By Chimezie Godfrey
The Peter Obi Media Office has raised concerns over reports that about 600 university academics have endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the 2027 presidential election, alleging that the development could create a conflict of interest in the conduct of the election.
The Spokesman of the Peter Obi Media Office, Idris Zekeri Jnr, raised the concerns in a statement on Tuesday, warning that the public endorsement by academics who could potentially serve as electoral officials warranted scrutiny ahead of the 2027 elections.
Zekeri said the academics were not merely private citizens expressing political preferences, arguing that members of the university community had frequently been engaged as electoral officials, including Returning Officers.
He said the reported endorsement therefore raised questions about the neutrality of individuals who might be assigned sensitive electoral responsibilities involving the same candidate they had publicly supported.
“These individuals are not just 600 private citizens expressing their political preferences; they belong to an institution that has frequently provided electoral officials, including returning officers,” Zekeri quoted the statement as saying.
The Peter Obi Media Office further alleged that electoral manipulation did not necessarily begin on election day, but could involve activities undertaken months or years before voting through the identification and positioning of individuals capable of influencing the electoral process.
Zekeri urged Nigerians to remain vigilant, saying the reported involvement of academics in political mobilisation ahead of the election should prompt the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take steps to safeguard public confidence in the process.
“When academics who might be assigned sensitive electoral responsibilities openly organise to endorse the very candidate whose election they might later help oversee, the risk of conflict of interest is evident,” the statement said.
The media office called on INEC to release the names of the academics involved in the reported endorsement and bar them from serving as Returning Officers, Collation Officers or other electoral officials during the 2027 general elections.
Zekeri also urged the electoral commission to publish the complete list of prospective Collation and Returning Officers well ahead of future elections to enable civil society organisations, political parties and members of the public to scrutinise their political neutrality.
He further called on university governing councils and academic bodies to establish strict conflict-of-interest rules to prevent academic staff from using their professional positions to facilitate partisan political mobilisation.
The media office maintained that Nigerians should be allowed to choose their leaders through their votes, stressing the need to protect the credibility and impartiality of the electoral process ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
“Nigerians are watching. The machinery for rigging must not be allowed to take root before the election even begins,” Zekeri said, adding that “the people must choose their leaders, and the outcome must be decided by their votes—not by a pre-arranged electoral network.”
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