How university lecturers were used to rig 2019 general elections - INEC's ex-boss
Attahiru Jega accuses university lecturers of being used by politicians to undermine the outcome of the 2019 elections,Jega alleges that the electoral integrity of Nigeria is being frustrated by those in control of power.
Attahiru Jega, immediate past chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has accused university lecturers of conniving with politicians to undermine the 2019 general elections. The former INEC boss criticized the university lecturers for undermining the integrity and outcome of the general elections. Jega, a former lecturer, alleged that some lecturers helped in facilitating a faulty recruitment process of the political class during the election, adding that as a result, they betrayed the confidence the electoral body reposed in them. He said this while speaking at the 15th yearly conference of the Fulbright Alumni Association of Nigeria at BUK, Jega recalled how prominent politicians in Kano penetrated the academia to commit irregularities. Look at what happened during the last elections, and the story of irregularities being spread even in the four walls of BUK. The politicians, through crooked means, got alliances with lecturers in the university to compromise the system and they perpetrated all sort of irregularities, which pave way for a faulty process for the continued entrenchment of bad people in governance. “Maybe, I am preaching to the converted or I am talking nonsense but frankly speaking, I am beginning to think that we are not taking the obligations of scholarship and intellectual engagement with the seriousness it deserves,” he was quoted as saying.
The former chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) insisted that electoral integrity in Nigeria was under assault by those who control power. He noted that Nigeria would continue to face challenges with the economy, security, and development drive if there is no painstaking effort to recruit the right leadership. I think the major crisis in Nigeria’s democracy is that our electoral integrity has been under assault, compromised and undermined by those who have control over the process,” he said.
Related News
