{"id":195205,"date":"2026-02-17T03:25:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T02:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec"},"modified":"2026-02-17T04:35:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:35:48","slug":"electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec","title":{"rendered":"Electoral Reforms and Mike Igini&#8217;s Departure from INEC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>A former Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mike Igini, on Monday said he once contemplated stepping away from Nigeria after three decades of public engagement.<\/p>\n<p>Igini described his 10-year stint at the commission as a \u201cwaste\u201d of his earlier efforts toward national reform.<\/p>\n<p>He spoke on Channels Television\u2019s Politics Today, amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the country\u2019s electoral law.<\/p>\n<p>Igini disclosed that over the past two years, he had informed associates of his decision to \u201csay goodnight to Nigeria,\u201d citing frustration with the struggle for a better nation.<\/p>\n<p>However, he said persistent appeals from across the country prompted him to reconsider.<\/p>\n<p>Drawing inspiration from the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras, Igini noted that after a period of isolation, he concluded that meaningful understanding and change require active engagement with society.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cIn the past two years, I have told folks that I had decided to say goodnight to Nigeria because after 30 years, the struggle for a better Nigeria, particularly having to be in the commission for 10 years, I consider all those 10 years as a waste of my previous time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I decided, based on so many calls across the country, and when I recall Pythagoras, when he was fed up as I have been for a while now, I went into isolation and subsequently, at some point, realized that the best way to study human beings is to come back and live with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. A former Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mike Igini, on Monday said he once contemplated stepping away from Nigeria after three decades of public engagement. Igini described his 10-year stint at the commission as a \u201cwaste\u201d of his earlier efforts toward national reform. He spoke on Channels [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":195204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-195205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Electoral Reforms and Mike Igini&#039;s Departure from INEC - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A former Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mike Igini, on Monday s ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Electoral Reforms and Mike Igini&#039;s Departure from INEC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mike Igini, on Monday s ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-17T02:25:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-17T03:35:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1771299193.213294.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"719\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Electoral Reforms and Mike Igini&#8217;s Departure from INEC\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-17T02:25:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-17T03:35:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec\"},\"wordCount\":262,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1771299193.213294.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-reforms-and-mike-iginis-departure-from-inec\",\"name\":\"Electoral Reforms and Mike Igini's Departure from INEC - 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