Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has justified the continued involvement of academics in Nigeria’s electoral process. He argued that professors have consistently resisted attempts at bribery by politicians and have contributed significantly to the integrity of elections in the country. Jega, a respected academic and former Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, made the remarks on Thursday during The Platform, a socio-political event organized by Covenant Nation, a Lagos-based church, to mark Nigeria’s Democracy Day. During his tenure as INEC chairman from 2010 to 2015, Jega initiated the use of university professors and vice-chancellors as returning officers and ad hoc staff for elections. Now serving as a member of the International Elections Advisory Council and as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Sa’adatu Rimi University of Education in Kano, Jega emphasized that the actions of a few erring professors should not overshadow the credibility and dedication academics have brought to the electoral system. He said, “Election was terrible by the time we came to INEC. I was lucky, I was a co-chairman of the Committee of Vice Chancellors before I went to INEC. “So, I used the vice-chancellors to help us get academic staff with good, transparent selection criteria, which they vouch for. That’s how we started using academic staff during elections. “Up till 2015, in fact after the 2011 elections, the NBA (Nigerian Bar Association), and the NSE (The Nigerian Society of Engineers), all came and said they wanted to participate in the elections but we said: ‘Look, when you are doing something and it works, why change it?’ “So, we stuck with the professors, and I can tell you frankly, the level of integrity they brought to the election (is unmatched).” “A vice chancellor who has served 35 years in the university system, who has a few years to retire, a substantial overwhelming majority of them are not going to damage their integrity that they built over the years on the matters of election. “Of course, politicians use all methods of inducements, but the fact that only about two professors, not to talk of vice-chancellors, have been prosecuted for electoral offenses, frankly, is statistically insignificant. “It is terrible that it has happened, but I don’t think it is something we can use to say we shouldn’t use professors in the conduct of elections.”