Jega’s Tenure As INEC Chairman

Chairman Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ,Attahiru Jega (right) handing over to the Acting Chairman, Ahmed Wali during the handover ceremony at the commission’s Headquarters in Abuja on. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan

PROF. Attahiru Jega, whose tenure as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ended last week has etched his name on the positive side of Nigerian history. He led the country through the least litigated presidential elections in his five years stewardship of the country’s Election Management Body.

Jega, the first man to preside over two presidential elections since the advent of the presidential system of democracy in 1979, left the job relatively untainted against the experience of many predecessors none of whom conducted two presidential elections.

His appointment in 2010 was generally applauded across the country and underlined the assertions by President Goodluck Jonathan to sustain the momentum for electoral reforms initiated by his predecessor, President Umaru Yar‘ Adua. Jega had before then, won a reputation for activism having led the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) in the eighties.

His appointment as INEC chairman, just after he partook in the deliberations of the Justice Mohammed Uwais-led Committee on Electoral Reform came with many expectations.

His initial efforts, were, however, not very salutary. The biometric registration exercise that preceded the 2011 elections was marked by confusion. The first round of elections in March 2011 had to be cancelled midway on account of logistic logjams. Even the cost of the 2011 election put at N122.9 billion by Jega was also flayed in several quarters as outrageous.

Jega was also along the way flayed in some sections of the polity for seemingly seeking to tilt the electoral balance in favour of one side of the country, notably, through the creation of seemingly superfluous voting points. Though the allegations were not proven, his rebuttals were, however, not well communicated.

INEC under Jega introduced biometrics and the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, AFIS to weed out multiple registrations which, until then, was one of the major weaknesses of the country’s election process. The innovation of using vice-chancellors and other academics as returning officers helped to increase the credibility of elections.

In 2015, Jega’s final antidote to the corruption of the election process was the introduction of the Permanent Voter Card and the Smart Card Reader. The two devices played crucial roles in making the elections credible.

It is instructive that even with the accolades that shadowed his time at the Commission,  Jega spurned a second term. We applaud his exemplary conduct of bowing out when the ovation was loudest and commend his example to other office holders, many of whom have not satisfied the public interest in the way Jega has done.

We hope his successor will tackle the menace of child voters which was one of the criticisms against Jega, and also evolve befitting punishment for electoral cheats.

Vanguard