Tinubu, next Boss Incen and disputes of Liman, Farooq Kperogi …

A more old friend of mine, a inhabitant of power clubs, told me a few days ago that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was taking into consideration a retired judge from the state of Nasarawa to succeed Professor Mahmood Yakubu as president of the independent national electoral commission (Iner). The judge Abdullahi Mohammed Liman called it, who, I am embarrassed to admit it, I had never heard of.

Apparently, Liman was a stone of loads for disputes and had robust mentions in the media, as I will show shortly. I probably never paid attention to his name because my background as a former journalist and publisher has prepared me to pay more attention to the judgments that the judges are unless the judges are distinguished for any number of reasons.

Judicial relationships are one of the few exceptions in journalism in which active constructions are discouraged in securities and contacts. For example, we write, “a man was sentenced to prison”, not “a judge sentenced a man in prison” in the contact contacts. The judgment is considered more important than the judge.

After admitting my ignorance of Liman, my friend shared possible reasons for his choice. I can’t reveal them publicly, but I have not been persuaded.

Given the centrality of Yoruba brazen in many of the consequential events of Tinubu, I questioned the reason why the buzz that Tinubu would take into consideration a northerner, however flexible or susceptible to manipulation could be, for such an important position as the INSC president.

After all, this is the man who will be obstetrics the 2027 elections in which most of the opposition to the second -term ambition of Tinubu will arrive from the North.

In April of this year, a manufactured story said that Tinubu had appointed a Professor Basiru Olamilekan as a successor of Yakubu. The presidency declared it and a control of Reuters’ facts on April 15 confirmed that “Professor Bashiru Olamiilekan”, described as a “professor and guru of the media of Ogun origin”, simply does not exist.

The photos used to identify it were actually those of Senator Ajibola Basiru, who told Reuters who is a “gold golden gold man man” who is not “neither a media guru nor born in Ogun!”

However, a few days after my conversation on Liman, I saw a list circulating on social media that showed the geographical distribution of the presidents of the electoral commission passed since 1964. Amplified by the supporters of Tinubu, the list highlighted that the South-South has dominated in the last 61 years and that no one from the South-West has ever been appointed.

The observers suggested that the list was intentionally completed and pushed online to prepare public consciousness for a possible appointment in the South -ovest. This guarantees that Tinubu cannot be credibly accused of ethnic favoritism if he chooses from his geo-cultural courtyard.

I shared the list with my friend, insinuating that it was unlikely that Tinubu named someone outside his ethnic comfort area, in particular given his despair for a second mandate and his contempt for the criticisms about the national diffusion and the equity of his appointments, what I once called his Yorubization focused on Lagos.

Yet I also noticed that the Center-North, from which Liman comes, has never produced an Incen president. And no president, prime minister or military sovereign has ever appointed some of his own region to guide the electoral body. This leaves the possibility that Liman can really be in the running, assuming that there is credibility in the voices.

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I had deposited this discussion until I saw the interview of September 16 of Buba Galadima with Arise TV, where he made oblique references to the imminent announcement of Liman as the next Incen president.

“In November, there are rumors throughout the place where this government is appointing a judge of the retired Court of Appeal which is known why notoriety is the president of Inc,” said Galadima. “I would like it to be true. Because if that man becomes the president of the Inc, be sure that this government is inviting a civil war in this country.”

Civil war? This is obviously political hyperbole. But could it refer to Judge Liman? Every detail adapts. Liman has just retired from the Court of Appeal. It is a magnet for judicial disputes. And, days earlier, someone had told me that Tinubu was taking Liman for the position of INSC President.

Curiously, Liman has chosen early retirement despite the age of judicial retirement increased to 70. Was it in preparation for the INSC post that is said?

Because, therefore, Galadima warned that if Liman is appointed, the Nigerians should “forget the elections … [b]Eca why there would be no elections in this country and would create chaos “? There was also a sense of alarm in the voice of my friend who told me that Liman could be the next Incen president.

I looked for Liman and found an analysis of May 26, 2024, entitled “Kano Emirate: 7 disputes that follow Judge Liman”. In it, John Chuks Azu, a legal editor of Daily Trust, told the way in which Liman stopped the move of the governor Abba Yusuf to restore Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in the role of Kano Emir, who triggered a clash of the palace that did not reduce and trigger the jurisdictional debates.

The report also observed that the National Judicial Council had rejected a poor conduct against him, who paved the way for his promotion to the Court of Appeal.

Liman also attracted the fire for stopping the suspension of Abdullahi Ganduje as president of the APC and his arrest on the video “Dollar Phothering” of 2018. This fact suggests that he has close associations with Ganduje.

In Edo, he underlined the Trust Daily report, the candidate for the Governor of the Pcn Peters Omoragbon accused Liman of “misconduct and abandonment of duty” for delays in the sentence on an INC case.

Port Harcurt’s house in Liman was among those raided by the DSS in 2016, when the agents said they had recovered $ 2 million, an accusation that he denied. He joked about the fact that he would resign from his judge if he had had so much money hidden at home.

And in 2015, his sentence in the corruption process of N25 billion of Michael Igbinedion aroused indignation when the main defendant moved away with fines while his co-accused got 20 years.

Clearly, Galadima beef with Liman concerns more partisan politics than patriotic fervor. Daily Trust analysis suggests that Liman is welcoming with Ganduje and his political collaborators in Kano.

Galadima, meanwhile, is in line with Kwankwaso, Ganduje’s opponent. The appointment of Liman could actually trigger a sort of “civil war” in Kano’s politics, since its antecedents suggest that it tilt towards the Ganduje field. But nationally? I doubt it. If the brazen electoral manipulations had not led to the civil war, not even this would do it.

Having said that, if Tinubu is seriously considering Liman, he risks endangering the credibility of the 2027 elections two years before it happens. An electoral referee does not have to transport the bewildered partisan wealth. None of the previous Incen garments, including those who later proved to be total partisan disasters, came to work with openly partisan affiliations. Tinubu shouldn’t start now. If he worries at all of his post-house reputation, that is.

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