| Electoral chief had cleared desk, hosted to send-forth dinner

In June this year, a quiet send-forth dinner was held at the Continental Hotel, Abuja, for Professor Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The event, organised by close aides and associates, was meant to mark his planned disengagement after serving two historic terms as Nigeria’s chief electoral umpire.

Yakubu had already cleared his desk, moved out personal belongings, and prepared to hand over to one of the senior national commissioners ahead of a three-month terminal leave scheduled to begin in July.

However, President Bola Tinubu directed him to remain in office until the expiration of his tenure in November 2025, stalling the succession process and delaying the appointment of a new INEC chairman, according to presidential sources.

Yakubu, first appointed in October 2015 by former President Muhammadu Buhari and reappointed in 2020, had sought to bow out early to allow Tinubu name a successor well before preparations for the 2027 general elections gather momentum. His current tenure officially ends on November 9, a day after the Anambra governorship election.

For weeks, INEC staff confirmed, his office at the commission’s headquarters had been emptied of books, newspapers, and other personal effects. But repeated attempts to hand over—at one point to May Agbamuche-Mbu, one of the most senior commissioners—were resisted to avoid leaving the post vacant during a critical electoral period.

The delay mirrors events of 2015 when Attahiru Jega bowed out as INEC chair and briefly handed over to Amina Zakari before Yakubu was nominated as substantive chairman by Buhari.

With lobbying for the succession ongoing, Yakubu remains in office at the president’s insistence, despite his initial determination to step aside.