Precious Nwonu, Enugu
President Bola Tinubu has nominated six officials for positions at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), including four national commissioners and two Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The nominations were announced on Friday by Bayo Onanuga, the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy.
Tinubu has forwarded the nominees’ names to the Senate for screening and confirmation, urging lawmakers to expedite the process ahead of the elections. He also reappointed Dr Bala Bila as the national commissioner representing the North-East.
Among the nominees, Professor Mustapha Aliu is expected to replace Professor Abdullahi Zuru as the national commissioner representing the North-West, while Bashir Muhammed Umar has been nominated to succeed Professor Muhammad Adamu as the North-Central representative.
The President also nominated Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola, the current Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun State, as the national commissioner representing the South-West. She is expected to replace Professor Cornelius Ajayi, whose tenure ends on October 24, 2026.
For the two REC positions, Tinubu nominated retired permanent secretary Dr Samuel Akinjide Akinleye to represent Ekiti State and Zahradden Basiru Sanusi from Jigawa State to replace Professor Saidu Ahmed Babura.
The appointments come as INEC steps up preparations for the 2027 general elections. Under the commission’s revised timetable, presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections will hold on February 6, 2027.
INEC is also planning to deploy more than 1.4 million ad hoc personnel for the elections, mainly from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). The figure is higher than the approximately 1.2 million personnel deployed during the 2023 general elections.
The commission told the National Assembly in February that it would require ₦873.78 billion to conduct the 2027 elections, in addition to ₦171 billion for its routine operations in 2026. The proposed election budget is significantly higher than the ₦313.4 billion released for the 2023 polls.
As part of its preparations, INEC is developing a real-time election readiness tracker to monitor activities across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The system is expected to provide updates on logistics, recruitment and training of ad hoc staff, technology deployment and other election-related operations, helping the commission identify gaps before election day.
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