Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has just left the stage as the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after a 10-year reign. Like most chairmen of this all-important commission, Yakubu’s tenure was dogged by controversies. But no other was like him in terms of longevity. He was, like no other, in the saddle for 10 uninterrupted years. As he leaves office, what Yakubu has to face now is the verdict of history. How did he fare?
The man came into office with a reasonable level of gusto. He began the journey by trying his hands on technological innovations. His immediate predecessor, Attahiru Jega, will infamously be remembered for the mess the commission under him made of the card reader machine. The introduction of the device was supposed to be an improvement on what Jega inherited. But the card reader ended up being there just in name. Its monumental failure was one of the sore points of the 2015 general elections. Yakubu, on assumption of office, saw through Jega’s failure in that regard. He then set out to do something better. To this end, the commission’s staff were trained on how to use the card reader so as to avoid a repeat of the 2015 fiasco. Having equipped the relevant staff sufficiently on the use of the card reader, Yakubu’s INEC then promised that that it would deploy its server in the elections and carry out e-collation of results. The card reader was to be used for authentication, collation and transmission of results.
That sounded so good. But it ended up being as good as the paper on which it was written. When the 2019 presidential election held, the story around INEC’s server ruined the authenticity of the result of that election. In that election, the commission declared Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the election. But the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP), Atiku Abubakar, approached the election tribunal with a load of claims. The PDP had its own Situation Room from where it kept a tab on the results of the election. From the final tally available to the party, Atiku defeated Buhari in that election with over one million votes. To drive home its point, the party contended that results were transmitted electronically to the server of the electoral umpire. It challenged INEC to make its server available. The electoral commission did not only deny PDP claims, it said that it had no server whatsoever. Again, that ran contrary to statements and declarations made by the commission as it prepared for the 2019 presidential polls. Did the commission’s server exist or not? In one breath, the commission said that the server will be its ultimate buffer against electoral malfeasance in the 2019 general elections. In another breath, it told us that it only talked about the server in passing. It never existed during the election under reference. What should we believe? What should we discountenance? In this matter, Yakubu left the country in a maze. It was a case of the more you look, the less you see.
Then came 2023. Yakubu came up again with a load of declarations. He promised Nigerians that their votes would count and would be the sole determinant of the electoral outcome. He said his commission would deploy appropriate technology to protect the integrity of the choice made by Nigerians at the polls. The people believed him. That was why they showed extraordinary interest in the 2023 general elections. But much more than that, the introduction of technology by the commission gave the people hope. The impression they got was that elections could no longer be manipulated now that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation (BIVAS) system has been put in place.
According to Yakubu, “votes will continue to count and will be the sole determinant of the electoral outcome”. Yakubu’s commission also promised that BIVAS would be aided by the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal which makes the result management procedure more transparent. With this device, polling unit results will be uploaded to the portal in real-time in the 2023 general elections.
Those were the promises. But what did Yakubu deliver on Election Day? He gave Nigerians the very opposite of what he promised. He threw BVAS and its IReV component overboard. Instead, he introduced something called glitch which allowed him to manipulate the results to suit his predetermined purpose. He never allowed the much taunted technology to give Nigerians the true picture of their voting in that election. Nigerians tried to figure out the meaning of Yakubu’s glitch. They raised questions. But the man ignored everybody and went ahead to announce the results of the election at very odd hours. He did not care a hoot about what anybody would say or do. Thus, in the two presidential elections that Yakubu conducted, he made a full mess of both. None was redeemable. Yakubu was enmeshed in deep-seated controversies. But, as I earlier noted, he was never really bothered. That is the story of the man who has just bowed out.
What then do we say of this man who always wore a straight face as if his word was his bond? I have had cause before now to describe Mahmood Yakubu as a master dissembler. He is not given to rough or tough talks. He appears to be patient with critics. He was never really known to have joined issues with his critics. Rather, he maintained a studied silence most of the time. Yakubu, it could be said, is a perfect expression of the Shakespearean dictum that there is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face. His mien never betrays the trickster in him.
Given this natural disposition of his, Yakubu easily became a good instrument in the hands of power-wielders. He was ready to play their game without betraying his inner convictions. Throughout his tenure as INEC chairman, Yakubu was never his own man. He was just a pawn deployed for the attainment of questionable objectives. He played that role for Buhari in 2019. He then took it to a new height in 2023. In that presidential election, Yakubu struck a deal with the presidency on how to deliver the candidate of the APC. It was a task that must be done. Yakubu did a perfect job of it by not betraying anything. Even his statements betrayed nothing. For this reason, Nigerians thought that he was impartial until he hit them below the belt. His reign will remain a study in voodoo as an instrument of deceit in public service. History will certainly not be kind to this man who led the people he was supposed to serve by the nose.
QUOTE:
“His reign will remain a study in voodoo as an instrument of deceit in public service. History will certainly not be kind to this man who led the people he was supposed to serve by the nose”.
