By Emmanuel Thomas l Monday, Sept 14, 2026
ABUJA — As preparations for the 2027 general elections gather momentum, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately review the deployment of politically exposed academics as Returning and Collation Officers.
The opposition party gave the warning in a press statement issued on Monday, September 14, 2026, signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi.
The ADC’s demand follows recent newspaper reports disclosing that over 600 senior lecturers from public universities across Northern Nigeria have openly endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a second term in the 2027 presidential contest.
According to the party, the endorsement creates a severe conflict of interest and threatens the credibility of the upcoming elections, given that university lecturers and Vice-Chancellors traditionally serve as key ad-hoc election managers responsible for collating votes and declaring winners.
While emphasizing that academics retain their constitutional right as citizens to support any political candidate, the party maintained that individuals who publicly take political stances must not be allowed to act as neutral electoral arbiters in contests involving those candidates.
“The principle is straightforward: You cannot campaign for a candidate and then be entrusted with counting the votes and declaring winners in the same election that your candidate is contesting in,” Abdullahi stated.
To safeguard the process, the party urged the electoral body to establish and publish explicit guidelines that disqualify academics and prospective ad-hoc staff who have publicly endorsed candidates or participated in partisan political activities.
Furthermore, the party demanded that INEC publish the full list of proposed Returning and Collation Officers well ahead of the election dates.
This, the party argued, would allow political parties, civil society organizations, and the public adequate time to vet the nominees and flag legitimate conflict-of-interest issues.
“The integrity of an election does not begin when the first ballot is cast. It begins with the neutrality of the people entrusted to administer, collate, and declare its outcome.
Nigerians must never be placed in a position where those who have publicly chosen a side are subsequently presented as neutral arbiters of the contest,” the statement concluded.
In Nigeria’s electoral framework, INEC relies heavily on the academic community to serve as ad-hoc staff during general elections.
Since the 2011 general elections, the commission has routinely appointed Vice-Chancellors of federal and state universities as State Collation Officers and Presidential Returning Officers, while senior lecturers serve as Local Government Collation Officers.
This policy was originally introduced under former INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to leverage the moral authority, intellect, and perceived neutrality of university scholars to curb electoral fraud during vote collation.
However, the practice has increasingly drawn scrutiny from opposition political parties and civil society groups in recent election cycles. Critics argue that academics are not immune to political influence, partisan patronage, or regional allegiance, warning that the open involvement of university staff in partisan coalitions risks eroding public trust in election outcomes.
The ADC’s call reinforces growing demands among political stakeholders for INEC to institute stricter vetting mechanisms for all ad-hoc staff ahead of the 2027 polls.
