By Sunday Okobi
He might not be fancied by many Nigerians as the ideal electoral umpire leader, but in this piece, analysts, commentators, and books state otherwise, highlighting the exceptional successes recorded under his leadership of the INEC in Nigeria. Sunday Okobi brings the excerpts:
No doubt, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, viewed with a different lens, has had a fair share of contributions to the Nigeria’s electoral system. He has in several ways stamped his name in the annals of the Nigerian democracy as the longest-serving helmsman of the electoral body.
In a book, ‘Innovations in Electoral Technology: 2015 –2025’ recently published by the Commission, analysts, public commentators and contributors stated that under the watchful eyes of Prof. Yakubu, INEC has improved the management of elections in Nigeria compared to the previous era, especially with major innovations in electoral technology deployed to improve efficiency in the management of the electoral process and conduct of elections.
The book, which chronicles the technologies designed, developed and deployed by the INEC to transform the electoral process in Nigeria between 2015 and 2025, attributed the ability of the Commission to deploy electoral technology to the Electoral Act 2022, which provided the legal basis for the use of relevant technologies and deployment of digital portals, tools and platforms in the conduct of electoral activities.
The Electoral Act 2022, championed by Yakubu, changed everything. It forced political parties to have primaries quite early so as to enable much time for campaign, therefore providing a more level playing field for opposition parties. The Act gave INEC greater oversight on political party primaries which has improved internal democracy in some ways within the political parties; the Act also clearly required those in government to leave office if they want to contest elections, thereby also levelling the playing field for all parties and candidates, against the previous practice.
Also, specifically, Sections 9(2), 47(2), 50(2), and 60(5) legally empowered the Commission to deploy the technology of its choice for voter registration, voter accreditation, voting at an election and the transmission of results. This enabled it to adopt and deploy relevant technologies for the registration and authentication of eligible voters using the INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED) for both fingerprint and facial recognition and the use of the INEC Biometric Voter Accreditation Device (BVAS) for the voter accreditation and the uploading of scanned copies of the Forms EC8As (polling unit results) to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal for public view.
It also allowed INEC to introduce several portals, tools and platforms for managing candidate nomination, recruitment of ad hoc staff, the accreditation of political party agents, election observers, and the media, financial reporting and auditing by party finances, election support, security and delivery of online training for electoral officials, as well as for public enlightenment and media monitoring.
Before Yakubu assumed office in 2015, there have been six Commissions since INEC was established in August 1998. These are – the Akpata Commission (August 1998 – January 2000); the Guobadia Commission (May 2000 – May 2005); the Iwu Commission (June 2005 – May 2010), the Jega Commission (June 2010 – June 2015) and the successive Yakubu Commissions (November 2015 – November 2020 and December 2020 – December 2025).
From 1998 to 2025, these Commissions have between them conducted seven successive general elections and hundreds of off-cycle governorship, re-run, court ordered and bye elections. Although the conduct of elections and the management of the electoral process at the beginning were largely basic, the Commission was continuously learning lessons for the continuous improvement of the electoral and political processes.
Thus, lessons learnt from previous elections were progressively applied to subsequent elections to improve the Commission’s electoral regulations and procedures, deepen the use of technology, strengthen the electoral legal framework, as well as to deepen the professionalisation of staff.
Although the gradual improvements witnessed some challenges in the 2003 and 2007 general election, adjudged the worst since 1998, the Commission from 2010 had continuously striven towards a better organised, more transparent, credible, and inclusive electoral process.
The 2010 Commission began an era of a more systematised and coordinated approach to electoral reforms not only in the processes and procedures for the conduct of elections, but also in election management and administration. These reforms ranged from the reorganisation of the Commission’s administrative structure to changes in the electoral legal framework, introduction of a knowledge and innovation-driven election planning and administration, expansion in the use of electoral technology, as well as the promotion and expansion of inclusivity in the electoral process for women, youth, persons with disability (PwDs) and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Sources in the electoral space have noted that the decade between 2015 and 2025 has been one of the most momentous in the history of the management of elections in Nigeria. They, however, stated that there have been several milestones, many challenges and useful lessons in the conduct of elections and the management of the process within this period.
According to the Executive Director of the Centre for Media, Policy and Accountability, Abuja, Dr. Suleiman A. Suleiman, the period has not only experience improvement in the management of election in the country, the opposition parties have also certainly recorded more gains with the current INEC led by Yakubu.
He added that as the quality and integrity of Nigerian elections improved considerably during each election since 2011, the competitive fortunes of opposition parties and candidates have also vastly increased, “where they almost never won anything before.”
Suleiman described the 2023 elections as the best marker of the positive development for opposition parties so far, “as demonstrated by the electoral fortunes of the PDP, LP, NNPP, SDP, ADC, and others across all the elections that year. “For example, a handful of otherwise ‘small’ opposition parties won 70 National Assembly seats and two governorship seats between them for the very first time in their history, while seven incumbent governors lost their bids for the Senate, itself another first in Nigerian elections.
“In addition, the gap between the winning and runner-up candidates in our presidential elections has reduced considerably since 2011, a key metric of quality and integrity, given our dwindling voter turnout.”
In his analysis of the successes recorded under Yakubu’s leadership of the commission, he said: “While the gap between Presidents Obasanjo and Buhari in 2003, and Yar’adua and Buhari in 2007 was above 12 million and 18 million votes respectively, the gap between Buhari and Jonathan in 2015, and Buhari and Atiku in 2019 was just over three million votes in each case. In 2023, the gap between Tinubu and Atiku tightened to less than 2 million votes, indicating the growing impossibility of ‘vote padding’ in our presidential elections, at least.”
Lauding the input and impact of the current INEC chairman, Suleiman noted that the Labour Party and the NNPP have been around as political parties in Nigeria since 2002, more than 20 years before the 2023 general election.
“Yet, they languished in relative obscurity and hardly won anything. But in 2023, they won two governorships, as well as dozens of national and state assembly seats.”
In a statement made on the 2023 general election made available to THISDAY, the group executive director, who is also a newspaper columnist, posited that Prof Yakubu expressed impartiality in the conduct of the 2023 general election. He asked: “Again, how many governors lost their states for the presidential candidate of their party in the way in which Governors El-Rufai, Ifeanyi Okowa, Mai Mala Buni, and Babajide Samwo Olu to mention just four examples, to the candidates of opposition parties in the presidential election? It is when we look critically at the 2023 election results that we can see clearly how much work INEC has done under Prof. Yakubu.”
Meanwhile, from the reform of the electoral legal framework (ELF), through to the provision of voter outreach and inclusivity programmes, the focus on election security, to the deployment of electoral technologies and stakeholder engagements designed to build confidence and trust in the electoral process, the Commission under the leadership of Prof Yakubu has demonstrated how measured, custom-tailored and forward-looking reforms can be, driven by lessons-learnt and peer review processes ultimately meant to improve the conduct of elections and trust in the electoral process.
Since he held sway, the book states that there have been significant milestones that have dramatically impacted the electoral process. “These include the introduction of simultaneous accreditation and voting (CAVs); the development and deployment of the INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED) and Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS); and the expansion of voter access to polling units that ended a 25 year old jinx transforming polling units in Nigeria from 119, 974 to 176,846.
“Others include the promotion and expansion of inclusivity measures to persons with disability (PwD), internally displaced persons (IDPs) and to women and youth; the development and deployment of the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal and several other portals to manage the submission of the list of candidates and agents from political parties, election observers and the media; the deployment of additional technology to facilitate the coordination, planning, monitoring, early warning and implementation of electoral activities through the EMSC; as well as the expansion of the Commission’s role in the provision of electoral assistance to Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) across the West African Region.
“The Commission will also continue to sustain the culture of innovation and share experiences with other Election Management Bodies (EMBs) to gain useful insights on the advantages recorded,” it stated.
Going by his background, which might have given him the current standing in the electoral process in Nigeria, born in Bauchi State in May 1962, Prof. Yakubu, according to the publication, had an impressive academic record, obtaining a first-class degree in History from the University of Sokoto.
A native of Bauchi State, he attended Kobi Primary School, and the Government Teachers College, Toro, where he obtained the Grade II Teachers’ Certificate in 1980 top of his class. For his university education, he was admitted into the University of Sokoto (now Usmanu Danfodiyo University) to study History in 1980.
He was a Federal Government Merit Award scholar from 1983 to 1985. At the time of his graduation in 1985, he became the first Northern student to have a first-class degree certificate from the department of History. He also won the Waziri of Sokoto Prize for the Best Graduating Student.
He served the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) as an academic assistant in the Department of History, University of Jos, from 1985 to 1986. After this, Mahmood enrolled at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom in 1986 with the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship and obtained a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) degree in International Relations in 1987.
Mahmood Yakubu went on to study Nigerian History for his Doctorate at Oxford University in 1991, demonstrating brilliant academic performances all the way. Such a scholar he was, that he won the Commonwealth Scholarship from the Association of Commonwealth Universities, in addition to the Overseas Research Scholarship three times, and the Beit Fund Research Grant. And all of these, before he even clocked 30 years.
Upon his return to Nigeria in 1992, Prof. Yakubu went back to the University of Jos to resume as Lecturer I. He soon rose to the rank of Senior Lecturer and moved to the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, in 1993. Mahmood attained the rank of Reader in 1995 and Professor in 1998 at the age of 36.
At the NDA in Kaduna, he wore different hats. Yakubu was Head of the Department of History from 1994 to 1995, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Director of Academic Planning from 1998 to 2000, Member of, the Armed Forces Selection Board from 1998 to 2003, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for a second time from 2002 to 2004, Chairman, Management Board of the Staff School from 2004 to 2006 and pioneer Dean, Post Graduate School in from 2004 to 2006.
From 2006 to 2007, he served as the Task Team Leader responsible for tertiary education at the Federal Ministry of Education and a member of the Presidential Technical Committee for the consolidation of Federal tertiary institutions.
He was appointed by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Aduain 2007 to serve as the Executive Secretary of the Education Trust Fund (ETF) (later renamed Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND). Prof. Yakubu initiated the establishment of a National Book Development Fund, which now supports over 100 journals of professional organisations.
In that position, he served as a member of the Federal Government team on the Renegotiation of the Federal Government Agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) under the Chairmanship of Deacon Gamaliel Onosode.
In addition to his achievements as INEC chairman, he unveiled a new voting process for the general election of 2019 specifically on January 7, 2019, and oversaw the 2019 general elections and the governorship elections in many states in Nigeria.
Also, in Zamfara and Rivers States, Yakubu stood his ground, refusing the All Progressives Congress (APC) from submitting the list of their candidates as they had defied the deadlines due to internal party disputes. The APC filed a lawsuit, but it was rejected.
As INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu conducted the highest number of elections in the history of election management bodies in Nigeria – two general elections – 2019 and 2023 general elections; 19 end-of-tenure and off-cycle Governorship Elections, over 300 supplementary and bye-elections at the senatorial district, Federal and state constituencies, and three FCT Area Council elections-April 2016, February 2019, and February 2022.
Another major milestone of his administration is INEC’s ability to strengthen electoral administration and management, especially through the regularisation of election dates.
Prior to his tenure, general election dates in Nigeria were not regular. He regularised the dates of General Elections and FCT Area Council Elections. The general election now holds on the third Saturdays in February of the election year for the Presidential and National Assembly Elections, and two weeks later for the Governorship and State Assembly Elections. This has made it possible for all stakeholders to plan well ahead of time and ensure better coordination and readiness by the Commission.
With this, dates for the next 10 General Elections in Nigeria – 2027 – 2063 have already been fixed. For the 2027 general elections – Presidential/NASS – February 20, 2027, Governorship/State Assembly – March 6, 2027; 2031 general elections – Presidential/NASS – February 15, 2031, Governorship/State Assembly – March 1, 2031; 2035 general elections – Presidential/NASS – February 17, 2035, Governorship/State Assembly – March 3, 2035; 2039 general elections – Presidential/NASS – February 19, 2039, Governorship/State Assembly – March 5, 2039; 2043 general elections – Presidential/NASS – February 21, 2043, Governorship/State Assembly – March 7, 2043 and so on.
In addition to these, the Commission under the leadership of Prof. Yakubu introduced the Continuous Accreditation and Voting System (CAVS) to replace the cumbersome process of first completing accreditation before voting.
“CAVS simplified the voting procedure and addressed the potential disenfranchisement of voters. For the first time since 1996, the Commission successfully expanded voter access to polling units by creating an additional 56,872 new polling units in June 2021.
“The Yakubu’s Commission built a more efficient, comprehensive and predictive EMSC dashboard that reports over 1,000 election monitoring indicators and integrates all the Commission’s election monitoring tools comprising the Election Management System (EMS), the Election Operation Support Centre (EOSC) , the Electoral Risk Management Tool (ERM) and the INEC Security Alert and Notification System,” the book indicated.
For his efforts, he got an honorary fellowship from the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations in 2013. He is also a Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria and the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. Mahmood Yakubu holds a Doctor of Laws (HonorisCausa) from the UsmanuDanfodiyo University, Sokoto, as well as a Doctor of Letters (HonorisCausa) from the Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki and Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma
In an interview, a former INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze Uzzi, lauded Prof. Yakubu for continuing with the trajectory of the former INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.
He, however, noted that for some observers, the perceived skirmishes that trailed elections in Kogi, Edo States and others must be critically addressed in the future, saying: “So, what we had on Prof Jega’s legacy is yet to be seen.”
Going forward, Uzzi advised on the need to go back to the drawing board and press the reset button, saying: “The commission will have to start off with rebuilding confidence in the electoral process. There’s a lot of people who don’t have confidence, stakeholders don’t have so much confidence in the electoral process.
“But we’ve had phase of reforms after every major electoral activity during elections. There are proposals of reforms. There are many reforms going before the National Assembly now, but people are getting a bit tired of hearing reforms.
“Some have talked on reforms about the appointment process, and that the president should not be involved in the appointment process, but in my own opinion, they haven’t given me significant workable, sustainable alternatives that will make the process transparent, that will make the process of politician.
“You don’t remove the power of president and put it in the National Assembly. How do you remove the appointment from partisan political interest? The most important thing is to increase the confidence of the electorate and stakeholders in the election management.”
On his part, the Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, who warned that the credibility of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections may depend heavily on who succeeds Prof Yakubu, said the future of the country’s elections could collapse if appointments to INEC remain politicised.
He hinged on the need for a two-stage appointment process in which citizens participate before nominees undergo open Senate screenings. Such reforms, he argued, would not only enhance transparency but also shield INEC from capture by political elites.
At a roundtable convened in Abuja by Yiaga Africa, with support from the European Union, where civil society leaders, academics, and former electoral commissioners were brought together, the Country Director of the MacArthur Foundation, Dr. Kole Shettima, warned that the imminent exit of experienced INEC officials could erode institutional memory and undermine the Commission’s stability.
“During the 2023 elections, fragmented voices weakened our collective influence. For 2027, civil society must work together through joint press briefings, consolidated reports, and smarter use of scarce resources,” he advised.
Also, former INEC National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, further underpinned the constitutional loopholes that leave appointments vulnerable to manipulation. As an example, the law requires the INEC Chairman and National Commissioners to be non-partisan, while the requirement for Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) is merely that they should not be card-carrying members of a political party.
This, Okoye argued, creates interpretational challenges in assessing eligibility, adding: “This inconsistency makes the eligibility criteria too weak.”
The feature was first published in the This Day newspaper