Tinubu, next INEC boss, and Liman controversy

AN older friend of mine, a denizen of the circles of power, told me a few days ago that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was considering a retired judge from Nasarawa State to succeed Professor Mahmood Yakubu as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). He named him as Justice Abdullahi Mohammed Liman, whom, I am embarrassed to admit, I had never heard of.

Apparently, Liman has been a loadstone for controversies and has had robust mentions in the news media, as I’ll show shortly. I probably never paid attention to his name because my background as a former reporter and editor predisposed me to pay more attention to judgments than to judges unless the judges stand out for any number of reasons.

Judicial reporting is one of the few exceptions in journalism where active constructions are discouraged in headlines and leads. For instance, we write, “a man has been sentenced to prison,” not “a judge has sentenced a man to prison” in news leads. The judgment is considered more important than the judge.

After admitting my ignorance of Liman, my friend shared possible motivations for his rumored choice. I can’t reveal them publicly, but I wasn’t persuaded.

Given the unabashed Yorubacentricity in several of Tinubu’s consequential appointments, I questioned why he believed the buzz that Tinubu would consider a northerner, however pliable or susceptible to manipulation he may be, for so momentous a position as INEC chairman.

After all, this is the man who will midwife the 2027 election in which most of the opposition to Tinubu’s second-term ambition will come from the North.

In April this year, a fabricated story claimed that Tinubu had appointed one Professor Bashiru Olamilekan as Yakubu’s successor. The presidency disclaimed it, and a Reuters fact-check on April 15 confirmed that “Professor Bashiru Olamilekan,” described as an “Ogun-born professor and media guru,” simply doesn’t exist.

The photos used to identify him were actually those of Senator Ajibola Basiru, who told Reuters he is a “full born Osogbo Oroki man” who is “neither a media guru nor born in Ogun!”

Still, a few days after my conversation about Liman, I saw a list circulating on social media showing the geographic distribution of past electoral commission chairmen since 1964. Amplified by Tinubu supporters, the list highlighted that the South-South has dominated in the last 61 years and that no one from the Southwest has ever been appointed.

Observers have suggested that the list was intentionally compiled and pushed online to prepare public consciousness for a possible Southwest appointment. This ensures that Tinubu can’t credibly be accused of ethnic favouritism if he picks from his geo-cultural backyard.

I shared the list with my friend, implying that Tinubu was unlikely to appoint someone outside his ethnic comfort zone, especially given his desperation for a second term and his disregard for criticism about the national spread and fairness of his appointments, what I once called his Lagos-centric Yorubization.

Yet I also noticed that the North-Central, where Liman hails from, has never produced an INEC chairman. And no president, prime minister, or military ruler has ever appointed someone from his own region to lead the electoral body. That leaves open the possibility that Liman could indeed be in contention, assuming there’s any credibility to the rumour.

I had filed this discussion away until I watched Buba Galadima’s September 16 interview with Arise TV, where he made oblique references to Liman’s impending announcement as the next INEC chairman.

“Come November, there are rumours all over the place that this government is nominating a just retired court of appeal judge who is known for notoriety to be the chairman of INEC,” Galadima said. “I wish it is not true. Because if that man becomes the chairman of INEC, be rest assured that this government is inviting a civil war in this country.”

Civil war? That’s obviously political hyperbole. But could he be referring to Justice Liman? Every detail fits. Liman just retired from the Court of Appeal. He is a magnet for judicial controversies. And, days earlier, someone had told me Tinubu was considering Liman for the position of INEC chairman.

Curiously, Liman chose early retirement despite the judicial retirement age being raised to 70. Was this in preparation for the rumored INEC post?

Why, then, did Galadima warn that if Liman is appointed, Nigerians should “forget about elections… [b]ecause there would be no elections in this country, and it will create chaos”? There was also a sense of alarm in the voice of my friend who told me Liman might be the next INEC chairman.

I looked up Liman and found a May 26, 2024, Daily Trust analysis titled “Kano emirate: 7 controversies trailing Justice Liman.” In it, John Chuks Azu, Daily Trust’s legal editor, chronicled how Liman halted Governor Abba Yusuf’s move to reinstate Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Kano emir, which sparked a palace standoff that hasn’t abated and ignited jurisdictional debates.

The report also noted that the National Judicial Council had dismissed a misconduct petition against him, which paved the way for his promotion to the Court of Appeal.

Liman also drew fire for halting both Abdullahi Ganduje’s suspension as APC chairman and his arrest over the 2018 “dollar stuffing” video. This fact suggests that he has close associations with Ganduje.

In Edo, the Daily Trust report pointed out, NCP governorship candidate Peters Omoragbon accused Liman of “misconduct and dereliction of duty” for delays in ruling on an INEC case.

Liman’s Port Harcourt home was among those raided by the DSS in 2016, when agents claimed they recovered $2 million, an allegation he denied. He quipped that he would have resigned his job as a judge if he had that much money stashed at home.

And in 2015, his sentencing in the N25 billion corruption trial of Michael Igbinedion stirred outrage when the principal defendant walked away with fines while his co-defendant got 20 years.

Clearly, Galadima’s beef with Liman is more about partisan politics than about patriotic fervor. Daily Trust’s analysis suggests that Liman is cozy with Ganduje and his political associates in Kano.

Galadima, meanwhile, is aligned with Kwankwaso, Ganduje’s adversary. Liman’s appointment may indeed spark a “civil war” of sorts in Kano politics, since his antecedents suggest he would tilt toward Ganduje’s camp. But nationally? I doubt it. If past brazen electoral manipulations didn’t lead to civil war, this wouldn’t, either.

That said, if Tinubu is seriously considering Liman, he risks imperiling the credibility of the 2027 election two years before it takes place. An electoral umpire must not carry the baggage of unconcealed partisanship. None of the past INEC chiefs, including those that later turned out to be total partisan disasters, came to the job with overtly partisan affiliations. Tinubu shouldn’t start now. If he cares at all about his post-tenure reputation, that is.

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