By Sylvester Udemezue
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The current public debate over the appointment of Professor Amupitan, SAN, as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has once again exposed a recurring flaw in Nigeria’s national discourse: our tendency to focus on personalities instead of institutions, and qualifications instead of the strength of the laws that define, constrain, and guide those who occupy public office. Truth be told, no one who occupies that office would escape controversy. Yet, the real question is not whether Professor Amupitan possesses the requisite academic distinction, professional standing, or moral rectitude to lead INEC. Few would seriously doubt his intellectual pedigree or administrative experience. The true challenge lies elsewhere: in the ability of any occupant of that critical office to withstand the intense manipulative pressures that have, over the years, subverted Nigeria’s electoral process, truncated the people’s will, and compromised institutional integrity.
Qualification Is a Necessary but Insufficient Condition
With due respect, there is hardly anyone who completely lacks the intellectual or managerial capacity to occupy the office of the INEC Chairman. But capacity alone does not deliver credible elections. What determines success is resilience: the courage to resist entrenched political pressures, the determination to uphold the law in the face of systemic inducements, and the ability to defend institutional independence when it is most inconvenient to do so. It is not about whether Professor Amupitan can perform well, but whether he will, and that can only be proven through the crucible of actual governance. Until then, we can only wait, observe, and hope. But as experience has repeatedly shown, hope alone is never enough. Even the most qualified, upright, and courageous individual will remain powerless in the face of deficient, weak, and manipulable legal structures.
The Limits Of Individual Excellence In A Fragile Legal Environment
No matter how intellectually gifted or morally upright an INEC Chairman may be (even if one were to possess “twenty-five professorial titles,” to borrow a metaphor) no individual can guarantee a transparent and fraud-free electoral process unless the laws themselves are fortified. As I emphasized in my essay, “Adodo’s Alarm Over Gov. Aiyedatiwa’s Alleged Disrespect for the Constitution and the Imperative of Legal Impregnability as a Necessary Condition for Effective Governance in Nigeria” (DNL Legal & Style, 20 May 2025), no institution can rise above the quality of the legal framework that governs its operations. When the law is fragile, uncertain, or open to manipulation, even the best of men and women become victims of a system that rewards compromise and punishes integrity. Conversely, when laws are strict, strong, impregnable, self-enforcing, and clearly defined, they serve as a protective armour for both institutions and those who manage them. It is therefore not the brilliance of the individual that sustains democracy, but the impregnability of the law. As I further noted in “Rethinking System Change in Nigeria: Why Only Impregnable Legal Reforms Can Deliver Real Impact” (The Loyal Nigerian Lawyer, 20 May 2025), Nigerian’s problem has never been a shortage of good people or good intentions; it is the absence of a watertight legal structure that compels good governance even when human weaknesses intervene. This assertion applies squarely to our electoral process. Nigeria’s recurring electoral disappointments are not primarily the product of bad individuals, but of fragile laws: laws that depend too much on personal virtue rather than on institutional compulsion. Until our electoral framework is restructured to minimize human discretion at critical stages, every election will remain susceptible to abuse, no matter who chairs INEC.
Lessons from Constitutional Reform and the Imperative of Legal Impregnability
The danger of weak legal frameworks is not theoretical. It manifests in the daily operations of governance. As I observed in the same Adodo’s Alarm essay, certain constitutional provisions (such as Sections 192(6) and 147(7) introduced by amendment) fail to meet the test of legal impregnability because “These provisions are neither self-enforcing, self-executing, nor legally impregnable. As a result, the provisions are easy to manipulate, and there are virtually no real consequences for a breach.” A law that lacks strict internal enforcement mechanisms, or that depends on external goodwill for implementation, is a law that invites abuse. In practice, such laws become optional suggestions: manipulable by those they were meant to restrain. This same structural fragility plagues Nigeria’s electoral system. In “Rethinking System Change in Nigeria,” I also noted that a law without enforcement is not worth the paper it is written on. Cosmetic reforms falter in the absence of embedded mechanisms that ensure compliance. This underscores why Nigeria’s electoral laws must be reimagined to be impregnable: resistant to manipulation, automatically enforceable, and structurally insulated from human interference. It is not enough to have laws that sound right; they must be built right.
What ‘Legal Impregnability’ Means for Electoral Law Reform
Translating the principle of legal impregnability into the Nigerian electoral context would require concrete, structural reforms that remove opportunities for manipulation and ensure that the law enforces itself. Such reforms should include:
1). Automatic Triggers and Deadlines: Election procedures, from collation to result declaration, should operate under mandatory timelines that cannot be extended or suspended by administrative fiat.
2). Self-Executing Consequences: Non-compliance with electoral procedures should automatically result in clear legal outcomes, such as disqualification, forfeiture of office, or nullification of results, without requiring discretionary judicial interpretation.
3). Minimization of Discretion: The law must restrict the points at which individual judgment or administrative discretion can alter outcomes, particularly in result transmission, collation, and appeals.
4). Institutional Insulation: Electoral infrastructure (servers, databases, collation systems) must be legally shielded from partisan interference, ensuring transparency and accountability.
5). Deterrent Sanctions: Breaches of electoral law must attract strict, swift, certain, and proportionate penalties. The law must make wrongdoing costly and compliance rewarding. It has been said that “A legal system that depends on personal morality instead of institutional compulsion will perpetually oscillate between accidental success and systemic failure.” That observation captures Nigeria’s electoral dilemma perfectly. Until we stop relying on moral expectations and start building legal compulsions, our elections will continue to produce contested legitimacy rather than democratic stability.
The Real Test Before Professor Amupitan
For Professor Amupitan, the true test of leadership will not lie in his academic credentials or his distinguished legal scholarship: those are already established. The test will lie in whether he can steer INEC through a system still fraught with discretionary gaps, political interference, and legal fragility. But ultimately, even his best efforts will be limited by the tools he is given. Thus, the national conversation must shift: from “Do we have the right person?” to “Do we have the right laws?” In a system where laws are weak, even the best person is rendered powerless; but in a system governed by strong, self-executing, and impregnable laws, even an average person can perform excellently.
From Personality Politics to Process Governance
Nigeria must therefore transition from a personality-based to a process-based system. The salvation of our democracy lies not in charisma but in constitutionality, not in individual brilliance but in institutional resilience. A credible electoral process cannot depend on the good intentions of the INEC Chairman, the judiciary, or politicians; it must rest on the compelling power of law. Until Nigeria’s electoral laws become truly impregnable (self-enforcing, transparent, and resistant to manipulation) no level of personal qualification or moral uprightness on the part of any INEC Chairman can deliver the democratic outcomes our citizens deserve. As I have consistently maintained across my writings, the strength of governance is a direct function of the impregnability of the law. Our focus must therefore move from personalities to processes, from hope to structure, and from expectation to enforcement. Only then can we begin to achieve credible elections and, ultimately, a law-governed democracy.
Further Reading:
1. Sylvester Udemezue, “Adodo’s Alarm Over Gov. Aiyedatiwa’s Alleged Disrespect for the Constitution and The Imperative of Legal Impregnability as a Necessary Condition for Effective Governance in Nigeria” (DNL Legal & Style, 20 May 2025)< https://dnllegalandstyle.com/dnl/adodos-alarm-over-gov-aiyedatiwas-alleged-disrespect-for-the-constitution-and-the-imperative-of-legal-impregnability-as-a-necessary-condition-for-effective-governance-in-nigeria/>
2. Sylvester Udemezue, “Rethinking System Change in Nigeria: Why Only Impregnable Legal Reforms Can Deliver Real Impact (Plus Case Studies; Draft Impregnable Provisions)” (The Loyal Nigerian Lawyer, 20 May 2025) <https://loyalnigerianlawyer.com/rethinking-system-change-in-nigeria-why-only-impregnable-legal-reforms-can-deliver-real-impact-plus-case-studies-draft-impregnable-provisions/>
3. Sylvester Udemezue, ‘How Nigeria’s National Assembly Can Make the Electoral System Impregnable on Electronic Transmission to Prevent Fraud During Election Result Collation’ (IJPLD, 2025) <https://ijpld.com/ijpld/article/view/11/31>accessed 16 October 2025.
Respectfully,
Sylvester Udemezue (udems),
Proctor, The Reality Ministry of Truth Law and Justice (TRM).
08021365545.
udems@therealityministry.ngo.
wwe.therealityministry.ngo.
(16 October 2025
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