By SUFUYAN OJEIFO
The announcement on Monday [November 9, 2026] by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan, that the Commission has deleted 1,608,660 invalid voter registrations and 873 verified deceased persons from the register is, on the face of it, cheering news.
In a country where elections have been historically burdened by ghost voters, multiple registrations, underage voting and AI-generated faces allegedly being smuggled into the register, any serious attempt at sanitisation deserves attention.
The numbers are revealing. From 11,088,238 harvested records, Automated Biometric Identification System [ABIS] flagged 1,545,052. Before display, 1,277,052 were confirmed invalid. After display of the preliminary register between October 9 and 15 and public complaints, another 331,608 were removed. Fifty-four officials across 10 states have been fingered for complicity, for deliberately circumventing procedures, including abusing provisions for persons with disabilities.
That INEC listened, displayed the register, subjected it to public scrutiny and acted, is the proper way to build trust. On that score, Amupitan deserves a cautious pat on the back.
But should we roll out the drums prestissimo? No. Not yet.
Cleaning the register is the easiest part of credible election management. It is administrative. It is internal. It does not confront power. The real test of INEC’s independence and fidelity to free, fair and transparent elections lies not in deleting invalid names in October, but in ensuring that no extraneous votes are injected on Election Days in January 2027.
Nigerians are not agitating for a clean Excel sheet alone. They are agitating for a utilitarian, end-to-end clean election — from continuous voter registration, to correct verdict on party primaries monitored, to logistics deployment, to BVAS functionality, to real-time IReV transmission at polling units, to collation without manipulation, to declaration without coercion.
That bigger picture is where uncertainty hovers.
The Ghost That Haunts INEC: Perceived Partisan Bias
For all its constitutional independence under Section 158 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which expressly states that INEC shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other authority or person, INEC in practice has often looked like an appendage of the ruling party. Appointments, funding, security deployment and the body language of its leadership have historically fed that perception.
The concern is not abstract. When INEC officials in 10 states collude to create invalid entries, it is not mere technical lapse; it is an institutional integrity failure. Who did they do it for? Under whose instruction? And will prosecution be real or ritual?
If 54 low-level staff members are sacrificed while their political sponsors walk free, the clean-up will be cosmetic.
Therefore, the minimum acceptable standard for official interaction between INEC and the party in power must be redefined.
One, absolute arm’s length. No private meetings between the Presidency, governors and INEC leadership outside statutory briefings. No election timetable negotiated by political convenience.
Two, transparent procurement and deployment. Nigerians must know where BVAS machines are, how they were tested, and who handles them per LGA.
Three, no selective application of rules. The same ABIS that catches double registration must be deployed to catch vote-buying facilitation, illegal voter transfer and result alteration. INEC cannot be fierce on voter fraud and timid on result fraud.
Four, real-time accountability. In 2023, IReV failure at the presidential level destroyed trust that BVAS had built. In 2027, there must be no glitch narrative. The administrative infrastructure — power banks, network redundancies, backup servers, trained ad-hoc staff members’ welfare — must be employed fully, not half-heartedly.
What Amupitan Must Do: Seek Appointment With History
Prof. Amupitan must understand that he is not just managing an election; he is managing his name. INEC chairmen are remembered by one election. Maurice Iwu is remembered for 2007. Attahiru Jega for 2011 and 2015. Mahmood Yakubu for 2023.
What does Amupitan want to be remembered for?
He should crave institutional and personal legacy. He should intentionally, knowing that his reputation is at stake, seek an appointment with history and posterity.
That means he must go beyond register cleaning to system-proofing. Let us see:
– A published, auditable voter register ward-by-ward with hash values so no additions can happen after final publication.
– Mandatory, electronic transmission of polling unit results before any movement to ward collation centres.
– No manual collation override without judicially reviewable evidence.
– Prosecution of those 54 officials publicly, with names, states and offences published, not hidden under “administrative action.”
– Protection for whistleblowers within INEC who expose collusion.
The ultimate game-changer for credibility is simple: ensure that on Election Day, no vote that was not cast by a living, accredited voter enters the system. If that is guaranteed, acceptance of outcomes becomes easier. Losers will find it easier to concede. Winners will govern with legitimacy. That is the start of our democratic and electoral el-dorado.
The people would have got back their groove, knowing full well that their votes will count during elections to mitigate the excesses of bad governments.
Yes, cleaning 1.6 million invalid registrations is a good way to start. It shows capacity for self-correction. But it is prologue, not the book.
If Amupitan stops here and celebrates, he will have mistaken sweeping the compound for building the house.
If he goes all the way — resisting pressure, insulating his commission, deploying all necessary administrative infrastructure, and keeping fidelity to his oath to deliver free, fair and credible polls — then Nigerians will remember, and posterity will be kind.
For now, I commend cautiously, I watch closely, and I demand more.
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