A former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has defended the inclusion of academics in the conduct of Nigeria’s election.

According to him, professors have constantly rejected bribes offered to them by politicians and brought unmatched integrity into the nation’s electoral processes.

Jega, an academic and former vice-chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, spoke on Thursday during the June 12 edition of The Platform, a socio-political event to celebrate Nigeria’s Democracy Day. The programme was hosted by a Lagos-based church, Covenant Nation.

The former vice-chancellor began the deployment of university professors and vice-chancellors as returning officers and ad hoc staff during elections when he served as the chairman of INEC between 2010 and 2015.

Jega, a member of the International Elections Advisory Council and pro-chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Sa’adatu Rimi University of Education in Kano State, said the fact that one or two professors have been prosecuted for electoral malfeasance should not rubbish the hard work and integrity that academics have brought into Nigeria’s electoral processes.

He said, “Election was terrible by the time we came to INEC. I was lucky, I was a co-chairman of the Committee of Vice Chancellors before I went to INEC.

“So, I used the vice-chancellors to help us get academic staff with good, transparent selection criteria, which they vouch for. That’s how we started using academic staff during elections.

“Up till 2015, in fact after the 2011 elections, the NBA (Nigerian Bar Association), and the NSE (The Nigerian Society of Engineers), all came and said they wanted to participate in the elections but we said: ‘Look, when you are doing something and it works, why change it?’

“So, we stuck with the professors, and I can tell you frankly, the level of integrity they brought to the election (is unmatched).”

“A vice chancellor who has served 35 years in the university system, who has a few years to retire, a substantial overwhelming majority of them are not going to damage their integrity that they built over the years on the matters of election.

“Of course, politicians use all methods of inducements, but the fact that only about two professors, not to talk of vice-chancellors, have been prosecuted for electoral offenses, frankly, is statistically insignificant.

“It is terrible that it has happened, but I don’t think it is something we can use to say we shouldn’t use professors in the conduct of elections.”

In April 2025, a Court of Appeal in Calabar upheld the conviction of Peter Ogban, a Professor of Soil Science at the University of Calabar.

A High Court in Akwa Ibom State had in March 2021 sentenced Ogban to three years in prison for manipulating election results. The don was the returning officer in the senatorial election in Akwa Ibom North-West in 2019.

Also, in February 2025, the State High Court in Akwa Ibom State sentenced Ignatius Nduk to three years for publishing false election results. The Professor of Human Kinetics at the University of Uyo was the returning officer of the Essien Udim State Constituency election in 2019. (Channels TV)