INEC and Compromised Academics

With the recent reports that more than 600 senior academics from public universities across the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory endorsed President Bola Tinubu for a second term, Davidson Iriekpen calls on the Independent National Electoral Commission to thoroughly scruntise the collation and returning officers it will recruit to oversee the 2027 elections if it wants the 2027 presidential poll to be free, fair and credible

Genuine concerns were raised recently on the credibility of the 2027 presidential election following the reports that over 600 senior academics from public universities across the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) endorsed President Bola Tinubu for a second-term bid ahead of the poll.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) hires university lecturers to conduct elections, and political analysts believe the endorsement could taint the neutrality of these lecturers in the conduct of the 2027 elections and undermine the credibility of the polls.

The organisers and participating academics announced their endorsement in Kaduna at a meeting convened by the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ibrahim Masari, and attended by various northern governors and federal ministers.

These academics reportedly claimed that their backing of the president’s reelection was conditional and based on data analysis of infrastructure development, educational funding reforms like Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), and other administration policies.

However, many fear that the non-neutrality of such critical stakeholders in the nation’s electoral system could influence the outcome of the presidential election in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Sensing the danger this could pose to other political parties and the credibility of the 2023 presidential election, the Peter Obi Media Office (POMR) was the first to raise concerns over the endorsement.

In a statement signed by its spokesman, Idris Zekeri, the office described the alleged endorsement as an early attempt to build what it called a network of partisan actors ahead of the election.

It said the development was particularly concerning because university academics had frequently been engaged as electoral officials, including returning and collation officers.

The office alleged that electoral malpractice could begin long before election day through the identification, cultivation and placement of individuals capable of influencing the process.

It urged Nigerians to remain vigilant and called on the INEC to publish the names of all prospective collation and returning officers well ahead of the 2027 elections. Such disclosure, it stated, would allow civil society organisations, political parties and the public to assess the political neutrality of prospective electoral officials.

“Their public backing for the incumbent consequently raises a serious and unavoidable question: Is the framework for manipulating the 2027 election already being established?” it queried.

“Electoral rigging does not suddenly occur on election day; it begins months or even years earlier through the identification, cultivation, and placement of individuals capable of influencing the process when votes are finally cast,” the statement added.

It further called on university governing councils and academic bodies nationwide to adopt strict conflict-of-interest rules to prevent staff from using their professional positions to facilitate partisan political mobilisation.

Recall that one of the strategies introduced during the military regimes was the appointment of academics from Nigerian universities as chairman of INEC. When the country returned to democratic governance in 1999, the practice was sustained.

Professor Attahiru Jega, who was appointed INEC chairman by former President Goodluck Jonathan, expanded the practice to include the deployment of university academics as election officials in the 2015 general election.

He saw it as part of the efforts to ensure the credibility and integrity of the electoral process.

Under the arrangement, vice-chancellors functioned as Returning Officers at the federal and state levels, while lecturers and other academics played roles at the local government level.

Jega believed that the academics were an embodiment of integrity, who would be less susceptible to inducements by unscrupulous politicians who might try to corrupt electoral officials to subvert the will of the electorate.

The INEC boss was also of the view that lecturers knew that their honour as members of the intelligentsia was at stake, and they would not easily soil their reputation and career by aiding electoral malpractices.

Justifying his decision, Jega said, “We know that anybody who has risen in the system to become a vice chancellor will not for anything damage his or her reputation by pandering to the wishes of politicians.”

However, experience gathered from several elections has shown otherwise. It is now obvious that academics, like other professionals, are susceptible to corruption.

Professors and other lecturers have been aiding electoral malpractices since the return to democracy in 1999.

Ironically, while reacting to the 2019 general election, Jega, attending an event at Bayero University, Kano, where he was once Vice Chancellor and is currently a lecturer, expressed disappointment with university lecturers for “allegedly conniving with politicians to undermine the integrity and outcome of this year’s general elections.”

He expressed disappointment against the background of the conviction of two professors and complaints against many others, showing that not all academics are men of honour and character.

In 2019, two courts in Akwa Ibom State sentenced professors Peter Ogban and Ignatius Uduk to terms of imprisonment for electoral fraud committed during the 2019 general election.

Ogban, a Professor of Soil Science at the University of Calabar, and Uduk, a Professor of Human Kinetics at the University of Uyo, received three years’ imprisonment for their offences.

University lecturers have been accused of conniving with politicians and their political parties to alter and write results in their favour.

Even those with mathematics, engineering, business administration and accountancy backgrounds are known to have embarrassed themselves during the collation of election results by their inability to reconcile the figures due to the falsification of the figures.

This has made those who had faulted Jega’s action then and questioned the yardstick used in choosing university dons as collation/returning officers by the commission to believe that they have now been vindicated.

Lately, INEC has been facing criticism for not improving the system. Concerns have also been raised about the appointment of partisan individuals, card-carrying members of political parties and known allies of politicians into leadership roles in the commission.

As the commission prepares for the next general election in 2027, it behoves INEC to hinge the appointment of election officials on character and integrity.

The time to start headhunting credible individuals to conduct the elections as officials is now. It should cast its net wide to include other professionals in its search for men and women of honour and integrity.

For the sake of transparency, the electoral commission must also strive to publish the complete list of all prospective Collation and Returning Officers well in advance of future elections in order to allow civil society, political parties, and the public to evaluate and scrutinise their political neutrality.

The machinery for rigging must not be allowed to take root before the election even begins.

INEC should not only be open and transparent but must be seen to be open and transparent in all the processes leading to the conduct of the 2027 general election to sustain Nigeria’s election.