PROFESSOR Mahmood Yakubu has officially handed over leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to May Agbamuche, who will serve as the Acting National Chairman.
Yakubu, who completed his constitutionally allowed two terms spanning ten years, made the announcement today during a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
He urged commissioners and directors to extend their full support to Agbamuche until a substantive chairman is appointed.
Agbamuche, the most senior serving National Commissioner, now assumes temporary leadership of Nigeria’s electoral body as the nation awaits President Bola Tinubu’s nomination of a new INEC chairman, subject to Senate confirmation.
Professor Yakubu was first appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2015 and reappointed for a second term in 2020, becoming the first INEC chairman to serve two consecutive terms.
Under his leadership, INEC conducted major elections, including the 2019 and 2023 general polls.
As Yakubu exits, attention now turns to who will succeed him. Civil society groups have called for transparency in the selection process.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) recently urged President Tinubu to make public the details of the appointment process, including the names of candidates and consultations with the Council of State, as required by the constitution.
SERAP also advised the President to reconsider recent appointments of alleged partisan individuals as Resident Electoral Commissioners, stressing that the process of selecting Yakubu’s successor “cannot and should not be a closed shop.”
In a similar vein, Samson Itodo, Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, emphasized that Nigeria needs a chairman with integrity and independence—someone without political ties who is courageous enough to uphold the law regardless of political pressure.
With the transition now underway, Nigerians await the President’s next move on who will lead INEC into its next phase of electoral reform and governance.