The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has strongly criticised President Bola Tinubu’s newly released ambassadorial nominees, describing the list as “outrageously underwhelming” and more about political patronage than restoring Nigeria’s global reputation.
In a statement posted on his official X handle on Sunday, November 30, ADC’s National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi said Tinubu’s nominations betrayed both urgency and judgment, arguing that the president had chosen political loyalists over competent diplomats.
“After waiting for more than two years, and with Nigeria’s diplomacy and global perception in historic tatters, President Bola Tinubu presents an outrageously underwhelming ambassadorial list that appears designed to settle his political IOUs rather than fix Nigeria’s urgent international relations crises,” Abdullahi wrote.
According to him, Nigeria is being represented to the world at its weakest diplomatic moment, and what the country needs now is “a disciplined and credible diplomatic corps” capable of rebuilding trust across Africa and beyond.
Instead, he said, the president “has surpassed himself by presenting a comic cast of political jobbers, corruption suspects, and a patronage of wives, children, and relatives of his political associates.”
At the core of the ADC’s criticism is the nomination of Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the immediate past chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who conducted the 2023 election that brought Tinubu to power.
“The ADC views the appointment of Prof. Yakubu as embarrassingly insensitive, especially coming barely two years after supervising a highly controversial election that ushered in President Tinubu as President and only a few weeks after leaving office as INEC Chairman,” the statement read.
Abdullahi warned that such a move would further erode public trust in Nigeria’s electoral system, saying it “blurs what should be a distinct line between players and umpires.”
“If allowed to stand, it would set a dangerous precedent where future INEC chairmen and commissioners may begin to see their positions as stepping stones to future political rewards.
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“Once that mindset enters the bloodstream of our electoral system, neutrality becomes impossible, partisanship becomes inevitable, and elections become transactional,” he cautioned.
He argued that most of those nominated fall into three groups , “former career diplomats or ambassadors, political supporters or their relatives, and members of the president’s political party”, and questioned which of those categories Yakubu could possibly fit into.
“The implication of this is deeply unsettling indeed,” Abdullahi said, adding that though there is no legal restriction preventing Yakubu’s appointment, moral restraint should have prevailed.
“Even when the law is silent, ethical standards must be upheld, especially when the situation attacks the very foundation of our democracy,” he added.
The ADC spokesperson urged Professor Yakubu to decline the nomination “for the sake of INEC’s institutional credibility, the integrity of future elections, and the preservation of his own legacy.”
He concluded by calling on the National Assembly to intervene. “Failing to do so, we call on the Senate to reject his nomination in the interest of our democracy,” he said.
Yakubu is one of 32 individuals nominated by Tinubu to the Senate on Saturday, alongside former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode and former Enugu Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
The presidency indicated that confirmed nominees will assume their diplomatic posts following Senate approval.
During his decade-long tenure at INEC from 2015 to 2025, Yakubu introduced several reforms, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, the Results Viewing Portal for instant polling unit results, and a continuous voter registration framework, aimed at improving electoral transparency and efficiency.