Don’t engage partisan lecturers as electoral officers, ADC tells INEC

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against engaging lecturers who have openly endorsed political candidates as Returning and Collation Officers in the 2027 general election.

The opposition party said allowing academics who have publicly taken partisan positions to collate results or declare winners would raise serious questions of conflict of interest and undermine confidence in the electoral process.

The ADC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, yesterday, spoke against the backdrop of reports that more than 600 lecturers from public universities in the North had endorsed President Bola Tinubu for the 2027 presidential election.

It noted that INEC had routinely entrusted university lecturers and vice chancellors with the sensitive responsibilities of collating election results and declaring winners.

While acknowledging the constitutional right of academics and other Nigerians to support or endorse candidates of their choice, the party insisted that anyone who had publicly taken a partisan position should not subsequently be entrusted with determining the outcome of an election involving the same candidate.

“The principle is straightforward: 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.

Consequently, the party called on INEC to establish and publish clear criteria disqualifying academics and other prospective electoral officials who have publicly endorsed candidates, participated in partisan political activities or otherwise demonstrated an obvious political affiliation.

The ADC also urged the electoral commission to publish the names of proposed Returning and Collation Officers sufficiently ahead of the elections to enable political parties and members of the public identify and raise legitimate conflict-of-interest concerns.

“The integrity of an election does not begin when the first ballot is cast. It begins with the neutrality of the people entrusted to administer, collate and declare its outcome.

“Nigerians must never be placed in a position where those who have publicly chosen a side are subsequently presented as neutral arbiters of the contest,” the party stated.