# Nigeria election body to comply with presidential candidate ruling — retained record

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source: [news](https://highsignal.app/data/news) (news:semafor)  published 2026-11-13 11:24 ingested 2026-11-14 03:03

[original source ↗](https://www.semafor.com/article/11/13/2026/nigeria-election-body-to-comply-with-candidate-ruling)

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The News
Nigeria’s electoral commission will obey any court ruling on whether the main challenger to President Bola Tinubu is eligible to contest January’s presidential election, its chairman said, potentially handing the judiciary a key role in Africa’s biggest poll.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is set to appeal last week’s high court ruling that invalidated his candidacy. The chair of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Joash Amupitan, speaking at the Chatham House think tank in London, said the body would be constitutionally “obligated” to “obey every court order” if the appeal fails.
INEC’s position adds to uncertainty around the vote in Africa’s top crude oil producer with less than 10 weeks until polls open.The commission is currently embroiled in more than 300 legal cases related to local elections, Amupitan said, adding that unresolved disputes could complicate its preparations for the forthcoming polls.
Credibility test
Bukola Idowa, executive director of civil society group Kimpact Development Initiative, warned any impression that the electoral process was opaque would undermine the validity of the vote. “We’re looking at an election that will put the credibility of all our constitutional institutions to the test,” he told the Chatham House event, adding that this was particularly true of the judiciary.
Tinubu won the 2023 election with 36% of the vote with Atiku coming second with a 29% share. But voter turnout stood at just 27% — the lowest since the return to civilian rule in 1999.
Atiku has vowed to restore a fuel subsidy the removal of which by Tinubu has been blamed for driving up the cost of living. The price of fuel has increased five-fold since the president announced the scrapping of the subsidy at his inauguration.
In this article:
The View From London
Nigeria’s net direct investment inflows have improved significantly since Tinubu took office in 2023 and, in recent years, the nation has received credit rating upgrades. The president has campaigned on a strengthened economy that is projected to grow 4.2% this year. In a tacit acknowledgment of the criticism aimed at him over the higher cost of living, last month Tinubu said the country would shift its economic policy goal from administering “emergency treatment” to delivering shared prosperity.
Meanwhile, the oil industry is booming. Africa’s top crude oil exporter has benefited from higher prices sparked by the Iran war and in the past year the regulator has approved 145 new well operations.
“The macroeconomic backdrop for these elections are probably the strongest that we’ve seen in a very long time,” said Yewande Sadiku, senior investment banker, international, at Standard Bank. But she stressed that investors care most about consistency around policies. “Elections matter, but the identity of the winner is not as important as the commitment to policy continuity,” she said.
Notable
- Nigerians have limited confidence in the credibility of the upcoming elections, according to polling firm Afrobarometer which found fewer than four in 10 people it surveyed believe the poll will be free and fair.
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