Andy Ezeani
\n22 September 2026<\/p>\n
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has never been unmindful of the intricacies of the human factor in the conduct of elections in the Nigerian environment.<\/p>\n
The agency may have fallen short at various times in meeting public expectations in the delivery of credible and transparent elections, but it is not for lack of trying. INEC does try to close identified loopholes in the conduct of elections. Obviously, the efforts are not enough.<\/p>\n
In 2006, the Professor Maurice Iwu-led Commission entered into a pact with the National Youth Service Corps and heralded the use of Youth Corps members for the conduct of elections. The pact was a decisive, creative initiative, born out of a major challenge in the conduct of elections.<\/p>\n
INEC has never had adequate personnel to conduct elections on its own. It has always relied on ad hoc staff. This runs well over a million persons during general elections.<\/p>\n
Until Prof. Iwu came up with the NYSC option, the Commission recruited election ad hoc staff from the open society,as it were. Politicians exploited the setting. They went to town, mobilized and prepped as many people as they could, and guided them to apply to serve as ad hoc staff during elections.<\/p>\n
The disposition of such protegees of politician masquerading as ad hoc election officials is best imagined.<\/p>\n
Even if restricting the selection of election ad hoc staff to only NYSC members did not solve any other problem in the conduct of elections, it substantially eliminated the situation of persons without known fixed address coming forward to play pranks in the name of conducting elections and promptly vamoosing into the thin air, as was the case in several instances.<\/p>\n
If any NYSC members succumbed to the solicitation by unconscionable politicians, tracking such ad hoc staff is no longer difficult. His service year may also be in jeopardy. That remains a restraint to wrongdoing by youth corps members on election duty.<\/p>\n
Professor Attahiru Jega succeeded Professor Iwu at INEC. He took steps on another dimension to further straighten the issue of integrity of personnel in the conduct of elections.<\/p>\n
Under Jega, INEC called in university vice chancellors and senior lecturers to now serve as collation officers and returning officers in elections. The basis of the decision was anchored on the traditional assumption of the character and tendency of the university lecturer. The typical university lecturer was identified with such characteristics as integrity, being above aboard in grading of scores in examinations and competitions, self-pride, and not being easily swayed by material inducement.<\/p>\n
The concept of university lecturers as collation officers at elections also presupposed that lecturers were mostly non-partisan and relatively averse to the carnality often identified with politicians. Then again, these were individuals who often aligned their thought system to the pursuit of the ideal in society.<\/p>\n
Tapping lecturers as collation officers in elections appeared to be a smart decision anchored on reason. With that decision, the leadership of the Election Management Body had seemed to have fixed one more loose end in the conduct of elections.<\/p>\n
Has the confidence reposed on university vice chancellors and senior lecturers for prime electoral duties been justified so far? The jury is still out.<\/p>\n
The mixed performance of the university top shots in the conduct of elections is, perhaps, well captured by two diametrically opposite scorecards of two professors on the election mart.<\/p>\n
The sterling performance of Professor Nnenna Oti, the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, as the returning officer of the governorship election in Abia state in the 2023 general election will remain a reference point. Her outing solidly justified the decision to co-opt top university academics to the critical task of election conduct.<\/p>\n
Professor Oti was not only an epitome of integrity, she maintained a firm, principled stance on the path of probity, even when there seemed to be a subtle attempt to sway her away from the path she was determined to tread. Oti, a first-class soil science graduate, delivered on her assignment, and electoral democracy is better for her performance.<\/p>\n
In Akwa Ibom State in 2019, however, another lecturer, another soil science professor, took a different path and ignominiously ended up in prison for manipulating election results. The case of the University of Calabar\u2019s Professor Peter Ogban in a senatorial election in Akwa Ibom State will haunt him forever. His indignity in tampering with election scores in favour of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) earned him a 36- months conviction by an Akwa Ibom State High Court in March 2012. The sentence was affirmed by the Appeal Court subsequently.<\/p>\n
Ogban\u2019s betrayal of the public trust is, surely, a case against using university professors for the conduct of elections.<\/p>\n
It has been 15 years since the INEC leadership called up university professors for prime election duties based on their assumed impartiality and integrity.<\/p>\n
Against the backdrop of Professor Ogban\u2019s sad conduct in the 2019 election, involving the APC, the recent report of 600 lecturers purportedly representing public universities in the northern part of the country, endorsing President Bola Tinubu for the 2027 election is, a huge cause for concern. The lecturers were reported to have made the endorsement after meeting with some prominent APC leaders in Kaduna.<\/p>\n
The explanation of Professor Abdullahi Musa, the vice chancellor of Kaduna State University, who spoke to the media on the curious political endorsement,was, at best, puerile. According to the reports, Prof. Musa said the endorsement of the 600 lecturers \u201cfollowed from their assessment of data on education, infrastructure, investment and agriculture\u201d, after which they arrived at their decision.<\/p>\n
Hear Prof. Musa further justify the endorsement; \u201cIn terms of infrastructural development in education, Kaduna State University has received enormous amount of support from TETFUND and from the National Sports Commission to mention just a few\u201d. It is hoped that Prof. Musa was listening to himself.<\/p>\n
Elections in Nigeria are too sensitive and often volatile, to be subjected to any quirky disposition in individuals called in to superintend over them. INEC has its decision in the selection of senior academic staff from the northern part of the country for the 2027 elections clearly cut out for it.<\/p>\n
There is no way the partisan group of 600 lecturers, or whatever their number, represented by the vice chancellor of the Kaduna State University, can be entrusted with the conduct of credible elections in 2027.<\/p>\n
It behooves the INEC leadership to avoid upfront, avoidable controversies that will compromise the 2027 election even before it is held. Let the 600 lecturers represented by Prof. Abdullahi Musa be allowed to stand on the mandate of their choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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