Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has accused the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, of consistently undermining Nigeria’s electoral process since 2015.
He made the claim in his new book, “Nigeria: Past and Future”, published by the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library.
The former leader lamented what he called the “steady decline in the integrity of the judiciary,” especially under Prof. Yakubu.
“The reputation of the Nigerian judiciary has steadily gone down from the four eras up till today.
“The rapidity of the precipitous fall, particularly in the Fourth Republic, is lamentable,” he stated.
The former military Head of State equally stated that “justice had become commodified in Nigeria”, with dangerous consequences for the nation’s stability.
“The great fear of most well-meaning Nigerians and good friends of Nigeria is that where ‘justice’ is only available to the highest bidder, despair, anarchy, and violence would substitute justice, order, and hope.
“I went to a state in the North about ten years after I left public office. Next to the Government Guest House was a line of six duplex buildings.
“The governor pointed to the buildings and stated that they belonged to a judge who put them up from the money he made from being the chairman of election tribunals,” Obasanjo disclosed.
He accused the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, of consistently undermining Nigeria’s electoral process since 2015.
“No wonder politicians do not put much confidence in an election which the INEC of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu polluted and grossly undermined to make a charade,” he stressed.
