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By Lizzy Chirkpi
The National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) ,Chief Peter Ameh has slammed Mahmoud Yakubu, the outgoing Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In a statement titled “Mahmoud Yakubu’s Disastrous Tenure: A Legacy of Electoral Ruin and Democratic Decay,” Ameh didn’t mince words describing Yakubu’s years in office as “a dark chapter in Nigeria’s democratic history.”
According to Ameh, what Nigerians expected from Yakubu’s leadership was transparency, credibility, and fairness in elections, but what they got instead was corruption, incompetence, and arrogance. “Rather than protect democracy,” Ameh wrote, “Yakubu’s tenure betrayed the Nigerian people and pushed the nation into a crisis of electoral legitimacy.”
He recalled how the 2023 General Elections, which gulped more than ₦350 billion in funding, ended up as “a chaotic spectacle of irregularities and confusion.” Polling stations were poorly managed, the promised electronic transmission of results failed woefully, and citizens who stood for hours to vote left feeling cheated and powerless.
“Despite the astronomical budget, what Nigerians saw was confusion and betrayal,” Ameh lamented. “Results were delayed, systems failed, and Yakubu couldn’t even offer a credible explanation. It was shameful.”
Beyond the election chaos, Ameh accused the INEC boss of ruining the morale of staff within the commission. He said Yakubu treated workers “like disposable commodities,” denying them promotions, welfare, and basic respect. The internal rot, he added, mirrored the external collapse of the commission’s credibility.
“Under Yakubu, INEC became a toxic place where dissent was silenced and loyalty to the chairman mattered more than competence,” Ameh wrote. “That arrogance destroyed the spirit of service and fairness that INEC was meant to represent.”
Ameh also pointed to a deeper and more dangerous problem — the deliberate weakening of Nigeria’s multi-party democracy. He accused Yakubu of sponsoring the insertion of Section 225A into the Electoral Act, which gives INEC power to deregister political parties.
“That clause is a dagger aimed straight at democracy,” Ameh warned. “It violates Section 40 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of association. Yakubu used INEC to silence opposition and shrink political space.”
According to Ameh, the consequences of these failures have been devastating. He said public faith in elections has dropped to its lowest level since 1999, with many Nigerians now seeing democracy as an empty ritual rather than a true reflection of the people’s will.
“The 2023 elections were a symbol of betrayal,” he wrote sadly. “Millions of Nigerians turned out in hope, but were met with a system that seemed built to frustrate them. Yakubu’s INEC replaced hope with despair.”
Ameh described the ₦350 billion spent on the elections as a “national scandal,” saying it was “drawn from the sweat and taxes of ordinary Nigerians, only to be wasted on a process that produced neither justice nor credibility.”
“His refusal to explain how that money was spent,” Ameh continued, “is the final insult to a nation already wounded.”
As he rounded off his statement, Ameh said Yakubu’s exit from INEC should mark the beginning of rebuilding, but warned that the damage done to Nigeria’s democracy will take years to heal.
“He leaves behind a fractured institution and a wounded democracy. “Rebuilding trust will take courage, honesty, and real leadership. Nigeria deserves an electoral body that protects the people’s will, not one that manipulates it,” Ameh concluded.
Chief Peter Ojonugwa Ameh is a political economist, policy strategist, and National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP).