The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Joash Amupitan, has raised concerns over the welfare of election personnel, saying INEC staff remain the least-paid workers in Nigeria despite the critical role they play in conducting elections. Amupitan said this while outlining the commission’s preparations for the 2027 general elections at a World Press Conference in Abuja, on Tuesday. He said improving the remuneration of INEC personnel was necessary if the commission expected them to discharge their duties responsibly and remain accountable, particularly as concerns persist over the credibility of future elections. “INEC staff are the least paid in Nigeria.
So, we felt if we want to demand and hold our staff responsible, we should give them a living wage,” Amupitan said. The INEC chairman said the commission had therefore taken what he described as “some very radical steps” to improve the welfare of its workforce. According to him, the commission had also moved away from the conventional civil service salary arrangement and established a separate structure for its personnel. “We are not called civil servants. What we have learned under the civil service payment structure, which we have just removed INEC from, is to have their own separate structure, electoral structure, and separate salary structure from the civil service,” he said.
Amupitan linked the welfare measures to broader efforts to strengthen the electoral system ahead of the 2027 elections, saying the commission had identified several weaknesses that needed to be addressed. “There are many others that we have discovered. And we felt that if they address all, it will be able to solve some of the problems we have with the system,” he said. He also disclosed that INEC was factoring election reruns into its preparations for the 2027 polls, stressing that such elections were constitutionally provided for. “The issue of rerun is a constitutional matter. And as we are planning for the election, you have to plan for a rerun,” Amupitan said.
He added that the Constitution already provides the procedures and protocols for conducting rerun elections.