A foremost Professor of Political Philosophy with a speciality in public policies, politics and governance, Akinyemi Onigbinde has lambasted the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, Yakubu Mahmood, following the outcome of immediate past 2023 presidential election.
Onigbinde, in a recent interview with Nigerian Tribune, claimed the INEC boss “messed up” following the outcome of the poll that saw Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) emerged winner.
TRIBUNE ONLINE reports there have been several calls in recent times, especially by opposition demanding for the nullification of the poll that they deemed “fraudulent ” and “unconstitutional”.
In his interview, Prof. Onigbinde alleged the 2023 presidential “without prejudice to the outcome of court judgment” is “not free and fair” adding that “INEC deliberately disabled BVAS for the presidential election”.
According to him, Yakubu being one of the members of the eggheads does not equate that all professors are incompetent.
“It is not a generic thing. A professor belongs to the professorial cadre. No one approached the university to say ‘give us a professor.’ Therefore, you cannot take the misbehavior of a specific person to say professors are incompetent. There is a professor who was the returning officer for Abia governorship election who rejected bribe from politicians. Why did you not mention that example?
“Look, it was very clear APC was aiming for an agenda. If you check the way INEC chairmen are chosen, they don’t choose them from the dominant ethnic group, especially where you have the chances that a presidential candidate is likely to emerge and win.
“Jonathan never met Attahiru Jega before he appointed him. He wanted somebody with some level of integrity to head the commission. When Jega left, nobody expected Buhari to pick from his Fulani ethnic group.
“But he did it, just like he did with all the service chiefs. It was an attempt to hatch the agenda. So, you can’t say because Yakubu messed up, therefore all professors are bad,” he stated when asked to buttress his point on what he meant by Nigeria cannot be redeemed by election.
