Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
Between the moment a Nigerian voter casts a ballot and the moment a winner is declared lies a chain of officials whose neutrality can determine whether the result is accepted or rejected. The question dominating Nigeria’s pre-election discourse is no longer simply who Nigerians will vote for, but who will handle those votes once the ballots are counted.
The issue crystallised this month after reports that more than 600 senior academics from public universities in Northern Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a second term. The endorsement, allegedly secured at a closed-door meeting in Kaduna convened by the Presidential Special Adviser on Political Matters, Ibrahim Masari, was described as a mobilisation exercise aimed at securing the active support of academics for the President’s re-election bid. Some political figures argue the lecturers have every right to support a candidate. The concern, however, is that academics are routinely recruited by the Independent National Electoral Commission for sensitive election duties, including as Returning and Collation Officers.
The African Democratic Congress has focused squarely on that overlap. Its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said publicly backing a candidate and later handling that candidate’s election results raises an obvious conflict-of-interest concern. “You cannot campaign for a candidate and then be entrusted with counting the votes and declaring winners in the same election that your candidate is contesting in,” the ADC said. The party is not arguing that academics should forfeit their political rights. It accepts that they can support candidates. Its position is that public political activity should matter when individuals are considered for roles requiring neutrality.
Mark Adebayo, Chief Communications Adviser to the Adewole Adebayo-Bugaje Presidential Campaign Council, takes a stricter view. He said any academic who openly expresses partisan political support is automatically unqualified to participate in any form of assignment for INEC. He likened such an appointment to allowing a referee or linesman to play in a match he is officiating. “It is absolutely unacceptable,” Adebayo said.
But an academic who later serves as an election official remains a citizen with political rights. Does supporting a candidate automatically mean that person cannot perform an official duty fairly? That is where a blanket ban becomes difficult. If every academic who has ever expressed a political preference is excluded, INEC could lose a large part of its potential workforce. There is also a difference between holding a private political view, publicly endorsing a candidate, working on a campaign, and holding a political appointment. The real question is what kind of conduct should disqualify someone. Should it be any political opinion, a recent public endorsement, campaign work, membership of a party structure, or a formal political appointment? Or should INEC assess each case on its facts instead of adopting a rule that could sweep up ordinary civic participation?
The Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education has taken the argument further. Its Executive Director, Comrade Ibrahim Zikirullahi, said the concern is about clear, recent partisan political involvement among academics who could be appointed as Returning and Collation Officers. “Academic status is not a guarantee of electoral neutrality,” CHRICED said. That point matters because voters cannot see everything that happens after they leave the polling unit. They cannot personally follow every result from the polling station to the collation centre and then to the final declaration. Their confidence depends partly on whether the officials involved appear trustworthy. Zikirullahi drew a distinction between actual misconduct and the suspicion created by a compromised appearance. “The danger is not only actual wrongdoing, it is the appearance of compromised neutrality,” he said.
Nigeria’s electoral history lends weight to that concern. Professor Peter Ogban, an INEC Returning Officer, was convicted for manipulating and falsifying election results. Professor Ignatius Uduk of the University of Uyo was similarly convicted for offences relating to false election results and perjury. More recently, concerns were raised about INEC Chairman Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan following allegations linking him to a partisan social media account, though INEC denied the allegation. These cases do not imply that academics are inherently dishonest. They demonstrate that professional status cannot replace robust safeguards, transparent selection criteria, and strict conflict-of-interest rules.
The debate is unfolding against a significant legal backdrop. The Electoral Act (Amendment) Act 2026, signed into law by President Tinubu in February, permits the presiding officer at each polling unit to transmit election results electronically after Form EC8A has been duly completed and signed. Under the approved clause, electronic transmission is allowed where the technology does not fail and is possible to use. Where electronic transmission fails or becomes impossible, the signed Form EC8A serves as the primary source of election results. President Tinubu has said electronic transmission remains supportive and not a replacement for manual collation, stressing that the integrity of the process ultimately rests on human management and transparency.
That reliance on human management is precisely what worries the ADC and CHRICED. INEC is recruiting approximately 1.4 million ad hoc personnel for the 2027 elections, reflecting the scale of the logistical operation. The commission has opened its INECPRES portal for recruitment, with positions including Supervisory Presiding Officers, Presiding Officers, Assistant Presiding Officers, and Registration Area Technical Support staff. Returning and Collation Officers, who occupy the most sensitive positions in the result management chain, are typically drawn from academia.
INEC has responded cautiously. It has said it will verify allegations of partisanship against lecturers who could be recruited for sensitive electoral duties and take appropriate decisions based on its findings. That commitment is welcome, but the ADC wants more. It wants the commission to publish clear rules on when a prospective election official should be disqualified for publicly endorsing a candidate, taking part in partisan activities, or showing an obvious political affiliation. It also wants the names of proposed Returning and Collation Officers released early enough for political parties and citizens to raise objections. CHRICED has made similar demands, calling for clear selection criteria, the exclusion of officials whose recent partisan activities create a reasonable appearance of conflict, consistent standards across the country, and disclosure of recent endorsements, campaign roles, and political appointments.
Greater transparency would not prevent academics from taking part in politics. It would give INEC a clearer way to identify possible conflicts and explain its decisions. It would also allow objections to be considered under known rules rather than through political accusations.
The argument over 2027 is not about any single candidate. It is about the short but important distance between a vote being cast and a result being trusted. The question of who counts Tinubu’s votes, or any candidate’s votes, is ultimately a question about whether Nigerians can have confidence in the people handling the stages they cannot personally observe. As Zikirullahi put it, “The 2027 election must not only produce a result, it must produce a result Nigerians can trust”. That standard will not be met by assurances alone. It will be met by transparent rules, timely disclosure, and an electoral commission willing to enforce both against its own potential workforce.
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