2027: Amupitan unveils real-time tracker for election preparations

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File: INEC chairman Joash Amupitan

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By Omeiza Ajayi

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ABUJA: The Independent National Electoral Cmmission INEC is set to roll out a first-of-its-kind, real-time readiness tracker that will allow the Commission to monitor election preparations across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory FCT instantly, with the Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, saying the innovation would replace “reactive panic with proactive management.”

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Amupitan disclosed this on Monday in Lagos while declaring open a two-day Strategic Operational Workshop for Administrative Secretaries.

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He said the workshop would produce a standardised, Excel-based Administrative Secretary Master Operational Tracker Template, linked directly to the Commission’s Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC) dashboard and the Election Project Plan (EPP).

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The INEC helmsman noted that the Commission had historically lacked a dedicated, uniform mechanism for tracking the operational duties of Administrative Secretaries, describing the new tool as one that would bridge that institutional gap.

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According to him, once deployed, the tracker will give Resident Electoral Commissioners, Supervising National Commissioners, the Secretary to the Commission and Headquarters instant visibility into material distribution, ad-hoc staff training and state-level readiness.

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Amupitan said the innovation would also outlive the 2027 exercise, serving as a permanent onboarding blueprint for future generations of Administrative Secretaries.

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He linked the initiative to the Commission’s drive to keep the voter register clean and Permanent Voter’s Card PVC collection seamless as enrolment closes in on 100 million, describing Continuous Voter Registration CVR as one of five operational pillars under review at the workshop, alongside logistics and material management, electoral technology, ad-hoc staff optimisation, and financial compliance.

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The INEC chairman said the tracker initiative builds on lessons drawn from recent off-cycle elections, including the Osun State governorship election, where disciplined logistics and functioning technology delivered a transparent outcome, adding that the Commission was now working to replicate that standard nationally, in the six-month window remaining before the 2027 General Election.

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In his remarks, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Lagos State, Professor Ayobami Salami, described the workshop as coming at an auspicious time in the Commission’s preparations, and commended the European Union, through the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN), implemented with Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI), for supporting the exercise.

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