A National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), May Agbamuche-Mbu, has emerged as the acting Chairman of the electoral body.
May Agbamuche-Mbu’s emergence as the new acting INEC Chairman came after Mahmood Yakubu stepped down as the National Chairman.
The transition was announced during a stakeholders’ meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners held on Tuesday at the INEC headquarters in Abuja.
Speaking at the meeting, Yakubu who formally handed over to May Agbamuche-Mbu, explained that he was stepping down in accordance with Section 306, Subsections 1 and 2 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
He said: “In recognition of the significant challenges ahead, and having had the honour of serving the Commission for the past 10 years, with only a few weeks remaining in my tenure. I have made a decision.
“In the interim, I am handing over to one of the most senior national commissioners by date of appointment. Following consultation with other national commissioners, May Agbamuche-Mbu will serve in an acting capacity pending the appointment of a substantive chairman of the Commission.
“I hope that this will afford the appointing authorities adequate time to appoint a new chairman. It will also enable the new chairman to quickly settle down to the task of conducting elections and electoral activities in Africa’s most demographically and logistically complex environment.
“Since 2015, I have worked with 24 national commissioners and 67 resident electoral commissioners, so also to the staff of the Commission. Those involved in elections or vastly knowledgeable about election management understand the conduct of elections and what it entails. I will forever cherish the support of successive secretaries and staff of the Commission nationwide.”
Yakubu expressed gratitude to colleagues, stakeholders, civil society groups, development partners, and Nigerians, acknowledging their roles in supporting electoral processes during his tenure.
He also praised members of the National Youth Service Corps, calling them “among the most educated, most patriotic, and also most knowledgeable election officials I have worked with.
“Above all, I thank Nigerians for their comments as well as criticisms, which encouraged rather than discouraged us to persevere.”
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that former president Muhammadu Buhari appointed Yakubu as INEC on October 21, 2015, following Senate confirmation, and he assumed office on November 9, 2015, succeeding Professor Attahiru Jega.
In 2020, he was reappointed for a second five-year term, again confirmed by the Senate — first in Nigeria’s democratic history.
Below is a profile of May Agbamuche-Mbu, the newly appointed Acting Chairman of
Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria;
May Agbamuche-Mbu is a seasoned legal practitioner with over three decades of experience working with diverse clients in both the public and private sectors. She hails from Delta State, although she was born in Kano where she attended St. Louis Secondary School.
She graduated from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1984 with an LLB in Law.
After her call to the Bar in 1985, she attended the College of Law, London, and qualified as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.
May has an LLM with specialisation in Commercial and Corporate Law from Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, and completed two postgraduate degree programmes in International Dispute Resolution and International Business Law respectively.
May is also an expert in Alternative Dispute Resolution and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators of the United Kingdom Nigeria branch, where she served as Secretary to the Institute.
Between March 2010 and November 2011, May served on the Presidential Projects Assessment Committee (PPAC) as the sole solicitor, evaluating an extensive nationwide portfolio of major unfinished public projects in Nigeria, and in March 2016, she was appointed a member of the Ministerial Committee set up to prepare The Road Map for the Solid Minerals Sector.
Before she was appointed a National Commissioner for INEC, May was the managing partner of her law firm in Lagos, Norfolk Partners, and also the editor of THISDAY LAWYER, a weekly legal pullout in one of the nation’s most widely read newspapers.
From January 2014 to September 2016, May published 120 legal editorials under her column LEGAL EAGLE.
