EXPECTATIONS OF ATTAHIRU JEGA’s INEC

EXPECTATIONS OF ATTAHIRU JEGA’s INEC
By Ahmed el-Salam

One will wonder why the National Assembly is yet to approve the nomination of Professors Attahiru Jega as Chairman of the ‘Independent’ National Electoral Commission, INEC. Given the fact that the advisory National Council of State had, without a whimper of scrutiny, gave approval to his nomination, it is not unlikely that a game is a foot.
All hailed his antedent as a radical academic a principled individual whose reputation is beyond reproach, and as such, will serve in a way to preserve his integrity. This may well be so.
Be that as it may, it is necessary to examine the issues involved, if we are not to misplace our hopes or optimism. This is so because; Jega operated in the Academic Staff Union of Universities, itself a radical group capable of radicalizing the most conservative person. Again, the context in which he operated could not but influence his conduct and response to pressures. And so, Jega as president of ASUU may not be the same as, Jega the Vice Chancellor of Bayero University Kano, and much less as Chairman of INEC.
Now we know that Professor Maurice Iwu, the despicable immediate past chairman of INEC was Jega’s deputy in ASUU. We now know also that Iwu made Jega a consultant to INEC even though he had denied it. Unknown to us is the quality of Jega’s imput into Iwu’s INEC while it lasted. There is no record of disagreement between the two in so far as their cooperation is concerned. There is even the insinuation that Jega was recommended by Iwu to President Goodluck Jonathan. We may not be able to tell but we can connect their past relationships and then draw a reasonable conclusion.
Granted that Attahiru Jega is his own man, he has a responsibility to himself, his family and admirers to maintain whatever reputation he had prior to INEC. Jega was a prominent member of Justice Muhammed Uwais’ Electoral Reform Committee whose recommendations the government and the National Assembly have made nonsense of. That Committee made specific recommendation on how INEC Chairman should be appointed and by who. But Jega’s appointment or nomination was done differently, yet he made no protest or complaint. If he agreed passionately with his Committee’s position, he also ought to have objected to the manner and process of his nomination. If Jega’s nomination is based on the same law and the process through which Iwu was appointed, then the only difference we have a right to expect is the difference between Jega and Iwu’s character and integrity. But if both were radicals at ASUU, and Iwu became ultra-conservative at INEC and was still besotted to and accommodative of Jega whom he made a (consultant?), do we have a guarantee that Jega will not turn a conservative at INEC?
The fact that Jega made no protest as to the manner and process of his nomination is an evidence that he is at home with it. And if Iwu had a hand in the emergence of Jega, it follows that he was permitted to appoint his own successor at INEC. Of course, the man at INEC is different from INEC but has to operate within the law and the context of it. Here is where Jega and Nigerians may be disappointed. If, according to Mr. President, he nominated him on the basis of the existing law, Jega cannot reasonably be expected to operate with a non-existent reform law. In which case, it is unreasonable to expect that the radicalism of Jega will not succumb to the manipulations of the PDP’s government.
Prof. Attahiru Jega cannot do without a job and having left the university, he will need to do this INEC’ job to keep body and soul together; and may not risk a sack for ‘undue radicalism’. In which case, he will have to play ball to retain his job. Afterall, no one feeds on verbal hyperbole alone.
The structure and system at INEC remains what they were during Prof. Iwu’s tenure. Removing known card-carrying members of PDP is unlikely to help Jega or improve his perception as a man of integrity. No one has asked him this question: Is Jega a sympathizer or admirer of the PDP, if he is not a member? Can anyone accept a job from a party or government to which he is not affiliated? I do not expect Attahiru Jega to turn-around a non-reformed INEC or electoral law-just by his reputation as a radical. His Commissioners may not even buy into his radicalism, not if they are also sympathizers or admirers of PDP and its government. Without a new electoral law that could be seen to be radically different from what exist at the moment, Attahiru Jega may end up not differently but just a little less nauseating than his friend and confidant, Prof. Maurice Iwu. In which case, all talks and promises of electoral reform may just be a waste of everybody’s time and breath.
If President Jonathan, his Party and government will not accept Justice Uwais’ reform recommendations, they could spare this country their pretence to the contrary. If only the president, who is a partisan Party member is the one mandated by law to nominate people into INEC, he could do so by not insisting that non-partisan Nigerians are the qualified candidates-because there are no such Nigerians who are non-partisan, politically. There is not use packing a horde of pretenders at INEC just to show a non-existing neutrality, no. This will be worse than useless.
If I am in position to make recommendation to Mr. President, I would advice to let the PDP and the opposition Parties forward their nominees to him for consideration. All Parties in Jonathan’s Government of National Unity should be represented by the PDP, while opposition Parties will choose their own representatives – by a ratio of 50:50. By this formula, everyone will know from the onset that the electoral body is made up of bipartisan representatives with the interest of all shades of political opinion at heart. If the President insists on existing law and process without input from opposition parties, the result will be a nude-dance of masquerades, with Attahiru Jega as the Chief masquerade!