Past electoral body chairmen: From ECN to INEC
Since 1959, Nigeria has had six different electoral bodies and a total of 14 chairpersons and one in acting capacity. A zone-by-zone geopolitical analysis shows that the South South had produced seven; the South East, three; the North West, two; the North East, one; the North Central and the South West, none. From the colonial-era […]
Since 1959, Nigeria has had six different electoral bodies and a total of 14 chairpersons and one in acting capacity. A zone-by-zone geopolitical analysis shows that the South South had produced seven; the South East, three; the North West, two; the North East, one; the North Central and the South West, none.
From the colonial-era Electoral Commission of Nigeria (ECN) of 1958 to today’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the following had chaired the electoral body:
Ronald Edward Wraith (1958), Eyo Ita Esua (1964 – 1966), Michael Ani (1976 – 1979), Victor Ovie-Whisky (1980 – 1983), Eme Awa (1987–1989), Humphrey Nwosu (1989 – 1993), Okon Edet Uya (1993–1993), Sumner Dagogo-Jack (1994 – 1998), Ehraim Akpata (1998– January 2000), Abel Guobadia (2000–May 2005), Maurice Iwu (June 2005 – April 2010), Attahiru Jega (June 2010 – June 2015), Amina Bala Zakari (Acting, June – November 2015) and Mahmood Yakubu (Since November 2015)
Eyo Ita Esua, from Cross River State, a teacher and unionist became Nigeria’s first electoral umpire when he was appointed in 1964 by Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He presided over the 1964 parliamentary and 1965 regional elections.
During the General Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime, the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) was created. Michael Ani, also from Cross River State, a career civil servant and former commissioner in Ironsi’s cabinet, was named its chairman.
Ani supervised the 1979 elections that returned the country to civil rule under President Shehu Shagari. He was later succeeded by Justice Victor Ovie-Whisky of Delta State, appointed by Shagari in 1980.
Prof. Eme Awa, a political scientist, was appointed by the military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, in 1987 to head the National Electoral Commission (NEC) as part of the transition to civilian rule. Awa was in 1989 succeeded by Prof. Humphrey Nwosu who presided over what is often described as the high point of electoral administration in Nigeria’s history; the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief Moshood Abiola.
Nwosu was late in 1993 replaced with Prof. Okon Edet Uya, a historian from Akwa Ibom State whose tenure conducted no major election before General Sani Abacha’s regime in November 1993 dissolved the NEC and renamed with the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) in 1994. The commission was chaired by Chief Sumner Dagogo-Jack from Rivers State, a lawyer and administrator who conducted local and legislative elections.
After the death of Abacha on June 8, 1998, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, then Chief of Defence Staff, who replaced him, dissolving NECON and established the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), headed by Ephraim Akpata, a Supreme Court judge from Edo State. The commission conducted the 1999 general elections that produced President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Justice Akpata died on 8 January 2000 while and was replaced by President Obasanjo with Dr Abel Guobadia, from Edo State, to consolidate INEC’s structures. Guobadia, an academic and technocrat, supervised the 2003 elections.
Guobadia retired on completing his five-year term in May 2005 and was succeeded by Professor Maurice Iwu, from Imo State, in 2005. A professor of Pharmacognosy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Iwu served as the third chairman of the INEC.
Iwu-led INEC conducted the 2007 general elections, including presidential, legislative and state elections, which were among his key undertakings while in office.
On 28 April 2010, Iwu was removed by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan and replaced with Professor Attahiru Jega, from Kebbi State, on 8 June 2010.
Professor Jega-led INEC conducted the 2011 general elections that produced President Jonathan and the 2015 general elections that produced President Muhammadu Buhari.
When Jega retired in 2015 and was replaced with Amina Bala Zakari, from Jigawa State, as acting chairman until Professor Mahmood Yakubu, from Bauchi State, was appointed same year.
Despite the reforms that have reshaped Nigeria’s electoral process, his tenure has been dogged by controversies, particularly over glitches in the result viewing portal and delays in uploading results during the 2023 general elections.