SOMETIMES, some names we bear are not for emphasis but for warning. It’s the voice of conscience summoning the listener to reflection. Dr. Mitchell Newberry, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Michigan, USA, says there’s a reason why many parents choose different, sometimes strange, and unusual names for their children. According to Newberry, many parents tend to avoid names that have become popular and instead, try to find rarer names in a bid for their children to stand out more. He calls that “negative frequency-dependent selection”.
You see, what people believe works for them. The name ‘Amupitan’ in Yoruba means ‘one who tells the story, or someone who will be used to narrate the stories’. It portrays the bearer of the name as a custodian of truth and a guardian of legacy.
But it seems Prof. Joash Amupitan, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) has abandoned or forgotten the meaning of his name. Or he has willingly accepted to be used as a source of the sad history of how Nigeria’s present democracy is about to be destroyed.
That’s what informs the headline of this column. In political commentary, it highlights actions of someone that cut away parts of the democratic process or suppressing opposition. An amputator, or undertaker, therefore, is an active agent that is consciously destroying all democratic tenets that could ultimately pave the way for a dictator to emerge under the garb of a democratic president. Last Wednesday(‘April Fool’s Day’), Amupitan, a professor of Law, and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, showed his hands for what some people had long suspected since his appointment last October, a willing tool in the hands of his appointor.
His unconscionable action was loaded with ballistic missiles. The target was the only viable opposition party, the African Democratic Congress, ADC led by Senator David Mark. Some have pointed out that the real target is the presidential frontrunner of the party, Mr. Peter Obi. In a press statement signed by one Mohammed Kudu, Chairman, Information and Voter Education, the electoral umpire said henceforth, it will cease to accept correspondences from either David Mark-led ADC or from Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former Deputy National Chairman of the party. Nafiu Bala claims to be recognised as the new national chairman of the party. Some see him as another willing tool to destroy the ADC, after the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and the Labour Party(LP) have been dealt a heavy blow by agents of the government.
INEC, in its statement, said its decision to delist the ADC was based on the Court of Appeal judgment of March 12, 2026. The commission stressed that it will no longer engage with neither factions of the party, nor monitor any meetings, congresses, or convention until the substantive suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja, is determined . Meanwhile, the commission has removed the names of David Mark, National Chairman of the party, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, National Secretary, and other officers of the party from its portal. Expectedly, INEC’s action has been attracting high-octane reactions, many condemnatory. Individuals and groups, including the Inter-Party Advocacy Council(IPAC) have called on INEC to reverse its decision. Questions have also being asked: Was the decision of INEC the biblical “voice of Jacob but the hands of Esau”?(Genesis 27:22). Is Amupitan acting in self-interest or doing the bidding of someone else? Is he a jellyfish – spineless, lacking firmness of character? Has he abandoned his promise to conduct a free, fair and credible elections? He also assured to be an impartial umpire to all political parties. That appears to be a ruse now. Recall that before his decision last week, rumours were swirling around that Amupitan’s days were numbered if ADC was not axed. Could that be what is happening now ? Time will tell. The threat became even more urgent following the defection of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to ADC two weeks ago. There’s also the prospect of Peter Obi/Kwankwaso presidential ticket that seems to have thrown the APC in panic mode. Make no mistake about it, Amupitan knows what he’s doing. The timing of delisting ADC, at least for now, has all the subterfuge of a well-laid landmines. Party primaries are expected to begin in less than three weeks. The political parties must submit their membership register to INEC 21 days before the primaries. In other words, if the substantive case in court is not resolved before the time-frame, ADC will be excluded from the 2027 elections. Every reason INEC adduced for its action was to accomplish an agenda. Amupitan knew it. Almost everybody saw it coming. Amupitan isn’t pretending anymore what his agenda is. It’s to make President Tinubu the sole presidential candidate in 2027, or at best, arrange fringe parties to field paper-weight candidates. He went as far as warning the leadership of ADC that if it goes ahead to conduct its convention scheduled to hold next weekend , the commission would not recognise the outcome. That’s how bad the situation is. It’s a “Catch-22” situation for ADC. And David Mark-led party knows it.
At a Press Conference last Thursday, Mark detailed all the issues that led to the formation of the coalition and the contradictions in INEC’s action. “This attack on democracy will not stand”, Mark fumed. He said what Nigerians never thought would happen has come upon us. “Our experience in the past 3 years since President Tinubu came to power has confirmed our worst fears…, Nigeria has witnessed a relentless assault on every freedom we used to cherish and enjoy”. The agenda, Mark noted, was clear. It’s “to create a situation where President Tinubu will be the only option for Nigeria”. He called for Amupitan’s sack, but he knows it wouldn’t happen. Beyond that, the party plans to appoint envoys in 12 foreign cities as part of a broader effort to draw the attention of the international community about the undemocratic moves by the Tinubu government to suppress opposition parties in the country.
Chief Femi Falana, who spoke in similar vein last week in Lagos, during the 5th memorial lecture in honour of late human rights activist, Comrade Yinka Odumakin, urged civil society groups, Labour unions and political activists to organise and defend democratic values. He said that “unorganized protests could lead to anarchy”. He decried the conflicting court judgments being used to destabilise political parties. Referencing last week’s delisting of ADC, Mr. Obi painted a grim paradox picture of the present attempts to destroy Nigeria’s democracy. He wondered how “yesterday’s so-called defenders of democracy have become today’s destroyers of the very system they claimed to champion”.
Truth is, Tinubu has never been an authentic democrat. Neither is he a “die-hard democrat” that he claims to be. He has always been a deception. People who are comparing him with late military head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, are not saying so for nothing. Both men drank from the same tea cup. They abandoned governance in desperate pursuit of power, not for the greater good of the people, but for self-aggrandisement. That’s why power reveals. That much is already evident today in Nigeria. As historian Robert A.Caro(Lyndon Johnson’s biographer) observed, “what leaders do or say while they are trying to get power is not necessarily what they do after they have it”.
In the case of President Tinubu, the last three years have shown he isn’t what he claimed he was during the pro-democracy era under the platform of the National Democratic Coalition(NADECO). And, as regards Amupitan-led INEC and its position on ADC, this man may go down in history as the worst electoral umpire Nigeria ever had. INEC never denied it didn’t witness all the processes that brought the present leadership of ADC led by David Mark into existence. In fact, INEC acknowledged monitoring the July 29, 2025 meeting that led to the dissolution of the former National Working Committee(NWC) of the party and the ratification of the Caretaker Committee that took charge of the party affairs, with Mark as National Chairman.
Curiously, Nafiu Bala is now saying he never resigned. He claims that the letter of his resignation was forged. Former National Chairman of ADC Ralph Nwosu, last week said he was offered loads of money by the APC to disown the party led by David Mark, but he rejected the offer. Perhaps Bala couldn’t resist the baits. A cursory look at how dictators emerged in Africa and elsewhere in the world, troubles the mind. Nigeria is gradually, and frighteningly, marching towards that ignominious path. It’s a combination of weak institutional structures, exploitation of social and economic crises, extreme disparity of wealth and ethnic divisions. These factors sow seeds of discontent for a ‘strongman’ in politics to emerge. And that man, unfortunately, is Bola Tinubu.
Nigeria is experiencing the convergence of all of these disturbing factors, where the man in power solidifies his grip on power by creating a system of patronage and share the spoils of the country’s resources with a small, loyal elite while keeping the majority of the population in extreme poverty. In all, this is an advice for both APC and INEC: be careful who you hurt. Some may not fight back, but they can pray. When their tears reach heaven, God responds with justice multiplied. That’s the lesson from Abacha’s disastrous era. Nigeria’s democracy is in serious danger.
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