June 18, 2026
By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: Former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has arrived in Doha to assume duties as Nigeria’s ambassador to Qatar, stepping from one of the country’s most contentious domestic offices onto one of the world’s most strategically consequential diplomatic stages.
Yakubu, who concluded his tenure at the helm of the electoral commission late last year, was among the ambassadorial appointees named by President Bola Tinubu in a wave of diplomatic postings that drew considerable public attention at the time of their announcement.
On Wednesday, upon his arrival in the Qatari capital, the new envoy was received at the airport by Ambassador Ibrahim Yousif Abdullah Fakhro, Director of the Protocol Department at the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs — a reception that signalled Doha’s formal acknowledgement of his posting.
