By Emma Ogbuehi
President Muhammadu Buhari has reappointed Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, for a second term in office. This was disclosed in a statement issued by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, President Buhari, in a letter to President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said: “In accordance with the provision of Section 154 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), I am pleased to present for confirmation by the Senate, the nomination of Professor Mahmood Yakubu for appointment as Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for a second and final term.”
Yakubu was first appointed by President Buhari in November 2015. By his reappointment, Yakubu becomes the first chairman of INEC to serve a second term. Others before him like Professors Maurice Iwu and Attahiru Jega, had served only served a term of five years, each.
Prior to his first term appointment in 2015 Yakubu had served as the executive secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, being appointed to office in 2007 by then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Yakubu, who was born in Bauchi State, had his basic and secondary school education at Kobi Primary School and Government Teachers College, Toro, respectively. He proceeded to the University of Sokoto (now Usmanu Danfodiyo University), where he obtained a first-class degree certificate in history. At postgraduate level, he studied international relations at Wolfson College, Cambridge, graduating with master’s degree in 1987, and Nigerian history at the University of Oxford, graduating with a doctorate in 1991.