- Ask INEC to use persons of impeccable character, not lecturers as Returning Officers
- Involvement of scholars in electoral transgressions linked to poor remuneration in tertiary institutions
Stakeholders in the Nigerian electoral system have said the deployment of university academics in elections has drastically weakened the integrity of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
They said the increasing involvement of INEC officials, esteemed university professors and other lecturers serving as Returning Officers, in electoral malfeasance, has not only undermined the initial promise by the commission of enhanced probity in the system, it has also eroded public confidence in the electoral process.
For these stakeholders, including experts in election matters, observers, lawyers and political affairs commentators, the fundamental breach of the ethical standards university dons were expected to uphold is of grave concerns in which relevant authorities in the country needed to address if Nigeria would ever experience credibility in its electoral machinery.
The experts who spoke with THE POINT in their separate interviews attributed the involvement of these intellectuals in electoral transgressions to poor remuneration in the tertiary institutions; others blamed dearth of integrity and persons of impeccable character for the widespread electoral malpractices the country is battling.
Stakeholders decry decline of academic integrity, seek alternatives
Stakeholders argued that from the experience gathered from several elections, Nigerians have realised that the aim of using academics in the electoral process has been defeated.
According to them, it is now obvious that academics, like other professionals, are human beings and therefore corruptible since some of them have been caught aiding electoral malpractices since the return to democracy in 1999.
They demanded for engagements of persons with integrity and impeccable character to serve as INEC Returning Officers, arguing that the continuous deployments of academics may continue to taint results of elections by all kinds of manipulations.
Some experts on election issues in the country, Bukola Idowu and Festus Ojewumi, stated that if academics, entrusted with such sensitive assignments because of their professional calling could aid such fraudulent practices, then the commission should focus more on hiring people with proven integrity to handle elections.
Idowu, a member of the National Assembly Joint Committee on Electoral Matters, explained that academics could still be used for election duties, but advised INEC to do its due diligence by only allowing persons of proven integrity to be in its team.
“These professors, doctors and other academics have been poorly remunerated and given a life less than their standard. So, when politicians throw money around them during elections, they won’t be able to resist it except for integrity and God.”
Reacting to convictions of professors for manipulating election results, Idowu said, “I see it basically as a situation of corruption that is not tied to any profession. Some time ago, the Accountant General of the entire Federation, who is a university graduate, was accused of stealing money. Should we come back and say no, we should not be using university graduates again and that people should not go to university again or that people should not be accountants again? No! I think it is a corruption that is systemic beyond a particular profession.
“Don’t forget that the reason Professor Jega, when he started all this (engaging university lecturers), was because INEC staff themselves were also deemed to be corrupt. So, they went to the university to bring people. Don’t forget that he came from the University as a Vice Chancellor to head INEC, so, he felt that there is a bit of integrity among his colleagues and that in choosing them, they have nothing to do with that election and that they will be able to stand by the truth.
“But, things have shown that we are dealing with a systemic issue that permeates the entire society, not a particular profession. Corruption has been reported in the Church, in the Mosque, in the civil servants, among the military, among the police and among the politicians; so, I see that it is not tied to a profession.
“However, is it that we should continue using the University professors? We have seen some of these professors that are very corrupt and this is an example of a Court of Appeal affirming that judgement. But, for us working on elections, all we are saying is that we should begin to use people of character irrespective of the positions they are in.”
Another election expert, Festus Ojewumi, posited that it is not compulsory that INEC uses only university academics as returning officers, saying, “The most important thing is that the commission should be using people with credible integrity. People that will not compromise the electoral process; people that have proven integrity. That is what I will actually advocate for rather than using professors as returning officers.”
The development specialist added, “Before, INEC used professors to strengthen the electoral process, but, now, there are some professors that have good characters, there are some others that have no credibility. But, we should be careful not to throw the baby with bath water.”
“I continue to advocate that we should find people of integrity and good character, it is not necessarily going to be professors,” he added.
A human rights activist, Ayo Ologun, disclosed that university professors and other academics serving as INEC Returning Officers may continue to be susceptible to inducements by unscrupulous politicians if their (lecturers’) salaries and other emoluments are not increased.
Bemoaning poor remuneration of university dons, Ologun said many professors and doctors would easily engage in electoral malfeasance if politicians throw money around them during elections.
He called for a reform of the salary structure for university lecturers, saying, “It is very sad that a professor that has the highest salary today does not earn a million naira. I know professors that earn as little as N350, 000 after tax deductions. You cannot even give that to a cleaner in the oil sector or a councillor in the local government because I also know what is happening there. So, if a man has spent all his life, the little money he is making in buying books, just to have the requisite conditions to be appointed a professor and at the end of the whole thing with grey hair coming out of his head, he is being paid less than N500,000 and he sees someone who managed to have pass in OND but he is lucky to be in political circle, brandishing millions of naira, he is tempted to ask himself two questions – what is the essence of education? Number two, should the person have what he has when I am having what I am having? – And such a man sees someone that says I want to give you N50 million, all his wages till he retires and even after retirement cannot sum up to N50 million and that is what someone is offering just to tamper with figures and make an announcement as that person is assuring him of police and state protection.”
“It takes a man of integrity or someone who is convinced by whatever God he serves to turn down such an offer because he might have thought this will settle all my debts, put my children in school and put a roof over my head. Although, his predicaments couldn’t have justified what he has done.
“So you know that after elections, all returning officers, especially professors, are being taken to government houses to come and have dinner with the governor. And it is either the Vice Chancellor of the school who is the state returning officer is handed the dollars to share to the other returning officers or they are given the dollars individually at the table. Once a VC of a school is announced as returning officer, some of his professor colleagues will be jostling so that their names can be on the list of returning officers because they know it is an opportunity for them to make money and sleep in the kind of hotels they have never slept in before.
“These professors, doctors and other academics have been poorly remunerated and given a life less than their standard. So, when politicians throw money around them during elections, they won’t be able to resist it except for integrity and God,” he said.
A public affairs commentator and politician, Funso Babarinde stated that since 1999 that Nigeria returned to democracy, there have been lots of electoral frauds, noting that many election riggers have evaded punishment and so entrenching impunity in the system.
“People should be held responsible and there should be punishment for it. There is impunity and it continues because people get away with it. I expect INEC to be up and doing. We expect a better election. The prosecution of electoral fraud should be unbundled from INEC because this is a case of 2019 and we are still having it. Imagine committing an offence in 2015, having a conviction in 2021 and the Appeal Court upholding it in 2025,” he decried.
Babarinde said, “Institutions have failed,” stating that, “Politicians will do anything on election day to win but there is no resistance because lecturers are being paid peanuts. You have to be serving a living God for you to resist the offers from politicians. Electoral fraud and payment for academics should be looked into. INEC should stop announcing election results across all levels to reduce chances of rigging. Individual integrity matters in this situation.”
A lawyer, Justine Omele, said it was disturbing that none of the sacked RECs accused of electoral irregularities have been prosecuted.
He enthused that, “Most of the professors who participate in the election jostle for it because they know that the duty will make them earn what they have not earned in two years.”
However, the legal practitioner urged electoral officials to prioritise ethics and morality in their dealings.
Expressing worry over culpability of university dons, he said, “Ethically, the standard has fallen. The institution which should be a role model has fallen. The system is guilty and the political system is taking advantage of that corrupt system.
“Most of the professors who participate in the election jostle for it because they know that the duty will make them earn what they have not earned in two years.”
“I remember as an electoral officer in 2002 in Ikeja, a politician told me as an official that everybody has a price. Most of the politicians have sized them up. We should appeal to the ruling class and the elites that are exploiting their conditions to stop because they know full well that these professors and lecturers are poor,” he stated.
Convictions for corrupt academics, other INEC officials
Stakeholders were provoked following the reinforcement of the conviction of Peter Ogban, a professor jailed in 2021 by the Court of Appeal in Calabar, last week, for rigging a senatorial election allegedly for Godswill Akpabio, a senator from Akwa Ibom State.
Akpabio, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress is the President of the Nigerian Senate. The rigging happened in an election he lost before he contested again in 2023, won the election, and was elected the Senate president.
Ogban, a professor of soil science at the University of Calabar and a returning officer in the 2019 general elections in Akwa Ibom North West District, was jailed for three years by a State High Court in Uyo for announcing fake election results in two local government areas – Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo – allegedly in Akpabio’s favour. But, Akpabio had denied being instrumental to the professor’s electoral manipulation.
The appellate court, apart from affirming Ogban’s conviction and three-year jail term, frowned at his role as a university professor in the fraudulent manipulation of election results.
Ogban had told the trial court in Uyo how the election results were falsified to give the APC an unfair advantage over its main rival, the People’s Democratic Party.
For instance, some 5,000 fake votes were added to the APC’s score in Oruk Anam in the election.
Akpabio was seeking a return to the Senate after he defected from the PDP. The PDP candidate, Chris Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom State, defeated Akpabio in the election, which was gripped by pockets of violence.
INEC prosecuted Agban in landmark case
Before his sentencing, the professor pleaded for mercy from the judge, Augustine Odokwo.
Justice Odokwo, who described the case as novel, told the lecturer that there was not much he could do other than let the law take its course. He said the prosecution was able to prove its case against Ogban, beyond any reasonable doubt.
Another professor, Ignatius Uduk, was recently jailed by a State High Court in Uyo for election fraud.
Uduk, a professor of Human Kinetics in the Department of Physical and Health Education at the University of Uyo, was jailed for three years.
INEC prosecuted him on three charges: announcement of false election results, publication of false results, and perjury during the 2019 general elections in Essien Udim State Constituency, where he served as INEC’s collation and returning officer.
The professor falsified the election results to the advantage of the APC candidate, Nse Ntuen, who was then an ally of Akpabio.
In February, this year, the Senate approved the removal from office of Dr. Nura Ali (Sokoto State Resident Electoral Commissioner); Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari (Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner) and Prof. Ikemefuna Chijioke Uzockukwa (Aba State Resident Electoral Commissioner), respectively on allegations of infractions of Electoral Act; compromise of elections and abandonment of duty without cogent reason.
The Resident Electoral Commissioners had been earlier suspended in 2023.
Nura Ali was indicted for compromising the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly election. Ali reportedly confessed to having received the sum of $150,000 from politicians upon investigation by the Department of State Services.