Rethinking Academics’ Role in Electoral Process

The use of academics for elections in Nigeria is under scrutiny following the convictions of two professors for election fraud and the ignoble role of others in aiding and abetting electoral malpractices, Davidson Iriekpen writes

Last week brought some good news for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) when an Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo, the state capital sentenced Professor Ignatius Uduk of the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) to three years in prison for electoral fraud committed during the 2019 general election.

Uduk, a Professor of Human Kinetics, served as Collation/Returning Officer for Essien Udim State Constituency in March 2019. He stood trial on a three-count charge filed against him by INEC for announcing false results, publishing false results, and perjury.

The case suffered a series of delays and adjournments since it was filed in December 2020. 

But delivering judgment last week, Justice Bassey Nkanang held that the prosecution counsel, Clement Onwuewunor, discharged the burden of proof that the defendant published false election results when he served as Collation/Returning Officer.

The judge discharged and acquitted the defendant on count one, but found him guilty of counts two and three. Nkanang sentenced the professor to three years on each of the two counts. Both terms are to run concurrently.

Uduk’s conviction and sentencing came four years after another academic, Peter Ogban, a Professor of Soil Science at the University of Calabar, was jailed for three years for a similar offence.

Ogban, who has served his three-year sentence, was the INEC returning officer for the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District election in 2019, when Senator Godswill Akpabio, now President of the Senate, was defeated by Christopher Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom State.

Ekpenyong was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the poll, while Akpabio was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ogban was convicted and jailed for allegedly falsifying the results to help Akpabio in the election.

Akpabio had repeatedly disowned the professor and denied the allegation that the professor falsified election results in his favour 

It would be recalled that one of the strategies introduced during the military regimes was the appointment of academics from Nigerian universities as chairman of INEC. When the country returned to democratic governance in 1999, the practice was sustained.

Professor Attahiru Jega, who was appointed INEC chairman by former President Goodluck Jonathan, expanded the practice to include the deployment of university academics as election officials in the 2015 general election.

He saw it as part of the efforts to ensure the credibility and integrity of the electoral process.

Under the arrangement, vice-chancellors functioned as Returning Officers at the federal and state levels, while lecturers and other academics played roles at the local government level. 

Jega believed the academics were an embodiment of integrity, who would be less susceptible to inducements by unscrupulous politicians who might try to corrupt electoral officials to subvert the will of the electorate. 

Jega was also of the view that lecturers knew that their honour as members of the intelligentsia was at stake, and they would not easily soil their reputation and career by aiding electoral malpractices.

Justifying his decision, Jega said, “We were looking for people with integrity, and we have no doubt that there are many people with integrity in the Nigerian university system.

“It is like a ready-made constituency to get the kind of people we need for the job to be done. That is not to say that only in the universities can you find people of integrity.

“We know that anybody who has risen in the system to become a vice chancellor will not for anything damage his or her reputation by pandering to the wishes of politicians.”

However, experience gathered from several elections has shown otherwise. It is now obvious that academics, like other professionals, are sucesptible to corruption.

Professors and other lecturers have been aiding electoral malpractices since the return to democracy in 1999.

Ironically, while reacting to the 2019 general election, Jega had expressed disappointment with university lecturers for “allegedly conniving with politicians to undermine the integrity and outcome of this year’s general elections”. 

He made the observation at an event at Bayero University, Kano, where he was once   Vice Chancellor and currently, a lecturer.

With the conviction of the two professors and the complaints against many others, it is obvious that not all academics are men of honour and character. 

Many who act as the commission’s returning officers at federal, state and local government levels have connived with politicians and their political parties to alter and write results in their favour.

Even those with mathematics, engineering, business administration and accountancy backgrounds are known to have embarrassed themselves during the collation of election results by their inability to reconcile the figures due to the falsification of the figures.

Many who faulted Jega’s action then and questioned the yardstick used in choosing university dons as collation/returning officers by the commission believe they have been vindicated.

An analyst who requested anonymity said, “I really do not know how Jega arrived at the decision of making academic collation/returning officers.

“Are they the only saints in Nigeria? The same lecturers who are involved in sex-for-marks and other forms of corruption on campuses across the country? To me, it sounded absolutely ridiculous.”

INEC has been facing criticism for toeing this path. It became worse after the last general election, particularly over the failure of the IReV platform.

The platform was central to post-election litigation, but the petitions challenging the results of most of these elections were dismissed by the tribunals and the courts.

Concerns have also been raised about the appointment of partisan individuals, card-carrying members of political parties and known allies of politicians into leadership roles in the commission.

Perhaps, that was why former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently said INEC needed institutional reforms. Obasanjo called for the sack of its chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, and other officials.

The commission which has been jubilating over the convictions of Professors Uduk and Ogban, knows very that there are other academics accused of infractions during 2019 and 2023 elections but does not have the courage to charge before the court.

As the commission prepares for the next general election in 2027, it behooves it to hinge on the appointment of election officials on character and integrity. The time to start headhunting credible individuals to conduct the elections as officials is now. It should cast its net wide to include other professionals in its search for honourable officials.

In addition, President Bola Tinubu’s administration and the National Assembly should do everything possible to provide a legal framework for the implementation of a wide range of reforms for the electoral body.