Jega’s Amorphous Challenges

Nigeria’s pathological electoral challenges that humbled such icons as Eyo Esua, Michael Ani, Victor Ovie-Whisky, Professor Eme Awa, Professor Humphrey Nwosu, Chief Sumner Dagogo-Jack, Justice Ephraim Akpata, Sir Abel Guobadia, and Professor Maurice Iwu, have again continued to throw deadly punches at the distinguished academic and former Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, kano (BUK), Professor Attahiru Jega who was appointed Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in June, 2010.

Having obtained the approval of his commission’s request for the amendment of the Electoral Act and release of funds for the execution of the 2011 elections, Professor Jega’s first major task was the conduct of the voter registration exercise. But strictly speaking, the exercise was trailed by irregularities, frustrations, and complaints about poor functioning of the Direct Data Capture Machine (DDCMs), scanners, and other facilities, and late arrival of machines and officials at the registration centres. Consequently, the exercise was extended by one week.

Now, up till the National Assembly election was aborted on Saturday April 2, 2011, Nigerians were in high spirit to exercise their franchise. They believed Professor Jega who persistently assured them that his commission (INEC) was fully prepared to conduct free, fair, and credible elections for the country.

In fact, on the eve of the postponed National Assembly election, Professor Jega, in a nationwide broadcast, declared: “I want to assure you all that INEC has worked tirelessly to put infrastructure, people and procedures in place to make sure that we have prepared adequately in terms of logistics, the training of our staff and in terms of effective liaison with security agencies to provide security before, during, and after the elections … We have recruited and trained approximately 400,000 staff, thereby ensuring an average of three officials per polling unit plus a number of supervisory officials. We are also doing our best to see that within 48 hours, the results are announced.” Besides, the commission, from media reports, also disclosed that it has done an operational mapping of areas that are difficult to access and made provision for boats and helicopters to convey materials and personnel to such areas by 6p.m. on the eve of each of the elections.

But as the German playwright, Bertolt Brecht said: “The finest plans are always ruined by the littleness of  those who ought  to carry them out.” So was the case of the National Assembly election – the first leg of the three – pronged national exercise which now begins on Saturday, April 9, 2011.

Who ruined Professor Jega’s plans? According to Professor Jega, it was the international contractors who failed to deliver the election materials by Thursday March 31, for use on Saturday, April 2, 2011.  But  frankly speaking, Professor Jega did not tell the whole truth. Reports from many parts of the country showed that the electoral officers were encumbered with a lot of logistic problems especially transportation. Worse still, at some polling units, the electoral officers were no where to be found at the time of accreditation and some of the ballot papers were reported missing. There were also reports that while some of the ballot papers for the Saturday election did not have logos of some political parties, a few others had a logo of a non-existent party.

In the final analysis, the electorates appeared to be more prepared for the exercise than Professor Jega and his team. All over the country, the story was the same. Nigerians trooped out in their numbers on Saturday to cast their votes for the candidates or political parties of their choice only to be disillusioned, just in the nick of time by Professor Jega’s apology in which he humbly said to the nation: “We deeply regret this situation and apologise to Nigerians for the hardship this may have created … It is regrettable, it is unfortunate, it should not have happened. Under normal circumstances, this kind of thing does not happen. It is terribly unfortunate that it has happened but what can we do. Man proposes, God disposes”.

Yes, Professor Jega may be blamed and lampooned for shoddy plans and faulty strategies for the achievement of his goals. He may have been deficient in making proper institutional arrangements in which instructions and  ideas should have been transmitted without bottlenecks. And perhaps, he may have mismanaged the entire implementation process of the Saturday poll.

But the fact is that Professor Jaga’s challenges are amorphous. They are inter-twined with the developmental problems of the Nigerian state. Nigeria is a developing country characterised by poor infrastructural facilities, low levels of living, low levels of productivity, high and rising levels of unemployment and underemployment. It is a land of poverty, violence, and chaos. In the language of the distinguished Professor of English and internationally acclaimed author, Chinua Achebe, in his book. The Trouble With Nigeria: “Nigeria is not a great country. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. it is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that give least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth”.

Thus as long as Nigeria remains in this pathetic state despite its abundant human and material resources, its elections will continue to be rigged, violent, irregular, and disputed.

Nigeria’s free, fair, and credible election prospects depend very largely on the development consciousness of the country’s leadership, the abilities, attitudes, and motivations of its people. This is to say that our electoral umpire can only rise above its amorphous challenges when the country is able, ready, and willing to undergo a total transformation of its political and socio-economic system.