*Prof. Joash O. Amupitan, SAN, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, urges staff on preparations for the scale of 2027 General Elections, a simultaneous exercise across 36 states and FCT, which demands a higher standard of commitment and performance than any single-state exercise
Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect
As preparations for the 2027 General Elections gathers momentum, Prof. Joash O. Amupitan, SAN, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Monday, September 7, 2026, declared open the South-West Zonal Interactive Meeting and Readiness Assessment for next year’s polls.
Amupitan described the engagement as a departure from over two decades of administrative tradition in which zonal preparations were handled solely through headquarters directorates.
Cross-sections of INEC staff at the event in Lagos
The Commission disclosed the event, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, in Ikeja, Lagos State capital, marked the commencement of a six-zone national tour designed to assess the Commission’s operational preparedness ahead of the Presidential and National Assembly (NASS) Elections scheduled for Saturday, 16 January 2027
The Governorship and State Houses of Assembly Elections are also set for Saturday, February 6 next year.
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Prof. Amupitan said he was accompanied by National Commissioners and Directors from the Commission’s headquarters to engage directly with Electoral Officers and administrative staff, whom he described as the frontline guardians of Nigeria’s democracy.
The INEC Chief said the true measure of electoral success was determined not in meeting rooms in Abuja, but in the Local Government Areas (LGAs), Registration Area Centres, and polling units where Field Officers handle the daily mechanics of the electoral process.
He also noted that the Commission was building on the success of recent off-cycle elections, particularly the Osun State Off-Cycle Governorship Election held August 2026, which he said demonstrated the Commission’s capacity when operational discipline, technical competence, and administrative integrity converge.
Amupitan, nonetheless, cautioned that the scale of the 2027 General Elections, a simultaneous exercise across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), would demand a higher standard of performance than any single-state exercise.
Key challenges confronting INEC, by Amupitan
Acknowledging certain challenges affecting the Commission’s operations, Prof. Amupitan identified voter apathy, a lingering trust deficit, and the spread of misinformation and disinformation in both traditional and digital media space as key challenges confronting INEC as of now.
He emphasised that the conduct and competence of field staff remained the Commission’s strongest defence against false narratives.
On voter registration, the Chairman disclosed that the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, conducted in three phases between August 2025 and July 2026, had recorded a cumulative total of 10,772,421 new registrants, subject to ongoing Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) verification.
He said the third phase of the CVR introduced, for the first time in Nigeria, an Online Registration Portal to ease access for eligible voters, alongside a new Printable Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) technology first deployed during the Osun State election, in line with Section 18(1) of the Electoral Act.
Update on National Register of Voters and tech system
Prof. Amupitan said the Commission’s National Register of Voters was approaching the 100 million mark, and reaffirmed the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that no eligible Nigerian is disenfranchised due to logistical bottlenecks in PVC distribution.
On technology, the INEC Chairman said the Commission was refining its Result Management Systems, including the recently introduced eEC8A, to strengthen the verifiability of results from the polling unit to the national collation centre.
He restated the Commission’s zero-tolerance stance on partisan conduct and administrative negligence among staff.
The Chairman as well cited Section 26 of the Electoral Act, which mandates an oath of neutrality for Electoral Officers, Presiding Officers, Returning Officers, and security personnel involved in elections.
New salary, welfare package for INEC staff underway
Amupitan further disclosed the Commission was finalising a new salary and welfare package for INEC staff, Commission Members, and Resident Electoral Commissioners, including the newly created Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure (CEMBSS), which takes effect from 1 January 2026, and a 150 percent increase in overhead allocations to states effective from July 1, 2026.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Prof. Ayobami Salami, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Lagos State, described the state as honoured to host the maiden edition of the zonal engagement.
Prof. Salami noted that electoral credibility is built over time through early preparation, competent personnel, and effective coordination rather than determined solely on Election Day.
He also said the South-West zone presented a diverse electoral environment requiring readiness assessments that go beyond routine checklists to examine the resilience of logistics, the reliability of technology, and the strength of stakeholder engagement across the six states.
The Lagos REC commended the Commission’s leadership for prioritising early preparedness and described the Commission’s personnel as its greatest asset in safeguarding the credibility of the 2027 General Elections.
Setting out the objectives of the engagement, the Director, Planning and Monitoring, Mrs. Helen Ajayi, told participants that the interactive meeting was designed around four key goals: to assess the state of preparedness of the South-West states through the presentation of situation reports on logistics, ad hoc staff recruitment, technology, security, training, voter education and stakeholder engagement; to identify the operational and logistical challenges within the states that could affect the successful conduct of the 2027 General Elections; to provide departmental updates on voter registration, the collection of Permanent Voter’s Cards, and the deployment and Management of other ICT resources; and to align all staff with the Commission’s Code of Conduct as well as its operational and logistics readiness ahead of the elections.
The interactive session featured departmental engagements covering voter registration, electoral technology, staff conduct, logistics, and state-level situation reports from Resident Electoral Commissioners across the South-West zone.
The Lagos engagement marks the opening leg of a six-zone national tour by the Commission’s leadership, as INEC intensifies preparations for what will be one of the most closely watched electoral cycles in Nigeria’s democratic history.