Students criticise university lecturers over allegations of rigged elections

Students have alleged that university lecturers helped politicians rig elections and have lost the moral authority to condemn students for indulging in examination malpractice and cultism.

Across social media networks, hundreds of Nigerian students at home and in the diaspora have expressed concerns and grievances regarding the issues that have marred the credibility of the electoral process during the presidential and national houses of assembly elections of February 25. Speaking with Edugist as Nigerians await the continuation of the election postponed by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to March 18 from March 11.

Many students have expressed concerns over the conduct of the election which may lead to a lack of confidence in the electoral process ahead of the governorship and state assembly elections across the federation. While some say that the lecturers and university professors continue to propagate electoral malpractice and help politicians to rig the election. Some say these lecturers will no longer have the moral right to condemn students involved in examination malpractice because they are indeed the biggest electoral malpractice tool used by these political shenanigans. Some of the reactions from students on Facebook have been captured.

A female corps member, who asked not to be named, confirmed the development to Edugist. She  said there are a series of things that transpired at the local government and state collation centres which are unknown to many Nigerians. She said ” At collation centres there you have so many security threats and there you can succumb to whatever pressure. In my place in Lagos, I can confirm that we are pressured to manipulate results.” However, a professor of pharmacological science at Bayero University Kano, Prof. Ibrahim Adamu Yakasai has denounced the results he earlier announced citing that he was made to announce them under duress. 

The university don made this known in a letter to the state INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner and obtained by Edugist on social media. Recall that the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Ado Doguwa was declared the winner of the Doguwa/Tudunwada constituency election on February 25 by the electoral body. Yakasai, the returning officer, had previously announced that Doguwa of the All Progressives Congress (APC) got  39,732 votes to defeat his closest rival, Yushau Salisu Abdullahi of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), who got  34,798 votes.

Meanwhile, in the letter, the returning officer claimed that he declared Doguwa as the winner because of death threats initiated against him and other INEC officials that worked with him. In a video which has gone viral, another female corps member berated managers of the system and confessed that on the biometric voter accreditation system (BVAS) machine, only presidential election results can’t be uploaded that others were able to upload.

Reacting to the development a lecturer who doesn’t want their name in the press  told Edugist correspondent that there are so many surprises in this year’s election and no one should jump to conclusions at this early stage. “We are in the middle of the second stage of the election and none of the top contenders have congratulated the president elect this is really not a good sign and please let’s be guarded everyone is just like a sleeping tiger waiting to bite.”