How Do We Trust This Jega Now

How Do We Trust This Jega Now?

Ifeanyi Izeze

The first assignment for Prof Attahiru Jega, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), towards delivering a credible election should be to help Nigerians understand him clearly.

Contrary to Prof Jega’s chant that: “In my history, I am not a blackmailer, I have never blackmailed anybody and I certainly will not descend to the level of blackmailing people whom I respect. I'm also not an alarmist and I am certainly not a frivolous person, I make no frivolous statements and assertions,” his pronouncements are fast making it difficult for most Nigerians to believe him.

It all started when he told the Senate that the timetable ushered in by the amendment of the Electoral Act was unrealistic considering the enormous job needed to be done to guaranty credible free and fair elections. But it could become realistic if President Jonathan can provide between N55- N72 billion, just to prepare fresh voters’ register. He as uaual introduced a caveat that if he doesn’t get the money and on time too, Nigerians should be ready to make do with 10 percent credible election using a reworked Maurice Iwu’s implausible voters’ register.

And while Nigerians were still jostling to support or protest against the amount of money being asked for, the INEC boss came up with another figure of N74 billion. A more harrowing figure of N82 billion was later dangled which was later upgraded to N84 billion for the same voters’ registration exercise that the commission earlier asked for N55- N72 billion.

To date, Nigerians are yet to actually see any single thing INEC has done since the money was released to the commission and now Jega has come again with another threat: “We are getting conflicting signals and if there are any delays in the National Assembly, it will affect us. The faster they are able to complete the amendment process, the better for us. If we have to get an extension around November or December, then we will be back to square one. We do not want any extension that would affect the May 29 handover date.”

If prof Jega knew that what he stated was obvious why deny and try to rubbish the media for reporting what he publicly said. According to him, “Statements I made at different points of my presentation was unfortunately brought together in one paragraph and again, a wrong impression was created because it was taken out of context. We as a commission believe that if we get an extension up to April, we will be able to a good job which will be satisfactory and provide the aspirations of Nigerians for free and fair elections.”

It was incredible that all the reporters that covered the INEC boss’s meeting with European Union delegates mischievously agreed to bring everything he said at different meetings into one paragraph. The question is: for what purpose?

I quite agree that the problem with Nigerian reporters is that they don’t know how to quote their leaders. They have always quoted them out of context rather than quote them “inside context.”

The attitude of the leadership of the commission runs contrary to what Prof Jega wants every Nigerian especially the people in the executive and legislative arms of government to believe. He has repeatedly said that INEC views the voters’ registration exercise as a “national emergency,” but the urgency with which the commission is tackling this emergency remains as blurred as it is obscured.

The procurement process of the Direct Data Capture (DDC) Machines is still in the ‘pipeline’ or more aptly comatose though the INEC chairman reportedly claimed “The acquisition of the DDC machines has reached an advanced stage. We have had some setbacks but we have made tremendous progress.” To simply sign a contract is taking over two months. Haba!

Hear the INEC boss: “Let me say here that we have faced some challenges which have set us back by two weeks now, in terms of the procurement of the Direct Data Capture Machines. These things are addressed by the so-called 10 per cent rule. Whatever can go wrong will go wrong sometimes. And unfortunately, in spite of everything that we did, something still went wrong and set us back, and we were also very concerned about that. That was why when we were talking about how tight the timelines were, we were worried about that”.

On the recruitment of ad hoc staff for the registration exercise, INEC has only managed to sign a memorandum of understanding with the National Youth Service Corps [NYSC] and merely hopes to commence the training of the trainers soon.

Yes, it is equally incontrovertible that the INEC boss has carefully chosen his words to get things done for him even against prevailing public opinion.

Threats and blackmails can work only for a season until the people threatened take their stand to fight back and the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters actually hit the nail on the head as it point blankly told Prof Jega to talk less and do more to convince Nigerians that he is the needed messiah for the INEC job.

As was rightly put by the Deputy Chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, Senator Adego Eferekaya “These your worries that make you talk, one has to be careful about what you say and how you say it. You should have taken stakeholders into confidence instead of going to the press. People who are advising you are not looking deep enough, that was what happened even in your budget.”

Most Nigerians would agree that Jega should talk less and do more. He has said a lot and given many lectures. What has he actually done since he took over the leadership of INEC apart from talk shows to blame everybody and every situation but himself for the commission’s inactivity.

Prof, just go down to work, no more chanting. A word is enough for the wise because Nigerians both those in the executive and legislative arms of government even the judiciary will not buy any excuse for failure considering the amount of money being pumped to Jega’s INEC.

IFEANYI IZEZE IS AN ABUJA-BASED CONSULTANT ON STRATEGY AND COMMUNICATIONS (iizeze@yahoo.com)