INEC: Yakubu’s successor must talk less – NPSA president

As the tenure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, gradually winds down, questions are mounting over his performance and the qualities required in his successor ahead of the 2027 general elections. In this interview with Weekend Trust, the national president of the Nigeria Political Science Association (NPSA), Professor Hassan Saliu, […]

As the tenure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, gradually winds down, questions are mounting over his performance and the qualities required in his successor ahead of the 2027 general elections. In this interview with Weekend Trust, the national president of the Nigeria Political Science Association (NPSA), Professor Hassan Saliu, shares his thoughts on Yakubu’s record, the challenges of Nigeria’s electoral system and the kind of leadership the country needs for credible polls, among others.

 

The tenure of Professor Mahmood Yakubu will soon come to an end as INEC chairman; what is your assessment of his role as the head of the electoral body in view of the two major elections he conducted?

He has tried his best because it is not easy to be an electoral officer in Nigeria. Remember that his predecessor, Prof Mahmud Jega also complained about the action of politicians, who have not changed. So, we cannot heap the blame of electoral imperfections on one person. Given the circumstances of the Nigerian political environment, you can hardly find an INEC chairman whose conduct would satisfy everyone.

Some people still nurse grudges against his predecessor for the election he conducted. Essentially, it is a thankless job that you cannot please everybody because it is a thriving business and politicians do everything to secure electoral victory. Those who have failed will look for somebody to blame; and in this case, INEC is the whipping boy.

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Any assessment of Prof Yakubu outside the political environment is not going to be helpful. The laws are clear, but our politicians are experts in side-tracking it; and INEC does not have security or police.

The elections Prof Yakubu conducted were the best that could be produced in the circumstance. We should not dwell much on what he did or did not but look at the next criteria to make sure that his successor does not fall into the same trap.

 

Many candidates claim that they won the 2023 presidential elections but were rigged out. In view of what you observed, what would you say to such claims on the image of the electoral body?

Yes, because perception is very important. Nobody trusts INEC; even the ruling party is suspicious of the body, same with the coalition parties. All previous elections have brought up one issue or another among the people. In respect to the last election, I think the only error committed by INEC was making political promises without minding the environment. While there is justification for some of the hitches cited, the issue is that INEC had talked too much before the time, creating credibility problems. How can you be making such promises sitting in Abuja when elections will be conducted in thousands of wards across the country? He has no control over ad hoc staff; everything may be put in place, but what about those that would conduct it? By and large, Prof Mahmud has done his best.

 

There seems to be a preference for people in the academia, especially professors, to head INEC. How has this helped the system? Should this continue or people from others sectors be given an opportunity also?

 There must be a basis for relying on professors. But the conduct of some of them is nothing to write home about. For credibility, it is good to have a professor as the chairman of INEC; however, there is need to have some different subsequently with organisational skills and expertise because the job of INEC itself has to do more with logistics. It is not an office work but one that has to do with the field. So, someone with this experience and a track record of organisational success should be given a chance.

 

What is your idea of the kind of person that should take over from Prof Yakubu for successful and credible elections in 2027?

Given the political environment, the new man can only try. And we should not expect any miracle from him under this same environment. We cannot be electing something on nothing. We have to tamper with the environment for the best in the incoming to succeed, but if the present environment survives, there is no miracle such a person can perform. That is the truth. His resident electoral commissioners, including himself, are all political appointees and we are expecting a miracle. Nigerians should get more serious. The current president will appoint the INEC chairman; and some members of political parties, especially the ruling party, have also been appointed into INEC, so how do you expect them to be neutral when they were all appointed on the basis of politics?

 

Should geopolitical zones matter in the appointment or it should be done purely on merit?

By the operational law, the president makes the appointment and takes it to the Council of States for information and passes it to the Senate. We don’t have a person like the last president of the Soviet Union, who was carrying out reforms without minding his own position. Here, the sitting president who will make the appointment and will be on the ballot will consider his political interest, whether the opposition likes it or not. The late President Buhari made appointments without showing fidelity to zoning or balancing and Tinubu has also been making his maybe with or no regards for zoning and balancing, why would INEC’s now be based on region? The question should be why certain parts of the country are yet to be appointed to head INEC. In the past, the tradition was for the president to come from the North and INEC chairman from the South. But we have seen the Buhari approach, why should we expect it to be different under another president? We should be sincere in some of these issues. The president is an interested party as a candidate in the election with the power to appoint who would preside over the election and we think he would just sleep off on it?

 

What should be the area of focus for the next INEC chairman for Nigeria to have transparent and credible elections?

He should talk less, reduce his circle of social friends, improve the welfare of staff with a consistent application of the law and be fair to all. His personal integrity is very important. Those who would rig would abuse him and the victors would describe him as the best for the job. These are the reality. But he should be honest and fair to all, with regular engagement with politicians, and apply the law where any of them runs foul of it. Non application of it will also promote laxity that has been seen in the political process.

Yakubu’s successor should be convinced that he/she wants to do the job and be very proactive by always thinking ahead rather than being a last-minute man to beat the politicians to the game. The noise of what he/she would do in six  months time should start now so that when the time comes, nobody would accuse him of bias. But the truth is that the appointment will have political interest. 

 

With the pre-qualification of 14 new political parties, what is your recommendation to INEC for a maximum number to be registered?

They should follow their law, plain and simple. Register any party that meets the requirements and deregister any one that qualifies for it with fairness. This is not a matter of 10 or five parties. Among those we have now, how many are very active? Limiting it is like introducing fraud.

 

Looking at the Nigerian environment, do you think technology can really be the way to go in the conduct of elections?

Technology will work with human beings; and we are trying. We want INEC to adopt it, but even some western countries have reversed themselves on it. This is to tell you that it is not really the magic wand. We were told that there were so many attacks on the INEC server during the eve of the last presidential election in 2023 by some foreigners commissioned by Nigerians. There are pros and cons either way.