Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 2015 to 2025 has finally left office as Chairman of INEC after serving out 2-full terms in the position. Yakubu was first appointed as Chairman INEC in 2015 as was re-appointed Chairman of the Commission in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was credited with several innovations in\nINECs conduct of the elections in 2019 and 2023. It was also under his tenure\nthat Electoral Act 2010 was repealed and re-enacted with several innovative\nintroductions including the use of technology for elections. Mahmud took over\nfrom the well-respected Attahiru Jega who conducted the general elections in\n2015 that saw President Goodluck Jonathan the incumbent loose to General\nMuhammadu Buhari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yakubu who took over from Jega did not however,\nmarch the acclaimed achievements of Jega, indeed he was criticized for leading\na weakened INEC who appeared to have succumbed to the interference of\npoliticians particularly the ruling party in the conduct of elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two general elections conducted under\nYakubu was widely critiqued for lacking credibility. The 2023 general elections\nwere particularly criticized by Nigerian Election Observers who described the\nelections as flawed, with observers citing INEC\u2019s refusal to follow its own\nguidelines in the conduct of the elections, particularly failure to upload\nelection results on its election IReV portal as stated in its guidelines<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With elections only a few months away the nations expect a new chairman to be nominated to the senate for confirmation hearings immediately. Under the constitution, the President will send a nominee\u2019s name after consultation with the Council of State to the Senate for confirmation hearing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the Senate approves a new chairman will be\nsworn in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Criteria<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n CSO and election stakeholders have worried in\nrecent time about the credibility of the next nomination for the appointment of\nthe next INEC chairman position. In its credibility threshold document for the\n2027 general elections, the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room captured its\nconcerns as follows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe appointment of INEC\nChairman and Commissioners has been marred by allegations of partisanship,\nnepotism, and lack of transparency, leading to the emergence of individuals\nseen to be partisan and \/or incompetent. This has further eroded the credibility\nof the electoral process, leading to doubts about the fairness and capacity of\nofficials.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n As the president sets to nominate a new INEC\nChairman, the Situation room has outlined its expectation as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\nThat the appointment of the INEC Chairman and other Commissioners will be\ndone in line with the spirit and letters of the Nigerian Constitution and\naccording to the international best practice that guarantees neutrality and\ncompetence. The Constitution requires that \u201cunquestionable integrity and be not\nless than 40years of age in the case of the Chairman and not less than 35years\nof age in the case of the National Commissioners and the Resident Electoral Commissioners\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 2015 to 2025 has finally left office as Chairman of INEC after serving out 2-full terms in the position. Yakubu was first appointed as Chairman INEC in 2015 as was re-appointed Chairman of the Commission in 2019. He was credited with several innovations in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3934,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929\/revisions\/3934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}