In his recent column titled, “New INEC Boss and Tinubu’s Visibilisation of Northern Yorubas,” Prof. Farooq Kperogi tried to frame President Bola Tinubu’s appointment of Prof. Joash Amupitan the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) within the usual ethnic politics narrative. While his piece may sound intellectual, it misses the simple truth about the philosophy behind the Presiden’s leadership choices. They are guided by character, competence, and experience.
From his early days in Lagos to his role today as Nigeria’s President, Tinubu has remained consistent on one thing: Leadership must be premised on capacity and results, not ethnic arithmetic.
Back in Lagos, his team reflected the full map of Nigeria — people from different regions, faiths, and backgrounds, many of whom later became national and state leaders in various capacities. That same instinct for spotting talent, not tribe, still defines his appointments today.
Amupitan, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is far from being a political lightweight. He is a seasoned academic, a respected legal scholar, and a man whose reputation for integrity and neutrality stands tall. Reducing his appointment to an ethnic or regional sentiment just because he hails from Kogi State and bears a Yoruba name is not only unfair, it is a disservice to national growth and development. It is an embarrassment to both the man and the President who appointed him.
Our unrepentant disposition towards viewing every national appointment through ethno-religious jaundiced-eye has become a heavy burden on our unity and development as a nation. If a Northerner with a Yoruba name cannot be trusted to serve without suspicion, then the problem is not leadership, it is our unwillingness to rise above old divisions.
President Tinubu’s pattern of appointments so far tells its own manifest story of competence over convenience, character over closeness, and delivery over demography.
From the North East to the South South, from Christians to Muslims, from career technocrats to grassroots administrators, the spread has been balanced, well-thought. It is a deliberate for advancement over pettiness and nepotism. And the goal is clear: results not rewards.
Bearing in mind that our first and only constitutional identity is Nigerian, ethnicity — a product of accident of birth — may describe where we come from, but it should never define who we are or what we can achieve.
The real test of leadership is not the language you speak but the values you live by. In appointing Amupitan, the President once again reminds us that excellence has no region and integrity has no dialect.
Those still trapped in ethnic thinking are the ones slowing down the unity we need. Nigeria’s strength has always been in its diversity, in the ability of a leader from Lagos to trust a scholar from Kogi, or a professional from Sokoto to work seamlessly with a counterpart from Enugu.
That is the true spirit of the Renewed Hope Agenda; building a Nigeria where merit, not mistrust, defines progress.
As we move forward, we must keep rejecting divisive narratives and instead amplify the dream of one united Nigeria, the same dream our founding fathers lived and died for.
Though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand.
Only then can we truly say that the promise of our great nation, under God and guided by justice, is finally taking shape in our time.
