INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan has ordered Administrative Secretaries across 36 states and the FCT to eliminate operational gaps ahead of the 2027 general elections
INEC Chairman Amupitan Orders States to End Operational Gaps Ahead of 2027 Elections
The Independent National Electoral Commission has directed its Administrative Secretaries across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to eliminate administrative gaps and strengthen coordination ahead of the 2027 general elections.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash O. Amupitan, SAN, gave the directive on Monday, September 7, 2026, in Lagos, while declaring open a two-day Strategic Operational Workshop for the Commission’s Administrative Secretaries.
Amupitan described the workshop as an election-focused “operational boot camp” designed to test the Commission’s preparedness for the 2027 polls and ensure that its state-level machinery operates under uniform standards.
The INEC chairman said the Commission had reached a critical stage in its preparations and could no longer afford conflicting interpretations of administrative responsibilities or divergent operational practices across the country.
“We can no longer afford fragmented interpretations of administrative duties or disjointed operational practices from state to state,” he said.
Amupitan said the workshop was intended to eliminate guesswork and align Administrative Secretaries with standardised national protocols ahead of the elections.
He said lessons from recent off-cycle elections, particularly the Osun State governorship election, must be converted into operational standards that could be replicated nationwide during the significantly larger and more complex 2027 general elections.
According to him, the recent elections demonstrated that timely logistics, functional technology and administrative discipline could contribute significantly to transparent and credible electoral outcomes.
He, however, noted that the controlled environment of a single-state election was different from a nationwide poll, making it necessary for INEC to replicate successful operational models across all 36 states and the FCT.
Amupitan described the Administrative Secretary as the Commission’s chief technical, operational and administrative anchor at the state level.
He explained that while Resident Electoral Commissioners remain the political and institutional heads of INEC in the states, Administrative Secretaries are responsible for the day-to-day management of state offices, administrative continuity and operational processes that ultimately determine whether polling units open as scheduled.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Lagos State, Professor Ayobami Salami, had earlier urged participants to use the workshop to interrogate existing processes, identify institutional weaknesses and develop practical solutions ahead of 2027.
Salami said the approval of the workshop by the Commission underscored the importance attached to strengthening the capacity and operational readiness of Administrative Secretaries.
He said their ability to coordinate personnel, resources, logistics, finance, infrastructure and administrative processes was directly linked to the success of electoral operations.
The Lagos REC urged the participants to bring their field experiences and challenges to the engagement and work collectively towards solutions that could improve operations across their respective states.
He also called for stronger coordination between administrative and technical functions, improved accountability and resilient systems capable of responding to emerging operational challenges.
Amupitan said the workshop would stress-test INEC’s procedures in five major operational areas, including Continuous Voter Registration and Permanent Voter’s Card distribution, logistics and election-material management, electoral technology, human-resource optimisation, and general administration and financial compliance.
He said state-level strategies for voter registration and PVC collection would be crucial as the national voter register approaches the 100-million-voter mark.
The chairman also highlighted the need for Administrative Secretaries to master key electoral technologies, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, INEC Result Viewing Portal, eEC&A, Election Monitoring and Support Centre, CROMS, IOMIS and PFRAS.
Another area of focus, he said, would be the recruitment, vetting and technology-competency training of ad-hoc election personnel, alongside administrative discipline, workflow automation and compliance with procurement and financial regulations.
A major innovation announced at the workshop is the proposed Administrative Secretary Master Operational Tracker, a standardised Excel-based system to be linked to INEC’s Election Monitoring and Support Centre dashboard and Election Project Plan.
Amupitan said the tracker would provide the Commission’s headquarters, RECs and Supervising National Commissioners with a real-time picture of election preparedness across the states.
The system is expected to monitor critical areas such as election-material distribution, ad-hoc staff training and state-level readiness, with the chairman saying it would replace reactive “panic” with proactive management.
He added that the tracker would serve as a permanent onboarding blueprint for future cohorts of Administrative Secretaries beyond the 2027 elections.
Amupitan also warned the Administrative Secretaries against tolerating shortcuts and political interference, stressing that the quality of election administration would depend largely on the institutional culture they establish in their offices.
“If you tolerate shortcuts, shortcuts will multiply. If you tolerate political interference, neutrality will deteriorate,” he said.
He urged the officials to make documentation, punctuality, preparedness and compliance central to their operations, while encouraging them to report problems rather than conceal them.
According to him, early escalation of operational challenges would enable INEC to address them before they develop into electoral crises.
The Secretary to the Commission, Dr Rose Oriaran-Anthony, also raised concerns over strained relationships between Administrative Secretaries and Resident Electoral Commissioners.
She said complaints about disharmony between the two levels of leadership had continued to reach her, warning that such disagreements could undermine the Commission’s work.
“We will not allow that to continue because where we do not have harmony, the Commission’s work will suffer,” she said.
Oriaran-Anthony urged Administrative Secretaries to speak openly about challenges affecting their work, describing the workshop as a family gathering where difficult institutional issues could be confronted and resolved collectively.
She said the engagement would also examine lessons from the 2023 general elections, financial management, logistics, assets, ad-hoc personnel, staff discipline, supervision and the management of INEC’s image and reputation.
A former INEC National Commissioner and Development Alternatives Incorporated expert, Professor Okechukwu Ibeanu, commended the Commission for organising the workshop, describing it as innovative and long overdue.
Representing the EU-SEGN DAI project, Ibeanu assured INEC of continued support, saying development partners had committed resources and expertise to strengthening the capacity of Administrative Secretaries ahead of the 2027 elections.
He also said the wealth of experience among current and retired senior INEC officials represented a valuable institutional resource that should be fully harnessed in preparing for the elections.
The workshop marks a renewed push by INEC to ensure that its state-level administrative machinery is properly aligned, tested and ready well ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan subsequently declared the Strategic Operational Workshop on the 2027 General Election for INEC Administrative Secretaries officially open.
