Former Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday dubbed the 2023 general elections that produced Bola Tinubu as president a “travesty,” while clamouring that the tenures of the current crop of INEC officials starting from the chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, be cut short to reduce the chances of electoral malfeasance and irregularities as seen in the last polls.

Speaking at the annual Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum in U.S. Yale University in commemoration of the prolific Nigerian writer, Mr Obasanjo advocated for short tenures for INEC chiefs, advising that other high-ranking electoral officers be thoroughly screened and found not to have ties to any political party or candidate before being allowed into office.

“Nigeria must ensure the appointment of new credible INEC leadership at the federal, state, local government, and municipal – city, town, and village – levels, with short tenures to prevent undesirable political influence and corruption, and to re-establish trust in the electoral system by its citizens,” the former Nigerian leader said.

His statement resurrected claims of electoral malfeasance in the last polls, which many Nigerians said were rigged to favour the ruling party, given the circumstances surrounding the election — including numerous cancellations on result sheets that were belatedly uploaded on the iRev website, which completely shut down on election day despite repeated assurances by INEC chair, Mahmood Yakubu, that the website had been fortified to withstand any attacks.

“As a matter of urgency, we must ensure the INEC chairperson and their staff are thoroughly vetted,” Mr Obasanjo said in a pre-recorded broadcast at Yale. “The vetting exercise should produce dispassionate, non-partisan actors with impeccable reputations.”

“The INEC chairperson must not only be absolutely above board but must also be transparently independent and incorruptible,” Mr Obasanjo said in a veiled statement that questioned the integrity of the current INEC chair, Mr Yakubu.

Mr Obasanjo said it was worrisome that the electoral staff did not use BVAS and IReV technologies that Mr Yakubu himself put forward to discourage election rigging.

“These technologies were touted by the INEC chairman himself. In the end, these technologies did not fail. INEC wilfully failed to use or implement them, which resulted in widespread voting irregularities. It was a case of inviting the fox into the henhouse,” the former president said at the forum.

Mr Obasanjo added, “The BVAS and IReV are two technological innovations that, prior to 2023, were celebrated for their potential to enhance the accuracy and transparency of our election results, eliminate the threat of election rigging, and boost public trust in electoral outcomes.”

Mr Yakubu was appointed INEC’s chairman in 2015 and reappointed in 2020. His tenure is expected to end by 2025.