Concerned political leaders and professionals from the nine States of the South-South region faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to appoint Professor Mahmood Yakubu as the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), claiming the appointment was an act of nepotism.
Concerned political leaders and professionals from the nine States of the South-South region faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to appoint Professor Mahmood Yakubu as the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), claiming the appointment was an act of nepotism.
The professionals and political leaders represent the group Voice of the South-South (VSS). The group noted that President Buhari’s decision to appoint Professor Yakubu, a Northerner, was a deliberate show of bias against other regions.
Speaking in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State, the State Chairman of VSS, Alex Dumbo, noted that the administrations of Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan both appointed “unbiased” INEC Chairmen who did not hail from their regions. He argued that this decision led to free, fair, and credible elections.
Mr. Dumbo went on to argue that “Jonathan's unbiased appointment into INEC brought President Buhari into office. But we are more concerned about the conspiracy of silence among the scores of public critics and commentators during the Jonathan's administration."
The group also expressed concern that Professor Yakubu would interfere with the Bayelsa State Gubernatorial elections in December.