Professor Attahiru Jega is arguably Nigeria’s most celebrated public official in recent times. His success in retaining the confidence of a good number of Nigerians is especially interesting when you consider the enormity of controversies surrounding the kind of job he took up and held for five good years. He came in amidst celebrations from Nigerians who expressed confidence in his ability to deliver right before his appointment was made public. I can remember receiving a telephone call from my very dear friend and one of Africa’s most promising intellectuals, Mr. Ugoo Iwuji, the morning after Jega’s appointment was made public. My friend expressed confidence that Jega’s leftist political background and his history of non-compromise, transparency and efficiency as Vice Chancellor and earlier as the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities gave hope that he would restore confidence in the Nigerian electoral system. I, like most other Nigerians shared in Ugoo’s optimism.
Five years after that festival of belief and hope, I have little doubt that Professor Attahiru Jega is returning to his old duty post as a Professor, with shoulders held high. Should he? By the 30th of June 2010, when former President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated Jega as the Chairman of the Commission, INEC was already seen by not a few Nigerians as an internationally acclaimed election manipulator and a subsidiary of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Professor Maurice Iwu was so messed up in the media, that his unceremonious departure from INEC on the orders of the then acting President Goodluck Jonathan was seen as part of the factors that swelled Jonathan’s popularity among Nigerians. Even the major beneficiary of the 2007 elections, in the person of Late President Umoru Yaradua made it clear that the elections were fraudulent, hence, Maurice Iwu was at the receiving end of an unprecedented public opprobrium. Taking over from such a badly battered man, Professor Jega needed no one to remind him that his job had been clearly cut out for him. He did not only need to conduct the affairs of the Commission more transparently than his predecessor did, but he also had the burden of convincing Nigerians that he did. Though he took office less than one year before the 2011 elections, Jega knew that the real test of his efficiency lay in the conduct of that election, as Nigerians were not ready for any excuses.
That he would achieve anything substantial in that election depended on how much he cooperated with his immediate predecessor, who laid the foundation for the conduct of that election. I am convinced that Iwu was determined to use the 2011 elections as an opportunity to launder his image before the world by conducting a transparent election. It was Iwu who put in place most of the structures and equipment deployed by Jega in the conduct of that 2011 elections, and election observers from across the world confirmed that lots of improvements were made from the previous elections. Like Iwu, Jega went to work immediately after the 2011 elections to prepare for the next general elections. Even with the pass mark, the 2011 elections got, there were still many people who felt, and rightly too, that INEC perpetrated fraud in that election. Jega left no one in doubt about his determination to ensure that he left the INEC job, with his popularity among Nigerians and the world, intact. It must not be lost to us that there is a big difference between achieving credibility in a process and making it look like credibility was achieved in a process. It is beyond argument that Professor Jega succeeded in making a substantial number of Nigerians believe that the 2015 elections were credible, what is debatable is whether they truly were. A strong willed electoral umpire can conduct a credible, free and fair election without pandering to the whims of any group of people. A wily electoral umpire is tempted to the whims of a loud minority.
In Nigeria, the Devil can be canonized as saint if he conducts an election in which the humongous and obstreperous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) puts up a bad showing. The PDP was already building a name for itself as an invincible and indomitable political Party in Nigeria, and even the most vocal opposition parties almost lost hope of heading the Federal Government. The opposition Parties were seen as marginalized and oppressed by the PDP, while the PDP was seen as an oppressor and power drunk electoral criminal, such that, any election won by the PDP is deemed manipulated, while elections won by the opposition, no matter the circumstances, is seen as a triumph for democracy. With this situation, an electoral umpire who is more interested in personal image laundering will not stress himself investing in achieving a credible election that may eventually produce the PDP as winners, but will rather concentrate on populist programmes and utterances that will portray him in good light before the people while working in cahoots with the opposition to sway victory their way. While Professor Jega is receiving more encomiums for the conduct of the 2015 elections, any unbiased analyst will agree with me that the 2011 elections with all their imperfections were more credible than the 2015 elections.
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