In Defence of Jega

Bala Yahaya

Since independence in 1960, Nigeria’s journey to nationhood has been characterized by several setbacks. From the immaturity of our political class, to unaccountable military (mis) governance, weak and ineffective public institutions and structures, corrupt and inefficient civil service, a docile population, weak infrastructure, etc.

On the credit side, the strongest achievement of the country is its ability to always retrace its steps from several calamitous journeys into the abyss at the most critical moments and when almost all hope seem lost.

Our major undoing however, is our inability to put in place responsible and accountable governments that will direct our God-given endowments to meaningful national growth and development.

After series of military interventions and counter-interventions, we finally come to believe that in line with prevailing global realities, democracy is the best form of government that can usher us into the Promised Land. Thus, the return of democratic governance in 1999 marked a milestone in our history.

However, ours proved to be a peculiar kind of democracy which is totally bereft of democratic ideals. For example, all the elections that took place in the country from 1999-2007 where characterized by irregularities; majorly but not limited to sponsored political thuggery and institutionalized rigging with the active connivance of cash and carry security agencies, that eventually left the populace crying foul and foreign election observers writhing in angst.

At his swearing-in ceremony in 2007 the Late President Yar’adua acknowledged the fact that the elections that brought him to power were flawed but promised to put in place reforms that will lead to tidier elections in the future. Pursuant to this, he instituted an electoral reforms committee headed by Justice Muhammad Lawal Uwais even though the government failed to adopt the recommendations of the Uwais Committee Report wholesale, it was still a commendable gesture.

Thus, the appointment of Professor Attahiru Jega who many adjudged as a principled, matured and incorruptible political scientists, teacher and activist by President Goodluck Jonathan to head the electoral body was seen in many quarters as the government’s demonstration of its declared determination to hold free, fair and credible elections.

Jega, since his appointment has proved his mettle, by transparently conducting the voter’s registration exercise and deftly publicizing the distribution of its outcome which many see as the first major antidote to election rigging.

After the giant strides taken by the electoral commission, some of the political hawks who want to continue to hold the country to ransome through election rigging and institution of unpopular governments in power begin to consider government’s appointment of the Professor as politically suicidal as he is bound to checkmate their illegal activities. However, their agitations and antagonistic postures towards him did not distract him as INEC under him only waxed stronger and won the admiration of Nigerians and international observers of our politics.

In the light of this background, we can then clearly see the standpoint of those calling for Jega’s head over the postponement of this weekend’s National Assembly elections due to logistic problems. Jega’s decision to postpone the election is, if anything, a confirmation of his avowed commitment to midwife a credible election that will be a pride not only to Nigeria but to Africa as a whole. It is also a declaration that the era of business as usual in elections management is over. His antagonists want INEC to go ahead with the elections in spite of the logistic problems so as to pave way for massive rigging which will take us back to the past that we are earnestly trying to run away from.

They call it national embarrassment but isn’t it logical that a day’s embarrassment (if at all it is) is not too much a sacrifice if at the end of the day we get free and fair elections? In spite of our size and wealth we have, in the last 12 years, become a laughing stock in Africa because of our glaringly demonstrated inability to put our house in order and become a shining example to other smaller African nations. Today, countries like Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and even our next-door neighbor Niger are becoming shining examples of true democracy through their conducts of credible and transparent elections.

It is in the light of the above submissions that I strongly believe that the postponement of yesterday’s elections is in good faith and Jega and his team deserve our accolades.

To have an electoral umpire who will come to the full glare of global media to say this is what went wrong and we take full responsibility is a novelty in our political dictionary!