An Attempt To Defend Professor Mahmood Yakubu

 By Emmanuel Aziken

Against the background of dashed hopes and the intrigues that shadowed the conduct of the 2023 presidential election, it is difficult for anyone with a clear conscience to rush to the defence of Prof Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

*Prof Yakubu 

Given that Yakubu is a professor of history, it is telling that historians will in the immediate and distant future easily pick him out as a facilitator in the conspiracy to suppress what many had projected would be the beginning of the Nigerian renaissance in the third decade of the 21st century. What with the promised hopes that spurred many Nigerians who had in the past not voted, to on February 25, 2023, take that first step in their civic responsibility to enthrone good governance.

Indeed, anyone coming out to defend Professor Yakubu would also be faced with the challenge of situating the fact as reflected on this page last week that many Nigerians abroad travelled at great cost to exercise their franchise. They came home with the hope of having a good leadership that they could be proud of anywhere they are based in the world.

The cost was also internal. It cost the Nigerian treasury nothing less than N400 billion to orgnaise what many have now come to see as a fraud. While that is the direct cost to the Nigerian treasury, the cost on businesses and individuals could even be more in financial terms. Another significant cost that may even make it more difficult for anyone with a conscience to defend Prof Yakubu is the cost in terms of lives and property.

There have been reports of loss of lives on account of the election. While Prof Yakubu may not be directly held liable on account of the fact that security is not directly under his remit, there have also been reports of some people who lost their lives or limbs on account of the poor performance of Prof Yakubu.

There is a report which your correspondent has not established of a young man who took his life in Plateau State on account of the malpractises that shadowed the presidential election.

Another cost is the reputation of the academics involved in what some have alleged as the charade orchestrated by Prof Yakubu.

Though Prof Yakubu did not start the use of Professors as returning and collation officers, there is, however, no question that it is under his regime at INEC that men and women of the ivory tower started getting sullied as election riggers.

Mr Mike Igini has sent a couple to jail but by and large, the majority of those who participated in the electoral heist of February 25 from the Ivory tower remain unpunished. Some of them with a modicum of conscience have recanted. One of such is Professor Ibrahim Yakassai who served as returning officer in the Doguwa Federal Constituency in Kano who renounced the result he declared saying he did it under duress.

The case of the academics involved in the election in Rivers State have been shadowed with much drama with some of them alleging death threats on account of their activities.

We do not know where the death threats are coming from. However, what is obvious and makes a defence for Prof Yakubu even more difficult is the irony that has shadowed results from Rivers State.

The collation officer for Port-Harcourt LGA, Professor Omiete Briggs, was replaced after she reportedly offered to step down following death threats from those who wanted her to alter the result from the state.

Suffice it to say that Port Harcourt LGA was one of the areas where many believe the results reflected the vote at the polling booths. Peter Obi scored 80% of the votes, Atiku Abubakar 9% and Bola Tinubu 7%. The results reflected the expectations of many as against the trend in many other places in the state where Tinubu who was backed by Governor Nyesom Wike polled heavy votes despite the poor attendance of his rally in Port Harcourt.

Indeed, in Wike’s Obio-Akpor LGA, results on INEC Portal showed LP:70,186, APC:12,547. Meanwhile in computing the final result declared by Prof Yakubu that gave victory to Tinubu, INEC announced something different with APC: 80,239, LP: 3,829.

Indeed, the infraction in Obio Akpor is only one of the malfeasances that characterized the elections conducted by Prof Yakubu that makes it difficult for anyone with a conscience to defend the INEC chairman.

Indeed, one could be tempted to defend Yakubu in the sense that for the first time votes counted in several National Assembly constituencies with sitting governors losing the bid to advance to the Senate.

The defeat of the governors tells us that Yakubu has the blueprint to conduct a good election. However, in the more significant election of the president, Yakubu allowed what the commission termed as technical glitches to erode his credibility.

Indeed, this correspondent had thought to attempt a defence of  Yakubu in the sense that he is a human being and may have made mistakes. Your correspondent has also heard that he was under compulsion from authorities who appointed him with the threat of blackmail over him.

However, after an examination of the highs and lows and what could be a threat to the Nigerian renaissance, your correspondent will join men with conscience in setting the INEC chairman in the negative corridor of Nigerian history. Indeed, the gloom over the nation since Yakubu did his midnight duty of penultimate Tuesday forbids for anyone to justify or align with Yakubu in his journey towards the negative side of history.   

*Aziken is a commentator on public issues