nothing could be more ridiculous and jejune.
Interestingly, since the news broke, Professor Joash Amupitan has obstinately refused to address it and confront all the associated issues frontally. He owes the public a duty to address the matter and state his side of the story. To continue to keep silent means guilt and acceptance of shame in the entire development. The statement that he is not on social media is lame and conveys a falsehood of advanced impudence. In a video making the rounds on social media, while answering questions on a TV set, Amupitan admitted that he learned of the removal of ADC from INEC’s portal from his social media account. If he is not on social media, which social media account was he referring to, please?
Evidently, some people are desperately working to plunge Nigeria into a monumental crisis that would consume both the leaders and the led. The current desperate measures by the INEC boss cast doubt over the legitimacy of any electoral conduct associated with his name. And for an APC government that has suffocated under the weight of illegitimacy since the 2023 elections, Amupitan’s partisan dispositions further cast the party into the dustbin of ignominy. If only Nigeria’s political class had any sense of shame.
As if Amupitan’s dance of shame through his past tweets is not enough, his INEC is currently orchestrating a disruption of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nigeria’s only credible and viable opposition political party. Nigerians expected Joash Amupitan, as a Professor of Law, to know better in the interpretation of the law. But like a man on a mission to guaranteed perdition, his INEC has committed to destabilising ADC and halting its maniacal momentum across the country. Today, ADC is not on INEC’s portal as the 2027 general elections approach with vigour.
The implication is not only grave but tragic for Nigeria’s democracy. Resorting to such vindictive measures against the opposition portrays the Bola Tinubu government as despotic, tolerating no opposition. The court’s decision that the ADC should revert to the status quo ante bellum is straightforward. We do not all need to be lawyers to search and understand that simple Latin maxim. It simply means – “the state existing before the war”. Amupitan should realise early that Nigerians are not stupid, even if they are docile.
The big question is, what state existed in ADC before they went to court due to an externally induced leadership crisis in the party? It is either we are referring to when Ralph Nwosu was the chairman or when David Mark was the chairman of the party. Either way, ADC is fine. The illiterate Nafiu Bala resigned from whatever position he held in the party, and the details are available in the public domain. But INEC and Amupitan, desperate to promote a grotesque dance of shame and discredit Nigeria’s democracy, are capitalizing on the court’s pronouncement to cripple ADC. Some disoriented Nigerians and victims of acute psychological impairment have posited that INEC can remove ADC from their portal, and heaven will not fall. Such an inane submission should never find its way into the public domain to save enlightened minds from decidedly diseased mentality.
Amupitan’s continued stay as INEC’s chairman is an embarrassment to Nigeria’s democracy and has the potential to inflame the country’s fragile socio-political environment. Democracy is about competition and choices. Any instrument or personality that constitutes a hindrance to equitable democratic practice stokes the flames of strife and public disturbances. The APC-controlled federal government may conceive Nigerians as a conquered people and Nigeria as its fiefdom, but history teaches us that those who stood in the way of democracy in Nigeria were consumed by an inexplicable, existential inferno. Nigerians sincerely hope that the current APC government is not subtly organizing a swansong for democracy in the country. Amupitan should resign now. The eyes of millions of Nigerians are weary of watching his dance of shame before the world.
Promise Adiele PhD is of Mountain Top University and can be reached via promee01@yahoo.com, X: @drpee4
