The 2023 vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has called for the appointment of a credible successor to Mahmood Yakubu as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Yakubu’s second five-year term in charge of the electoral commission, which began in 2020, ends on November 9, 2025.

He was first appointed in 2015 by former President Muhammadu Buhari and reappointed in 2020.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Baba-Ahmed said Nigeria does not need “an election-rigger” to lead the electoral body after Yakubu.

He also criticised the outgoing chairman, accusing him of presiding over irregularities in the 2023 presidential poll that produced President Bola Tinubu.

“All I want is a credible person, not somebody who will clearly rig what the constitution provides: 25% in at least two-thirds of the states of the federation and the FCT, and go ahead to breach the constitution and put Nigeria into what Nigeria is today. Just one individual.

“Throughout human history, individuals make or break societies,” he said.

The former vice-presidential candidate argued that flawed elections lie at the heart of Nigeria’s challenges.

“Our leadership recruitment is the bane of our problems.

“Electoral fraud is the single most important fact to be addressed in our lives as a nation, even beyond insecurity. Insecurity is derived from electoral fraud.

“The Nigerian election gave birth to the kind of insecurity we have today. Corruption is aggravated by electoral fraud. The destruction of our youths, of the system, is aggravated by electoral fraud.” (Channels TV)