A Reprieve For Jega

In what may count as the game changer in the ongoing onslaught against the INEC boss so far, the House of Representatives last Tuesday adopted a resolution warning the federal government against tampering with existing arrangements for the forthcoming general elections, particularly the removal of Jega from office under any guise. The lawmakers noted that changing the election plans either by further extending the dates or removing Jega from office would only lead to a magnitude of violence, worse than what was witnessed after the 2011 polls. They drew the attention of Nigerian political class and government at all levels as well as security agencies to warnings of unavoidable violence already issued by eminent Nigerians and groups, both on the international and local scenes.

The resolution which followed a motion by the Chairman of the Committee on Justice, Hon. Ali Ahmad of the All Progressive Congress from Kwara State, was nearly scuttled by the Deputy Minority Leader of the House, Mr Leo Ogor, of the Peoples Democratic Party, who had opposed the motion on the ground that it was totally speculative as the proponent of the motion was not precise about what was happening or who was planning Jega’s removal. Ogor was however overruled by the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, before putting the motion up for vote.

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The lawmakers made it clear that removing Jega would be unconstitutional except if the approval of two-thirds majority of the Senate is secured as prescribed in section 157(1) of Nigeria’s Constitution. “Such removal can only be achieved when two things happen, viz, (a) his inability to discharge the functions of the office, or (b) for misconduct, as determined by two-thirds of the Senate,” their resolution stated.

Savouring the success achieved by the House by its adoption of the resolution which had thrown the spanners in the works for Presidential hawks gunning at Jega’s jugular, Speaker Aminu Tambuwal further raised an alarm that the dark days of military coups might return if the country continued to progress in error. At a meeting with a coalition of civil society groups, Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room, the Speaker observed that the signs of a possible return to the dark days in Nigeria were everywhere for all to see. He noted that apart from the moves to use Civil Service rules to force Jega out of office, the suggestion of an interim government by some groups was treasonable. “Any form of government outside our constitution is a coup. Why are the security agencies not charging such persons with treasonable felony? Some individuals are bent on ensuring that the elections do not hold or in the alternative, create scenarios that will make the conduct of the polls impossible for INEC,” the Speaker added.

Jega’s Errors

Not a few Nigerians believe that if the elections had held on the earlier date of 14th February, many would have been disenfranchised, due to non issuance of permanent voter cards, PVCs. All the euphoria and excitement which greeted INEC’s conduct of the 2011 general election had declined since that election, following its serial bungling of vital ingredients, including the provision of permanent voter cards, PVCs, as well as a recent attempt to create additional polling units ahead of the forthcoming elections. These generated truckloads of controversies and legal actions, forcing the electoral body to postpone the exercise.

Last September, the electoral body embarked on the final phase of the Continued Voters Registration, CVR, exercise for an election that was merely five months away from the earlier scheduled 14 February 2015 date. Given the nature and terrain of the nation, Jega’s team had unwittingly set up themselves for unavoidable failure in 2015 by completing the exercise so late in the day for an election which time was known soon after that of 2011.

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The exercise generated ripples across the nation as both the first and the second phases of the exercise raised critical issues that were never resolved ahead of the 2015 polls. Phase one of the CVR exercise was conducted in 10 states, including Taraba, Gombe, Zamfara, Kebbi, Benue, Kogi, Abia, Enugu, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa, between 28 May and 1 June at designated CVR centres in each registration area (Ward) of every local government area. The second phase held across 12 states between 20 and 25 August 25 in Yobe, Bauchi, Jigawa, Sokoto, FCT, Kwara, Anambra, Ebonyi, Ondo, Oyo, Delta and Cross River states. The last phase held in September in the remaining states of the federation: Adamawa, Borno, Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Plateau, Nasarawa, Niger, Imo, Lagos, Ogun, Edo and Rivers. The voters registration exercise preceded the issuance of PVCs which will be used for the 2015 general elections.

Political parties and civil society groups faulted INEC’s shoddy handling of the exercise and berated the organisation for not matching the huge expectations it created ahead of the 2015 polls. Calls were made for the extension of the exercise with concerns expressed on the late scheduling of the exercise, poor enlightenment, logistics problems, vis-a-vis malfunctioning direct data capture machines, the late arrival of INEC staff and materials to designated points.

The executive director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafasanji also criticised INEC: “From the expressions by Nigerians and from those I interacted with, a lot of them are not satisfied with what INEC has done”, he’d noted at that time. Furthermore, Mr. Rafsanjani had noted thus; “The thinking now is, if that is what they will use in 2015, it will not be good at all. It is important that the electoral body listens. Already, we have a situation where many displaced persons will be disenfranchised because of the insurgency problem and other problems. And so millions will likely not vote”.

While the controversies generated by the continuous voter registration exercise lingered, the INEC boss stirred the hornet’s nest with the announcement of an additional 30,000 polling units across the nation. The exercise meant to limit the number of voters at a polling unit to 500 generated controversies with allegations that a section of the country had been unduly favoured. Some interest groups alleged that the North has much more of the additional polling units than the South and soon, many suits were filed before some federal and state high courts, challenging INEC with only the 2015 election just months away.

Following massive complaints by Nigerians over their inability to collect their voter cards and their possible disenfranchisement ahead of the 2015 general election, Dasuki called for the postponement of the scheduled elections.

However, at his announcement of the extension of the election dates, Jega vehemently insisted that the electoral body was ready for the election but that it had to acquiesce to a shift in polls date due to the insecurity in the land and on the strength of a letter by the Nigerian security agencies which indicated their inability to provide security to the electoral body for the polls. That was in view of their engagement in the fight against terrorism in the northeastern part of the country. Events have indeed shown that the electoral body was not ready for the polls as at the time it told Nigerians it was. Many Nigerians were only able to collect their PVCs weeks after the polls date shift announcement and the subsequent extension of the PVC issuance exercise.

Jega’s INEC had also received knocks from critical stakeholders, including the nation’s judiciary, which came down on it for refusing to obey court orders with regards to the withdrawal of certificates of registration from some political parties which the electoral umpire de-registered recently. Only last Wednesday, a federal high court in Abuja berated the electoral body for not discharging its constitutional obligation of informing an applicant political party, Young Democratic Party, why it had not been registered. The court noted further that it took INEC until 13 August 2014, more than 120 days, to react to series of correspondence from the party which sought to know why it had not been registered.