The Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, Prof Kabiru Bala, has been left surprised over the conduct of some senior lecturers engaged in electoral assignments during the last general elections.
Prof Bala noted that despite the conduct of a few academicians who bragged about their roles in assisting politicians to rig elections, more university lecturers should be engaged in electoral duties in the future to strengthen sustainable elections in the country.
The professor spoke in Zaria, Kaduna State, at the third international conference organised by the Department of Political Science and International Studies in collaboration with Mambayya House, Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Studies, Bayero University Kano.
“Therefore, if we think that academics are one group of people that can sanitise the election processes, they should be given a chance to do so.
“I know there are mixed reactions from the academics on the involvement of our members during general elections in Nigeria. It makes me shiver when I hear some of our colleagues say, ‘We are the people who rig elections ‘, ‘I participated in the process, and I know what I did.'”
The university don, however, maintained that people in academics are trustworthy regardless of some bad eggs in the system.
