Senator Shehu Sani has supported a statement by former Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, on restoring the integrity of scholarship.
Jega had said during the 15th annual conference of Fulbright Alumni Association of Nigeria (FAAN), held at Dangote Business School, Bayero University, Kano, that lecturers used as ad hoc staff during the 2019 elections connived with politicians to compromise the integrity of the polls.
Jega, who chaired INEC during the 2015 general elections, said: “Look at what happened during the last elections, and the story of irregularities being spread even in the four walls of BUK.
“The politicians, through crooked means, got alliances with lecturers in the university to compromise the system and they perpetrated all sort of irregularities, which paved way for a faulty process for the continued entrenchment of bad people in governance.
“Maybe I am preaching to the converted or I am talking nonsense, but frankly speaking, I am beginning to think that we are not taking the obligations of scholarship and intellectual engagement with the seriousness it deserves.”
In a tweet on Friday, Sani, who represents Kaduna Central at the National Assembly, wrote: “In the light of the new revelations, University lecturers should pull out from participating in the conduct of national elections to save the reputation & protect the moral sanctity of the academia.The Ivory tower shouldn’t be smeared with political feaces.”
