Of Mahmoud And INEC: The Exit Of A Petulant Anti-Democratic Gangster! By Chinedu Anselem Nebeife
Since yesterday, the news that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has compelled Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to proceed on terminal leave, has gone viral.
Expectedly, the development has been greeted with widespread jubilation from true democrats across the country and beyond. And the reasons are obvious.
For years, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu embodied everything an electoral umpire must never be. From his woeful mismanagement of election processes to his crude disobedience of legitimate court orders, Mahmoud stood as the single greatest threat to Nigeria’s democratic journey, while amassing illicit wealth in ways that mocked decency and sanity.
If integrity meant anything to him, Mahmoud should have stepped aside at least three months to the end of his tenure, as civil service rules demand. But not Mahmoud.
Driven by kleptomania and offending arrogance, he clung to the very last day of his tenure – perhaps even dreaming of extending it. Truly, the man carried no trace of character.
Take, for instance, his notorious defiance of the March 2025 judgment of Justice Egwuatu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which affirmed Chief Edozie Njoku as the authentic National Chairman of the National Rescue Movement (NRM).
That judgment remains unchallenged, yet Mahmoud has persistently refused to obey it. Worse still, his lawless obstinacy threatens to derail the forthcoming Anambra governorship election, with grave implications for peace and order.
One is therefore compelled to ask: what truly motivated Mahmoud? Why was he so determined to undermine Nigeria’s democracy and saddle the country with unnecessary costs?
Was he a mere pawn of some subterranean cabal whose agenda ran contrary to national interest? Or was he bent on branding President Tinubu’s administration as undemocratic, unlawful, and uncivilized? For whom, really, was Mahmoud working?
Whatever the hidden script, one fact is indisputable: with the Presidential hammer finally brought down, Nigeria has an opportunity to reset and reinvent her democratic institutions.
But history must be honest. Mahmoud Yakubu will not be remembered as a reformer, nor as a patriot.
His name will remain eternally etched in infamy – as a petulant anti-democrat who sought to drag Nigeria backwards and throw the nation into avoidable chaos.
Chinedu Anselem Nebeife, Ikenga Agunkwo
The post Of Mahmoud And INEC: The Exit Of A Petulant Anti-Democratic Gangster!
By Chinedu Anselem Nebeife
first appeared on Diaspora Digital Media DDM.
