President Bola Tinubu's quietist acceptance of Professor Mahmood Yakubu's exit as INEC chairman does more than signal a change of guard. The exit draws a legacy line that could have been transformative but became a deeply divisive era for Nigeria's electoral democracy. Prof. Yakubu is the first occupant of that office to serve two full terms. He did not just oversee elections, he reshaped the very machinery of the vote, leaving behind an institution simultaneously modernised in its tools and wounded in its public trust.

Yakubu’s tenure was epochal in length and tumultuous in substance. As the first INEC chairman to be reappointed for two full terms, he oversaw three general elections, numerous off-cycle polls, and a series of reforms that promised much but delivered only piecemeal progress. The question now is not whether he made a difference, but whether his legacy will be seen as a net positive or a cautionary tale.