Nigeria’s registered political parties, under the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), have proposed the creation of an independent body to appoint the chairman, national commissioners and secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The move, they said, would strengthen the commission’s neutrality and enhance the integrity of Nigeria’s elections.
The proposal was presented by IPAC national chairman, Dr Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, at a consultative meeting between political party leaders and the House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review on Monday in Abuja.
The call comes amid mounting pressure on the National Assembly to pass key electoral reforms to ensure transparency and credibility, especially in the appointment of the INEC chairman ahead of the 2027 general election.
Represented by his deputy, Dipo Olayoku, Dantalle said the current system, which allows the president to appoint INEC leadership, undermines public confidence and the commission’s independence.
“To promote INEC’s neutrality, the power to appoint its leadership should be removed from the executive. Instead, an Independent Appointment Committee should be created, comprising representatives of all registered parties, civil society, the National Judicial Council and a joint committee of the National Assembly,” he said.
He added that such inclusivity would enhance transparency and credibility in appointing INEC’s leadership.
IPAC’s position echoes earlier calls by former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan for reforms to guarantee credible electoral leadership. In a recorded address at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum at Yale University, Obasanjo described the 2023 elections as “a travesty,” urging urgent reform to rebuild public trust.
He said INEC’s leadership must be thoroughly vetted to ensure that only “dispassionate, non-partisan actors with impeccable reputations” are appointed, and recommended short tenures for electoral officials to prevent undue influence and corruption.
Jonathan also urged a new process for appointing the next INEC chairman, proposing an independent screening and nomination mechanism to strengthen the commission’s credibility ahead of the 2027 polls. Jonathan, represented by Ms Ann Iyonu, executive director of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, made the call late August in Abuja at the public presentation of the National Action Plan for Electoral Reforms organised by the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought.
The intervention comes at a sensitive moment: the tenure of the current INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, is due to expire before the end of the year. Yakubu, who oversaw the 2019 and 2023 polls, has served two terms, and the choice of his successor is already generating quiet speculation. With President Bola Ahmed Tinubu expected to seek re-election in 2027, analysts say whoever emerges as the next INEC chair will play a decisive role in shaping the credibility of that contest.
Beyond the appointment process, Jonathan had also revived an earlier proposal for the establishment of an independent office of the registrar of political parties to regulate party operations, promote internal democracy and enforce discipline. He suggested that such an office should have the power to declare the seat of any defector vacant, arguing that the electoral mandate belongs to the people, not individual ambition.
Like IPAC, Obasanjo and Jonathan, the European Union (EU) also recently warned that Nigeria risks repeating the shortcomings of the 2023 general elections if reforms are not concluded before 2027.
Barry Andrews, member of the European Parliament and former chief observer of the EU Election Observation Mission for the 2023 polls, told a press conference in Abuja last week that progress on electoral reform had been “modest at best, dangerously close to stagnation.”
“Unless these reforms are concluded within the next few months, there is a risk of repeating the serious shortcomings of 2023,” he warned.
The mission listed six critical reforms, including transparent INEC appointments, election result transparency, women’s representation, creation of an Electoral Offences Commission, constitutional reforms to give INEC a stable legal framework, and protection of media freedom.
