Professor Mahmood Yukubu, the outgoing chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, bade farewell to colleagues on the continent amid his call for a stronger regional collaboration among election management institutions in West Africa.
Yakubu, who had earlier been rumoured to have been sacked by President Bola Tinubu, attended the extraordinary general assembly of the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) in Banjul, Gambia.
Though, he had earlier dismissed claims of his sack when, on Tuesday, he presided over the commission’s weekly management meeting in Abuja.
The rumour on Wednesday, raised more dust when leaders of the opposition Labour Party (LP), led a delegation to the INEC office but were received by an acting chairman, Sam Olumekun.
Yakubu’s absence had raised concerns, but the spokesman of the electoral commission, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, explained that National Commissioner Olumekun was the INEC acting chairman at the moment, as Yakubu had travelled to the Gambia to attend the ECONEC meeting.
Moreover, in his first public appearance since the rumours started, Yakubu formally informed the ECOWAS Assembly that he was attending the ECONEC meeting for the final time as Chairman of INEC because his tenure ends later this year.
While speaking to his fellow electoral commissioners, Yakubu, who previously served as president of the ECONEC Steering Committee, took a moment to honour past members of the Network who contributed to strengthening democratic institutions in their home countries and across Africa.
Professor Yakubu, who has been in the eye of the storm over his role in the last controversial general elections in Nigeria, recalled how he had proudly announced that every country in the sub-region was under democratic rule in 2017.
But sadly, he observed, that was no longer the case. He regretted that today, four countries in the region are no longer practising democracy.
However, Yakubu was optimistic and expressed the hope that democracy would soon return to the affected nations.
As his tenure nears its end, there is high powered horse trading among political, regional and other stakeholders on how to prevail over President Tinubu to determine and influence whom and the region where the next INEC boss should come from.