By BONIFACE AKARAH

The Peter Obi Media Office (POMR) has raised concerns over the endorsement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid by more than 600 senior academics from public universities across Northern Nigeria, describing the development as an early attempt to establish a partisan network ahead of the presidential election.

In a statement dated September 15, 2026, signed by Idris Zekeri Jnr., POMR Spokesman, the media office said the academics’ endorsement should be viewed against the role university lecturers and other academics have historically played in Nigeria’s electoral process, including serving as returning and collation officers.

The POMR said the development was “profoundly troubling,” arguing that academics who could potentially be assigned sensitive electoral responsibilities should not openly campaign for or endorse a candidate whose election they might later be involved in overseeing.

“These individuals are not just 600 private citizens expressing their political preferences; they belong to an institution that has frequently provided electoral officials, including returning officers,” the statement said.

The media office said the endorsement therefore raised questions about whether structures capable of influencing the 2027 electoral process were being established well ahead of voting day.

“Their public backing for the incumbent consequently raises a serious and unavoidable question: is the framework for manipulating the 2027 election already being established?” POMR asked.

The endorsement followed a political engagement in Kaduna convened by the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ibrahim Masari. Reports said more than 600 senior academics from public universities in Northern Nigeria attended and subsequently expressed support for Tinubu’s re-election. The academics, however, said their endorsement was not unconditional and called on the government to address issues including food and transportation costs, unemployment and insecurity.

POMR argued that electoral manipulation, if it occurs, does not necessarily begin on election day but could involve the prior identification and positioning of individuals capable of influencing the electoral process.

“Electoral rigging does not suddenly occur on election day; it begins months or even years earlier through the identification, cultivation, and placement of individuals capable of influencing the process when votes are finally cast,” the media office stated.

It urged Nigerians to pay attention to the issue before the 2027 elections, saying the public endorsement of a candidate by academics who may later participate in election administration could create a perception of conflict of interest and weaken confidence in the process.

POMR therefore called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish the names of the academics involved and bar them from serving as Returning Officers, Collation Officers or other electoral staff during the 2027 elections.

“We therefore urge INEC to release the names of all 600 + academics involved in this or any other political endorsement and to formally prohibit them from serving as Returning Officers, Collation Officers, or electoral staff during the 2027 general elections,” it said.

The media office also called on INEC to publish the names of prospective Returning and Collation Officers ahead of future elections to allow political parties, civil society organisations and members of the public to scrutinise their political affiliations and neutrality.

POMR further urged university governing councils and academic bodies to introduce conflict-of-interest rules preventing academic staff from using their professional positions to facilitate partisan political mobilisation.

“The machinery for rigging must not be allowed to take root before the election even begins,” the statement said, adding that Nigerians should be allowed to choose their leaders through their votes.

The call comes alongside a similar concern raised by the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which urged INEC not to appoint academics who have publicly endorsed political candidates as Returning or Collation Officers, while acknowledging that lecturers have the right to support candidates of their choice.