Outgoing chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, yesterday bade farewell to colleagues on the continent amid his call for a stronger regional collaboration among election management bodies in West Africa.

Yakubu, who had earlier been rumoured to have been removed from office by President Bola Tinubu, yesterday attended the extraordinary general assembly of the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) in Banjul, Gambia.

He had earlier dispelled claims of his removal when, on Tuesday, he presided over the commission?s weekly management meeting in Abuja. The rumour mill on Wednesday went on overdrive when leaders of the opposition Labour Party (LP) led a delegation to the INEC office but were received by an acting chairman, Sam Olumekun.

Yakubu?s absence had raised concerns, but Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, explained that National Commissioner Olumekun was the INEC acting chairman at the moment, as Yakubu had travelled to the Gambia to attend the ECONEC meeting.

In his first public appearance since the rumours emerged, Yakubu formally informed the ECOWAS Assembly that he was attending the ECONEC meeting for the final time as Chairman of INEC because his tenure ends later this year.

Speaking to his fellow electoral commissioners, Yakubu, who previously served as president of the ECONEC Steering Committee, took a moment to honour past members of the Network who contributed to strengthening democratic institutions in their home countries and across Africa.

Yakubu recalled how he had proudly announced that every country in the sub-region was under democratic rule in 2017. Sadly, he observed, that was no longer the case. He regretted that today, four countries in the region are no longer practising democracy. Yakubu, however, was optimistic and expressed the hope that democracy would soon return to the affected nations.

As his tenure nears its end, intrigues are playing out among political, regional and other stakeholders on how to prevail over President Tinubu to determine and influence whom and the region where the next INEC boss should come from.

While a section of the north is already agitating that President Tinubu should be fair and transparent enough to look elsewhere apart from the Southwest to pick Yakubu?s replacement, others said the National Assembly should expedite that aspect of the constitutional amendment that deals with the appointment of INEC Chairman, with the view that the solely prerogative of appointing the commission?s chairman must be taken away from Mr President and becomes a democratic process.

Moreover, some schools of thought said Mr President?s political experience is enough to guide him in appointing a competent and unbiased Nigerian to head the commission. They said that as much as former President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Yakubu through his prerogative power, the incumbent President should not be blackmailed as to whom he wishes to appoint.

One of the remote factors that threw up the debate and politics of Yakubu?s removal and successor bothered recent news, which claimed that President Tinubu had appointed Professor Bashiru Olamilekan as the new INEC chairman instead of Yakubu.

The North is not leaving anything to chance on why the next INEC Chairman should not come from the Southwest. On many occasions, President Tinubu has been accused of lopsided appointments that favour his Yoruba kinsmen. Some stakeholders from the zone argued that should a Yoruba man be appointed to replace Yakubu later in the year, then the 2027 election is as good as won by the incumbent President.

In response to such insinuation, Senator Femi Okurounmu, a stalwart of Afenifere and an ardent critic of President Tinubu in the Southwest, said, ?The President has the prerogative right to appoint whoever he wishes as INEC Chairman. If we are to follow precedent, former President Muhammadu Buhari didn?t hesitate to appoint Yakubu to replace another northerner, the immediate past INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega. Nobody should play up any ethnic sentiment now if Tinubu decides to pick a Yoruba man to replace Yakubu.

?Although I would have suggested that for credibility purposes, President Tinubu can consider looking at other regions, but that?s not to say competence and capacity must be jettisoned. But in terms of integrity and other qualities, Yoruba nation has them in abundance, and moreover, no Yoruba man has ever headed the commission since 1960.?

He said since the commission was set up in 1960, then known as the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) and later the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) and then INEC, nobody from the Southwest has headed it.

He listed the chairman of the commission stating from Eyo Esua (1964?1966), Michael Ani (1976?1979), Victor Ovie-Whiskey (1980?1983), Eme Awa (1987?1989), Humphrey Nwosu (1989?1993), Okon Uya (1993, June-November) Professor Okon, Sumner Dagogo-Jack (1994?1998), Ephraim Akpata (1998?2000), Abel Guobadia (2000?2005), Maurice Iwu (2005?2010), Attahiru Jega (2010?2015), Mahmood Yakubu (2015-present), saying, ?No single Yoruba man has been appointed.?

One of the leaders in the North, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, said the president has enough experience in politics to decide whatever is good for Nigeria regarding the appointment of the INEC Chairman. ?The constitution gave him the power to appoint INEC chairman and the National commissioners. He has the right to consult, but it is too early to start playing politics by bringing ethnic sentiments into how the INEC Chairman must be appointed. Former President Buhari didn?t consult anybody before he appointed Yakubu; it is therefore necessary to allow the incumbent President to make his free choice, as long he will do that in line with the constitution.?

Describing the entire debate, intrigues and machinations as a waste of time, President Middle Leaders Forum, Birtus Porgu, said: ?President Tinubu, has demonstrated enough courage that he is not the kind of president anyone can intimidate or blackmail into doing what he would not do, more so when the constitution empowers him. I do not see the sense in the intrigue because it won?t influence anything.

?The President will bring in a credible, competent and reliable person but definitely not someone that will work against his (Tinubu) interest. We can begin to impress on the National Assembly to make the process of appointing INEC Chairman democratic.?

Sharing a similar view, President Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shetima and Director General National Consultative Front (NCFront), Wale Okunniyi, said the best way to clean the system of reform the electoral system whereby the process of appointing INEC Chairman will not be retained at the prerogative of one man.

Meanwhile, a spokesman to the INEC Chairman explained that the commission?s boss, currently out of Nigeria to attend an international conference, was the reason the national commissioner who holds forth for him is referred to as acting chairman, and the development has nothing to do with Yakubu?s tenure. (TheGuardian)

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