MY THOUGHT THIS MORNING: Why INEC Must Not Use Vice Chancellors And Senior Lecturers As Returning And Collation Officers In The 2027 Elections

Prognosis By Yusuf Shehu Usman esq, mni

The Tinubu 2023 Place holder Masari and a clique of Northern governors including Uba Sani, Zulum and Dauda Lawal met behind closed doors with over 600 Senior Lecturers led by the Vice Chancellor of the Kaduna State University, at Kaduna in a closed door Meeting (Source: Daily Trust)

Daily Trust further reported that at the end of the Meeting, the Senior academics drawn from various public Universities in the North, endorsed Tinubu for the second term tenure

There is nothing wrong for the academics to hold political meetings with politicians or even to join political parties as registered and card carrying members

It’s perfectly within their Constitutional rights as citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

However, against the back drop of the fact that the INEC since the time of Professor Jega has decided to be using the Senior academics including Vice Chancellors of Universities as Returning and Collation Officers in our elections, this Kaduna closed door Meeting becomes particularly worrisome and the intention very highly suspicious.

The politicians out of sheer desperation have shown their hands too early in the day.

It’s all the more reason the INEC must not use the University Lecturers or Vice Chancellors as Returning or Collation Officers in the 2027 elections and beyond.

Their integrity, independence and impartiality can no longer be trusted by Nigerian voters; since they have started hobnobing and holding clandestine closed Meetings with the politicians of the ruling party

The academics have descended into the arena of electoral contest and have already taken sides with the ruling party the APC ahead of the election

We can therefore no longer trust them to be impartial in the Collation of election results and declaration of the winners of the election

For the INEC to conduct free, fair, credible and transparent elections, the officers involved must be persons whose integrity and impartiality are beyond reproach.

These Lecturers have demonstrated their partisanship and are not worthy of playing the roles of election officials in the 2027 elections

And as it’s said, it’s one bad Apple that spoils the whole basket.

What these Northern Lecturers have shown is that we can not trust their colleagues in the other Regions to be different.

Politicians have invaded the academic community in anticipation of using them to advantage in 2027.

The people must say “No” and the INEC must not use Lecturers as electoral officers in 2027.

Yusuf Shehu Usman esq, mni writes from
Abuja