The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) have sharply criticised the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, following his recent comments on the conduct of Ghana’s presidential election.
Yakubu had praised the peaceful and transparent nature of the Ghanaian election, advising Nigerian politicians to learn from it.
In the Ghanaian election, former President John Mahama, the opposition candidate, defeated the ruling party’s candidate, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia. Yakubu, in a video message, commended Ghana’s electoral process, emphasising its smooth and rancor-free nature, and suggested that Nigeria could draw valuable lessons from it.
However, opposition parties in Nigeria, particularly the LP and PDP, were quick to criticise Yakubu’s remarks, accusing him of poor handling of the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria.
In particular, the LP, whose candidate Peter Obi came third in the race, alleged that Yakubu had manipulated the election in favor of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
They called on Yakubu to apologise to Nigerians for his role in what they claimed was a flawed electoral process.
The LP, through its National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, reacted by condemning Yakubu’s praise of the Ghanaian election. Ifoh stated that although the LP had moved on from the events of the 2023 election, it was “shameful” for Yakubu to be offering advice on electoral conduct when, in their view, he was responsible for the electoral issues that Nigeria was still grappling with.
“It is a shame that the INEC Chairman should be talking when, in this case, he should be the one to learn from Ghana. He was the architect of exactly what Nigerians are suffering today,” Ifoh said, adding that Yakubu owed Nigerians an apology.
The Labour Party spokesman also pointed out the absence of electoral violence, ballot box snatching, and technical glitches in Ghana’s election, contrasting it with what they described as a chaotic and flawed process in Nigeria in 2023.
He noted that in Ghana, the people’s votes were counted fairly, and the process reflected the true will of the electorate.
The PDP also weighed in, with its Deputy National Youth Leader, Timothy Osadolor, calling Yakubu’s praise of Ghana’s election an “aberration.”
Osadolor emphasised that Yakubu had mishandled the 2023 elections and owed Nigerians not only an apology but also a resignation. He suggested that Yakubu’s actions in Nigeria’s elections made him unfit to comment on or praise other countries’ processes.
“If I were to be him, I would apologize to Nigerians and resign. Let him borrow a leaf from people of integrity. And when the issues of credibility are being discussed, he should keep quiet and listen,” Osadolor said.
He also questioned whether Yakubu could, in good conscience, support the way the 2023 presidential elections were handled, particularly in states like Edo and Ondo.
The criticisms come in the wake of ongoing disputes over the legitimacy of the 2023 presidential elections, where both Obi and PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar contested the outcome in court, though they were unsuccessful.
Despite the court ruling, opposition parties continue to insist that the election was marred by irregularities.
In their statements, both the PDP and the LP implied that Yakubu should refrain from making public remarks about electoral processes in other countries while Nigerians continue to question the integrity of their own elections.
