Jega And His Travails

That the Political Science Professor at the helm of affairs at the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, is swimming in troubled waters is no longer a matter to be discussed only in hush tones, it is public knowledge. Before last Wednesday’s judgment by a federal high court in Abuja which practically undid all the preparations by the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, ahead of the forthcoming general election, Jega’s plate had been overflowing with issues relating to his Commission’s handling of vital election ingredients like the distribution of the permanent voter’s card, controversial creation of additional polling booths which the commission was compelled to jettison as well as the surreptitious moves by some presidency hawks to push him out of office through the policy of civil service rules on terminal leave.

However, these raging issues pales in significance as doubts over the conduct of the polls on the rescheduled dates is gathering momentum following the judgment of the federal high court with less than three weeks to the elections. For one, the ballot papers which the electoral body had taken delivery of would have to be discarded for new ones which will contain the newly registered political party, Young Democratic Party, YDP, to be produced!

This is a curious and an unpleasant twist coming at this time and has been generating questions as to who the real persons behind the new party are and what their motives are. In his reaction to the Court’s judgment, a federal lawmaker and chieftain of the opposition All Progressive Congress, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, was full of questions begging for answers. “ I smell a rat, this is curious coming barely three weeks to the elections. Who is behind this? What is their goal? Since when was this case filed? Will this party now participate in the coming elections? If so will all the ballot papers already printed now be destroyed and new ones printed to accommodate this new party? If not will this party not go to court after the elections to challenge the winners and ask that the elections be nullified for reasons of exclusion? Questions! Questions !! Questions!!!

For Jega and his commission, reassuring Nigerians that the elections will hold on the rescheduled dates and restoring their confidence in the polls appear to be a herculean task, especially to an organisation which had variously failed to build upon previous successes in preparing for future tasks.

Following the overwhelming euphoria and excitement which greeted his conduct of the 2011 election, Jega promptly set up a Registration and Election Review Committee, RERC, to carry out a systemic review of the conduct of that election, including undertaking a comprehensive review of the conduct of voter registration exercise ahead of the next general election which was four years away from then, with a view to continually improving upon INEC’s performance and consolidate on the achievements recorded that year.

The Commission’s overall goals for that comprehensive evaluation of the 2011 voter registration was to understand its strengths and weaknesses in the planning, coordination, and execution of future elections and was calculated to reposition the electoral body to operate more effectively by preparing to meet some of the challenges experienced at the last election ahead of the forthcoming 2015 general election.

In effect, the electoral body knew the challenges it encountered in the conduct of that successful 2011 elections and had a mindset to have a better performance at the next election which was four years away then. What followed after series of reviews and studies by the Jega -led INEC portrayed the electoral body as having missed the opportunity to learn from its own mistakes, hence the current turn of events for the man whom the whole world applauded for giving Nigerians what is arguably the most credible election in the annals of the nation’s fledging democratic experience.

Despite his previous achievements and his mastery of the nation’s political landscape, being his field of study, Jega, in the context of Nigerian politics today, can be likened to a man grappling to retain his reputation and integrity in the face of unrestrained attacks from political actors and self-appointed messiahs who have taken it as a task to give him a bad name in order to hang him.

The Gang Up Against Jega

The first sign that a calculated and coordinated attack was headed the way of the INEC boss was at the speech delivered by Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Col. Mohammed Sambo Dasuki, far away at Chatham House in London, where the first call for the postponement of the general elections earlier scheduled for February 14th and 28th of February was made.

The NSA told his international audience that his call for the postponement of the scheduled polls is based on the fact that INEC has not completed the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards to Nigerians who are going to vote in the elections and that a lot of people would be disenfranchised if INEC goes ahead with the conduct of the elections. He laid all the challenges hindering the conduct of the polls on the already scheduled dates squarely at the doorstep of Jega and his INEC.

He insisted that if for over a year, all INEC was able to achieve in the distribution of the PVCs as at that time, was about 50 per cent which translates to about 30 million cards, there are doubts about the possibility of distributing another 30 million cards very close to the elections. “If you had a year plus and all we have been able to do is distribute about 50 per cent of the cards, leaving about 30 million cards to be distributed, according to INEC, we have to look at the possibility of shifting this election and doing it when everybody has a card, because it doesn’t cost you anything to shift the election” Dasuki stated. The Dasuki speech at Chatham House came at a time the electoral body was still telling all who cared to listen, that it was ready for the polls which was just some days away.

Riding on the waves of Dasuki’s Chatham House speech, Chief Fani-Kayode, the spokesman for the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization, berated the INEC boss for announcing the postponement of the polls only on the basis of the communication the electoral body received from the military authorities which conveyed the military’s inability to provide security cover for the polls in view of their engagement in the fight against terrorism in the northeastern part of the country.

He accused Jega of holding a meeting with chieftains of the All Progressive Congress, APC, far away in Dubai, the United Arab Emirate, which was aimed at making sure that about 23 million voters who are yet to receive their Permanent Voter Cards were denied the opportunity of receiving them and added that the electoral body was scheming out voters in states and areas where supporters of the ruling party were registered to vote. He added: “We express our concerns today that Jega may have decided to aid the APC to rig the forthcoming elections through the manipulation of the production, distribution and collection of PVCs, such that emerging trends have consistently shown calculated attempts to deprive parts of the country that would traditionally vote for President Jonathan of their PVCs.”

•Dasuki: first raised the issue of election postponement

Fani Kayode also alleged that sensitive materials to be used for the election were still being printed in China and had yet to be imported to Nigeria at the time the postponement of the polls was announced by Jega. “Pieces of information at our disposal have shown that Jega has had meetings with the APC stalwarts in Dubai and other cities in the world to perfect this wanton conspiracy against 23 million eligible voters. Besides, we have information that the PVCs that Nigerians are scrambling for are not in Nigeria and will not arrive before the elections.These PVCs are still in China and Jega has strategically delayed their arrival to suit his electioneering permutations” the PDP campaign spokesman stated at a media briefing in Abuja.

He however declined to give details of chieftains of the APC who met with the INEC boss or produce evidence that such meetings held. He called on Jega to show Nigerians proof that the Chinese company printing the PVCs had been paid in full by disclosing the total contract sum and the amount paid to date and equally demanded that Jega should show proof of arrival or expected date of arrival of all PVCs for the elections and to tell Nigerians how he could have distributed 23 million PVCs within five days to the election if there hadn’t been a postponement of the polls.