The 2027 General Election is no longer a distant date on the calendar. It is here.
That was the blunt message from the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, as he charged electoral officers across the Southwest to brace for the enormous task ahead and confront emerging challenges with discipline, commitment and maximum preparedness.
Amupitan spoke in Lagos on Monday at the opening of INEC’s Southwest Zonal Interaction Meeting and Readiness Assessment, attended by Electoral Officers, Heads of Department, senior administrative staff and other officials from the six Southwest states.
The meeting marked the beginning of the Commission’s six-zone national tour to assess its preparedness for the 2027 polls and get a first-hand account of the realities confronting its personnel at the grassroots.
With the Presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for January 16, 2027, and the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections fixed for February 6, the INEC chairman made it clear that there is little room for complacency.
“The 2027 General Election is here,” Amupitan declared, insisting that the Commission must confront the election “frontally.”
He said recent off-cycle elections must now serve as critical lessons for the Commission as it prepares for the much larger national exercise.
According to him, the Anambra governorship election, FCT Area Council election and the recent Osun governorship poll offered INEC valuable opportunities to expose weaknesses, test its systems and identify areas requiring urgent improvement.
“Those off-cycle elections have provided us with the mirror through which we can see into the 2027 elections,” he said.
‘The Battle Will Be Won in the Field’
Amupitan explained that his decision to personally engage field officers was deliberate, stressing that the success of the 2027 election would ultimately depend on what happens beyond the walls of INEC headquarters in Abuja.
“The true success of any election is not decided solely in the meeting rooms of our headquarters in Abuja. It is indeed decided in the field,” he said.
He therefore challenged Electoral Officers and Heads of Department to use the zonal meeting as an opportunity to speak openly about the difficulties confronting them.
Rather than hide operational weaknesses, he urged the officials to identify the gaps, raise difficult issues and propose practical solutions before Election Day.
For Amupitan, every election must become a classroom.
He called for a culture of continuous learning in which shortcomings discovered during one electoral exercise are immediately converted into lessons for the next.
Osun Poll Gets Commendation
The INEC chairman also commended officials who took part in the recent Osun State Governorship Election, saying the positive commendation received by the Commission was largely the result of the dedication of personnel who worked during the poll.
He said the men and women deployed for the election played an important role in protecting the integrity of the ballot.
The commendation, he suggested, should serve not as a reason for complacency but as encouragement to raise the bar ahead of the 2027 elections.
INEC Told: Readiness Goes Beyond Checklists
Earlier, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Lagos State, Prof. Ayobami Salami, warned that credible elections are not created on Election Day.
They are built months ahead through meticulous planning, effective coordination, competent personnel and constant assessment.
Salami said INEC’s readiness assessment must therefore go beyond paperwork and administrative checklists.
He identified human resources, logistics, infrastructure, technology, electoral materials, security arrangements and stakeholder engagement as critical areas that must be thoroughly examined.
He also urged officials across the Southwest to abandon the culture of concealing operational difficulties.
Instead, he called on them to speak frankly, expose weaknesses early and share successful practices capable of strengthening the Commission’s preparations.
Six-Zone Tour Begins
The Lagos engagement is the first phase of INEC’s planned interaction with officials across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
The objective is clear: identify the cracks before they become crises.
As preparations intensify for the 2027 General Election, Amupitan is demanding that INEC’s field officers move beyond routine preparation and confront the realities of election management head-on.
For the Commission, the countdown has begun—and the message from its chairman is unmistakable: prepare now, confront the challenges and leave nothing to chance.
2027: Amupitan Charges INEC Staff to Face Challenges
