THE DISCONTENTS OF PROGRESS
Mahmood Yakubu winds down after a two-term tenure at INEC, writes ISUMA Mark
When Professor Mahmood Yakubu assumed office as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in November 2015, Nigeria was still basking in the glow of a historic political transition. For the first time since independence, power had changed hands between rival political parties, and Professor Attahiru Jega, Yakubu’s predecessor, was widely celebrated for midwifing that transition. The expectations for his successor were, therefore, immense.
Nearly a decade on, Yakubu has become Nigeria’s longest-serving electoral umpire, outlasting two administrations, overseeing two general elections, and introducing landmark reforms. His innovations, particularly in the use of technology, have redefined voting in Africa’s largest democracy. Yet, as with most reformers in Nigeria’s turbulent political environment, his legacy is deeply contested—part progress, part controversy, and part unfinished business.
Born in Bauchi State in 1962, Yakubu’s academic pedigree was formidable. He studied history and international relations at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Oxford University, and Cambridge University—where he became the first Nigerian to earn a Commonwealth Scholarship. Before INEC, he had made his mark as Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
His appointment in 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari sparked debates, given that it came on the heels of the opposition’s first national victory. Critics feared he would tilt the electoral body in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). But Yakubu sought to allay those fears.
“I owe my allegiance to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not to any political party,” he declared shortly after assuming office.
This insistence on neutrality became the foundation of his approach to electoral reform. Yakubu’s tenure has been defined by his relentless push for technology. Building on Jega’s introduction of Smart Card Readers, he ushered in a new digital era for Nigeria’s elections.
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) became his flagship innovation. The device verifies voters’ identities using both fingerprints and facial recognition, drastically reducing incidents of impersonation. By 2021, BVAS was compulsory in all elections.
Alongside BVAS, Yakubu launched the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), allowing citizens to monitor election results uploaded directly from polling units in real time. The move was widely seen as a turning point. “For the first time in Nigeria’s history, citizens could monitor election results live as they were uploaded,” said Samson Itodo, Executive Director of Yiaga Africa. “That’s a massive leap in democratic accountability.”
These innovations were later codified in the Electoral Act 2022, a sweeping reform that empowered INEC to deploy electronic technologies, tightened timelines for primaries, improved dispute resolution, and stiffened penalties for electoral offences. Yakubu himself hailed the legislation as “A new legal framework that empowers INEC to better serve the Nigerian electorate.”
Beyond gadgets and portals, Yakubu embarked on the daunting task of sanitizing Nigeria’s bloated voter register. Ahead of the 2023 elections, INEC conducted a Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, enrolling over 12 million new voters, many of them young people energized by social movements. Using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), the Commission also cleaned out more than two million invalid or duplicate entries. By early 2023, Nigeria had 93 million registered voters, with 76 percent collecting their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs)—a record achievement.
Observers commended the scale of the exercise. “Registering millions of new voters while cleaning up the database is no small feat,” noted Ezenwa Nwagwu, a civil society advocate. “It shows INEC can innovate administratively as well as technologically.”
But the true test of reforms is in execution, and the 2023 general elections provided a sobering reality check. BVAS worked effectively for voter accreditation, limiting instances of multiple voting and underage voting. However, the IReV system buckled under pressure during the presidential poll, failing to upload results as promised.
INEC cited “technical glitches,” but opposition parties and international observers alleged malpractice. The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) was blunt in its assessment: “The failure to upload presidential election results in real time reduced transparency and undermined public confidence.”
Yakubu later issued an apology saying, “The Commission regrets the delays and has taken steps to prevent a recurrence.”
But the damage to public trust had been done. For critics, the malfunction symbolized INEC’s inability to match ambition with capacity.
Yakubu’s legacy has polarized opinion. Civil society movements, particularly youth-led groups such as #FixElectionsNG, accuse INEC of “over-promising and under-delivering.” To them, the Commission remains too vulnerable to elite capture and political interference.
Yet others defend him as a reformist constrained by Nigeria’s political realities.
“People often underestimate the kind of sabotage INEC faces behind the scenes,” said a senior INEC official. “Professor Yakubu is not perfect, but he’s trying to leave the place better than he met it.”
In fairness, Yakubu’s reforms extend beyond technology. He strengthened INEC’s institutional capacity by improving staff training, decentralizing operations, and collaborating with the National Orientation Agency and civil society groups for voter education.
Perhaps most crucially, he institutionalized the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), which coordinated security agencies to mitigate electoral violence. This framework was credited with ensuring relatively peaceful off-cycle polls in Anambra, Ekiti, and Osun States.
Now in his second and final five-year term, Yakubu is steering INEC toward the 2027 elections. He has hinted at exploring electronic voting, a radical step that would require constitutional amendments. But the bigger challenge, analysts argue, is rebuilding trust.
“Technology is only a tool,” Yakubu admitted after the 2023 elections. “The real test is in transparency, integrity, and the willingness of political actors to play by the rules.” Observers agree. “You can digitize every stage of voting, but if citizens doubt the honesty of the process, reforms won’t matter,” said Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, a governance expert.
As Nigeria’s longest-serving INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu has undeniably expanded the frontiers of electoral reform—ushering in biometric accreditation, real-time result portals, and cleaner voter registers. Yet his tenure also underscores the fragility of reform in a democracy where political actors often resist change.
Whether history remembers him as the modernizer who digitalized Nigeria’s elections or the chairman who promised more than he could deliver will depend on what happens in 2027. For now, his story embodies the paradox of Nigerian democracy: progress shadowed by persistent distrust.
One fact, however, is clear—Nigeria’s electoral journey in the 21st century cannot be told without Mahmood Yakubu.
Mark writes from Abuja
