Ambassadorial list: Atiku faults Tinubu’s nomination of ex-INEC Chair, Yakubu

Former Vice President and presidential hopeful on the platform of the Social Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has faulted the nomination of the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, for an ambassadorial position.

Checks by Nigerian Tribune revealed that the list of nominees sent to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was read on the floor of the Senate on Thursday by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, ahead of the screening and confirmation exercise.

But Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 general elections supervised by the former INEC Chairman, declared that the nomination of Professor Yakubu “presents terrible optics for an administration already struggling with credibility.”

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Atiku, who contested the outcome of the presidential election won by President Tinubu up to the Supreme Court, further argued that it is “morally indefensible for an umpire at the centre of one of the most disputed elections in our history to become a beneficiary of its outcome.”

His statement read: “Let me state without ambiguity: under no circumstance would I, as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, nominate the immediate past INEC Chairman for an ambassadorial position.

“Such a nomination raises serious concerns. It risks appearing as a quid pro quo rather than a recognition of merit. It presents terrible optics for an administration already struggling with credibility. It sends the wrong message to the current @inecnigeria leadership; that partisan, compromised, or poorly executed elections may ultimately be rewarded. And most importantly, it is morally indefensible for an umpire at the centre of one of the most disputed elections in our history to become a beneficiary of its outcome.

“This is not the path to strengthening our democracy or restoring public trust in our institutions.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE