A wrong move by some northern lecturers

The reported endorsement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election bid by more than 600 senior academics from some universities across Northern Nigeria is a disturbing development.

According to reports, the lecturers gathered in Kaduna at a meeting convened by Ibrahim Masari, special adviser to the president on political matters, and declared their support for Tinubu’s second-term bid with several northern governors and federal ministers in attendance.

At Daily Trust, we consider this development particularly dangerous given the role academics have traditionally played in Nigeria’s electoral system.

We do not dispute the right of individual academics, or indeed any group of Nigerians, to associate with and support a political cause of their choice. That is a constitutional right. What concerns us is what a collective, partisan endorsement of this kind means for the credibility of the electoral process, particularly because universities and their senior academics have for years supplied personnel for the conduct of elections.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) routinely engages academics, including vice-chancellors and other senior university officials, as returning and collation officers. Their selection rests partly on the confidence that their professional standing and presumed neutrality can accord credibility to the process. It is difficult, then, to reconcile that role with an open endorsement of one of the principal contestants in the same election.

INEC must take this seriously. The commission should investigate the identities and roles of those involved and establish whether any are likely to serve as returning or collation officers in the 2027 elections. Where an individual has publicly taken a partisan position in favour of a presidential candidate, INEC should weigh carefully whether entrusting that person with collating or declaring results involving that candidate is compatible with public confidence in the process.

This is not simply a question of whether an academic can be personally trusted. Elections depend not only on actual impartiality but on the perception of it. If people who have publicly endorsed a candidate are then presented as neutral arbiters of the contest, the commission risks sowing avoidable doubt about the integrity of the process.

The African Democratic Congress has already raised this concern, urging INEC to review its use of politically exposed academics as returning and collation officers.

The matter is made more sensitive by the fact that this endorsement fits a wider pattern of organised political backing by influential groups. Northern religious figures, and more recently, students have also come out publicly for the president ahead of 2027. Student leaders from tertiary institutions across the 19 northern states and the FCT, for instance, also recently announced an organised mobilisation effort for Tinubu.

There is nothing inherently wrong with political mobilisation of this kind. But when institutions and groups whose members hold influence over citizens repeatedly attach themselves to partisan campaigns, the consequences deserve careful thought.

Academics, like clerics, hold sway over people of differing political affiliations. University lecturers teach students who may back different candidates and parties. What happens when one set of lecturers mobilises publicly for a candidate and another group of lecturers, or students, does the same for a rival? Such developments risk importing partisan rivalry into campuses and creating animosity where none should exist.

The university has historically been one of the strongest centres of intellectual debate, social criticism and democratic activism in Nigeria. It should remain a place where ideas are rigorously interrogated and those in authority are held to scrutiny, not an extension of political campaign machinery.

It is, therefore, particularly unfortunate that this controversy comes at a time when the country’s intellectual community is itself grappling with serious economic pressure. The pauperisation of citizens has touched virtually every segment of society, academics included. Yet hardship should not diminish the responsibility of intellectuals to protect institutions whose credibility is essential to democracy.

We should also distinguish this development from the position of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Its president, Prof Chris Piwuna, has said the union remains apolitical and that members are free to engage in politics only in their individual capacities. The endorsement should not, therefore, be read as an ASUU position.

As we approach the 2027 election dates, INEC must now act with foresight. It should develop and communicate clear criteria for handling prospective electoral officials who have taken open partisan positions. The commission must also ensure the controversy does not become another source of voter apathy. Nigerians must be confident that whoever counts, collates and declares their votes has no partisan stake in the outcome.

We also call on INEC to be more vigilant even with the succession of endorsements by clerics, academics and other influential groups. The commission must guard the credibility of the 2027 elections against anything that could reasonably raise suspicion about its neutrality.

Academics have every right to take part in politics. But those who wish to serve in sensitive, non-partisan electoral roles must recognise that such responsibilities demand a higher standard of restraint. Nigeria can, and must, do better in protecting the independence of its electoral process, and in preserving the university as a bastion of independent thought.