The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, will complete his five–year tenure today. He has made history as the only electoral umpire that supervised a transition where an elected president lost power to the opposition. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI examines the ups and downs that characterised his tenure.
AFTER serving his five-year tenure meritoriously, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, is bowing out on a blaze of glory. An erudite scholar, highly principled, well-focused and an accomplished academia, Jega was put to the acid test of integrity in the last five years when he waded through the murky waters of Nigerian politics and came out unscathed. For the above reason, Jega has been described as a patriot and a gentleman.
Jega, who is leaving INEC with six national commissioners whose tenure has equally expired, fought the greatest battle of his life, to preserve his good name, in conducting the 2015 general elections. When former President Goodluck Jonathan nominated Jega as the Chairman of INEC in June, 2010, it was borne out of the conviction that he was found worthy of a position that had a history of lacking in men that live up to the creed such an office demands— unimpeachable integrity and being a consistent stickler for truth.
The Convener of the Coalition of Democrats for electoral Reform (CODER), Mr. Ayo Opadokun said said the outgoing INEC chairman would be in high demand for consultancy in enthroning a credible electoral process all over the world, because he did a good job. A statement from the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, however, said Jega would be returning to the classroom after leaving office. He was the Vice Chancellor of the Bayero University, Kano, before his appointment as INEC Chairman in 2010.
Opadokun, a lawyer and the founding Secretary-General of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), gave Jega kudos because he complied substantially with the rules and regulation guiding the recent general elections. Jega became a man of history because he was able to take steps during the final preparations for the last general elections to ensure that there was a level-playing field for all contestants.
He said: “He went ahead to insist that the right thing was done. For instance, he introduced the Card Reader had been in use in two or three other African countries. Those who usually manipulate the figures were very much unhappy with him and tried to blackmail him into jettisoning the idea, but he stuck to his gun.”
Jega could have easily secured tenure, but he has said expressly that he is not interested in staying on at the commission. He had said in an interview with the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation after the March 28 poll that it was time another person was given chance to contribute his own quota, having played his role in the political space for five years. He acknowledged that the task of leading INEC was a difficult one.
He added: “I am grateful to God. I was asked to come and contribute my own quota to the national development and I have done my bit to the best of my ability. Whatever assignment one will do for five years – just like this difficult one, to me if one is able to successfully accomplish the task, someone else should be given the opportunity, because for me I am not interested and if I am requested to serve again, I will not do it, by God’s grace.”
He acknowledged that the introduction of the Card Reader device in the general elections had significantly helped to make the presidential election transparent.
He replaced Prof. Maurice Iwu, who was eased out ingloriously after superintending over the 2007 electoral disaster, which ushered in the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. That was one election in which the beneficiary of the contest, the late Yar’Adua, publicly acknowledged to be lacking in credibility.
After his appointment in June 30, 2010, he quickly settled down and gave the nation a semblance of credible election the following year. That was the election that witnessed the emergence of Jonathan as an elected President. Though he had little time to prepare for the 2011 general elections, it was generally believed to be a remarkable improvement on past elections.
Based on the relative success of the 2011 election and the elaborate preparation that preceded the much-talked about 2015 contest, expectations were high that Prof. Jega should be able to deliver a more credible one in 2015. Against the background of the irregularities that characterised previous elections before 2011, Jega and his team took off on sounding footing with a clear policy direction hinged on improving the country’s electoral system. The outgoing INEC chairman’s tenure had its ups and downs, but the commission under his stewardship witnessed some innovations and improvements, with regards to the conduct of elections.
Thanks to Prof. Jega, the dynamics of politics is believed to have changed. Between 2011 and 2015, INEC has also moved a notch higher in its preparations with the introduction of innovations such as the Permanent Voters Card (PVC), the Card Reader, counting of votes and announcement of results at the polling units, among other things that made rigging a near impossibility. That was perhaps why the then ruling party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) tried to oppose the introduction of the Card Reader. But, the attempt failed.
Besides, it was clear from the body language of the PDP that the party never wanted the merger of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) and a faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), to become a reality. The then ruling party was reported to have made several moves through proxies to thwart the merger. But, Jega allowed it, by remaining cool, calm, calculated and focused on the overall objective the period. That singular incident was perhaps the first signal from the Jega-led INEC that 2015 general elections were not going to be business as usual.
The campaign for the 2015 general elections that brought the APC to power was hate-filled. But, in conceding victory, despite his party’s strong opposition to Jega’s supervision of the 2015 election, former President Jonathan has reaffirmed his confidence in the choice of the Professor of Political Economy as the right man for the job of charting the path of credible electoral process in Nigeria about five years ago.
The outgoing electoral umpire has broken the record by being the first INEC chairman to conduct two general elections; 2011 and 2015. It was also under his tenure that a ruling party would lose elections for first time in the country’s political history.
Controversy, criticisms and commendations trailed the conduct of Prof. Jega and his team prior to the last general elections. Aside from the PVC and the Card Reader, controversy also dogged the attempt to introduce an additional 30,000 polling units. The move was strongly rebuffed by Nigerians, especially from the Southern part of the country. They saw it as a move to favour a particular section of the country. After days of insistence and explanation, the Commission dropped the move, but that did not spare Jega from attack and allegation ahead of the polls. Several allegations of bias and corrupt practices were leveled against him by both the PDP and the APC. But, in the face of all these allegations and provocations, Jega remained undaunted.
Jega’s appointment was favourably received five years ago by Nigerians from all walks of life because he was a member of the Justice Muhammed Uwais Electoral Reform Panel, which made recommendations for organising free, fair and credible election. But, Opadokun was one of those Nigerians that criticised the appointment. He said that was one of the reasons why he had opposed the appointment of Prof. Jega five years ago. “As a member of the Uwais panel that made the above lofty recommendation, I felt that as a gentleman Jega ought to have rejected that appointment,” he said. Besides, the CODER chieftain said he was also against the composition of INEC put in place by Prof. Jega, where seven or eight departments out of the 10 in the commission were headed by people from the part of the country where the chairman hailed from.
Opadokun said CODER remains resolute on the full recommendations of the Uwais panel report. He said: “We should not be looking for angels; what we should do is to build and rely on institutions, no matter who comes there, he would be subject to the rules and regulations. Contrary to the recommendation of the Uwais panel that an electoral offences tribunal should be set to try electoral offenders, no one has been tried and sentenced for electoral offences. The import of this is that the tribunal would not require the approval of the attorney-general to try electoral offences.
“President Muhammadu Buhari should go ahead and ensure that all the recommendations of the Uwais panel are implemented.” One of the key recommendations was that the government in power should no longer appoint the chairman of the electoral commission. According to Opadokun, it is like a football final between team A and team B, where the former is allowed to appoint the match officials. He said: “The panel recommended that anyone who wanted to the chairman of the electoral commission should apply to the National Judicial Council (NJC), which would collate the applications and send them to the National Council of State. The Council of State is expected to consider the applications and nominate one person, by sending it to the Senate for ratification. This would make the umpire impartial because he was not appointed by the government of the day and he would be under no obligation to favour the party in government.”
Jega was born on 11 January 1957 in Jega, Kebbi State. He attended Sabon Gari Town Primary School, Jega between 1963 and 1969 and proceeded to Government Secondary School, Birnin Kebbi and then was admitted into The Ahmadu Bello University Zaria’s Bayero University College, Kano in 1974, graduating in 1979 with a Second Class Upper Division BSc degree in Political Science. He worked as a teaching assistant at Bayero University. Thereafter, he won a fellowship at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois in the United States (1981 to 1984) where he earned a PhD in Political Sciences. He returned to the Political Science Department in Bayero University in 1984 as a lecturer.
Other appointments included visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos (March 1992 to March 1993), visiting Research Fellow, Department of Political Science, University of Stockholm, Sweden (1994), Deputy Vice-chancellor (Academic), Bayero University (1995 to 1996) and Director, Centre for Democratic Research and Training, Bayero University (2000 to 2004). Jega was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University in 2005.
He is a former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and was an opponent of the Babangida military government in the early 1990s. Politically leaning towards the left, as ASUU President he was closely associated with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and continued that connection throughout his career. On April 29, 2010 he was guest lecturer for the NLC May Day celebration where he presented a paper on “50 Years of Nationhood: Challenges of Good Democratic Governance, Credible Election and the Working Class”. He is widely seen as an astute intellectual with a strong sense of ethics and morality.
