Meet the New INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu
After a long wait, President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday approved the appointment of a new chairman for the Independent National Electoral Commission. He is Professor Mahmood Yakubu, a professor of political history and international studies. Mahmood was until his appointment, the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.
The new INEC boss is a first class academic who within a short time after his studies rose to the position of professor. It was the late President Umaru Yar’Adua who spotted Yakubu and appointed him Executive Secretary of the Education Trust Fund, now known as Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
Yakubu was born in Bauchi in 1962 and had his early education at Kobi Primary School from where he proceeded to the Teachers’ College, Toro. He later proceeded to the University of Sokoto (now Usmanu Danfodiyo University) where he graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in History. That feat has remained unrivalled, as the first and only person from the whole of Northern Nigeria to have obtained a first class Honours Degree in History. Yakubu is also said an expert in guerrilla warfare, terrorism and counter-terrorism.
Yakubu later gained admission into the University of Oxford, where he bagged a Doctor of Philosophy degree with specialisation in Nigerian History in 1991at the age of 29.
He was a recipient of the Bauchi State Government scholarships for studies at both the Cambridge and Oxford universities in England. But his outstanding performance at Cambridge further earned him the scholarship of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust.
Yakubu was a three time-time winner of the Overseas Research Student (ORS) Award by the London- based Committee of Vice-Chancellors of United Kingdom (UK) Universities. He was also a recipient of the competitive Commonwealth Scholarship, awarded by the Association of Commonwealth Universities, tenable at the University of Oxford. A career academic, he has taught at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, and University of Jos, etc.
Yakubu’s first job outside academia was his appointment as Executive Secretary of the ETF (now TETFund). The federal government had in a bid to reposition the fund’s intervention in the education sector appointed Yakubu to head it. As the first academic ever to head the funding agency, Yakubu was determined to effectively accomplish the overall transformation of the university system in Nigeria.
He had said while assuming office as TETFund’s executive secretary, “I know that we complain in the corridors of the university that things are very bad, and therefore an opportunity to serve in TETFund is an opportunity for me to try and make some difference, if not all the difference. And I have always said that I have a personal agenda in TETFund to make the university system better because that’s where I’m going back.”
Yakubu’s appointment as INEC chairman, unlike the case of his predecessor, who was acting chairman of INEC, Mrs. Amina Zakari, has so far been largely devoid of controversy. Many of the reactions to his appointment have been positive. Not even the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, which had vehemently opposed Zakari’s appointment, has spoken against the new man at INEC.
One of the political parties, the Demo- cratic Peoples Congress, in its reaction, praised President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing Yakubu as the INEC chairman. DPC expressed the hope that he would build on the foundation laid by Professor Attahiru Jega, who chaired the commission from 2010 until after the last general election.
According to DPC, in a statement by its national chairman, Rev. Olusegun Peters, “INEC is a critical institution in our political process that determines who rules the country and should be headed by a patriotic Nigerian with exceptional integrity, credibility, nobility, accountability and transparency. The need for a person with impeachable character devoid of controversy and partisanship to lead the electoral umpire cannot be over-emphasised.”
Peters, charged the new INEC boss to ensure that the commission continues on its progress march and avoid the mistakes of the past.
“Nigerians expect peaceful, credible and successful polls in these states and will not tolerate any rigging and brigandage. The task ahead of INEC is enormous. It is time to re-train its personnel for effective service delivery. INEC should also deepen its collaboration with the nation’s international development partners for training of political parties’ leaders to properly equip them for the task of building a strong, virile, progressive and prosperous democratic nation,” the DPC chairman stated.
What Nigerians expect from the new INEC chairman is to ensure that the commission provides a level playing field for all the political parties in its activities, programmes and elections.