JEGA’S SCORE CARD
Attahiru Jega has many things unusual with fate. Fortunately,
he had been succeeding in them. As a student, he joined in the radicalism of
student unionism. Eventually, he became the student president of his time in
his university. He was very articulate. He was known to fair and bold talking.
He succeeded in his leadership as the student president. He moved on in his
academic pursuit and eventually became a lecture at the Bayero University,
Kano.
There, he became President of ASUU at B.U.K, Kano. Still in
his capacity as President of ASUU, B.U.K Chapter, he became representative of
ASUU in the Nigeria Labour Congress, Kano State. In the process, this enigmatic
Jega became the Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano. There, he garnered
more fame at the national level. But his old relationship with union leaders
such as Adams Oshiomhole – The NLC National President, who is now Governor of
Edo State, particularly during the difficult days of Gen. Sani Abacha as Head
of State of Nigeria, was not lost. And in the process, either right or wrong,
he was recommended and accepted to be the messiah to salvage the
ever-problematic Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan administration for the peaceful, fair and credible
conduct of the Presidential Election in 2010 which the President declared: he
was going to bring in a man whose name he had only heard but had never seen or
spoken with before. That was the humanly unblemished Jega. And so that unblemished
ness was with him when he conducted the first Presidential Election in 2011
during his watch. So, he did quite well. There was no politics or sentiment of
Personal Voters Cards (PVCs), neither was there any rancor or complaint
regarding its distribution, be it North or South. There was also no intrigue of
Card Reader Machine.
Of course, the stench of Boko Haram has not reached this
dimension. And so he conducted an election which was largely considered free,
fair and credible. There were, nevertheless, noticeable blacklegs within the
house of the South-South where the main presidential candidate-Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan came from, his main opponent being Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. Muhammadu Buhari,
on his defeat in that election made (save force) his supporters to cause mayhem
on those termed non-supporters of his party- the- CPC. They killed innocent
citizens and also burnt churches across the North from Mina in Niger State,
Zaria and Kaduna town in Kaduna State, Kano town in Kano State, and also in Yobe,
Zamfara, Sokoto, Adamawa and Borno states, etc. They also torched the houses of
the Vice Presidential candidate-Namadi Sambo in his home town of Zaria and also
that of the INEC Chairman – Attahiru Jega, probably in Kano. They also killed
about seven innocent youth corpers and many others in Mina, Niger State. With
the activities of Boko Haram in full gear and the constant threat of the lives
of those in government increased, the turning point in the discharge of the Herculean
task of the INEC Chairman, against the backdrop of his inclination to give in,
became visible. He now engineered new PVCs from temporary to permanent and also
formulated a (new) distributive system which grossly and massively favoured his
own North as against the South. It seemingly became a systematic plan to follow
the dictates of Boko Haram who insisted on what Ahmadu Bello handed down to
them-the North on independence in 1960. “The new nation called Nigeria should
be an estate of our great grandfather Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly
prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the North as willing tools
and the South as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us and
never allow them to have control over their future”. – Parrot Newspaper, 12th
October, 1960. These are the very words on which Boko Haram was created and
sustained. Though the political revolutionary antics of Osmanu Dan Fodio,
sugar-coated in Islamic religion from Mali through Seni-Gambia through Niger
Republic to Gobir - Sokoto State to Zamfara to Katsina to Kano to Gaya to Hadejia
to Zaria and to all the land and their people beyond, except the Elkanemis of
Borno, who are mostly Kanuris and Shua Arabs, he captured the native Hausas,
these modern-day inheritors of the land from about 1804 and started injecting
Islam into the native Hausas and made them only Hausa in name but Fulani in
nature which Osmanu Dan Fodio and his fellow revolutionist were. And so
Democracy and any element of it became stillbirth in this new project called Nigeria
right from its moment of independence in 1960.
Professor Attahiru Jega is the eleventh chairman of the
Nigerian Election Commission from Eyo Esua between 1963 to 1966 who conducted
the parliamentary elections in 1964. Of course, let it not be lost in our
memory that the independence election of 1960 was conducted by the British
colonialist themselves, just before the independence proper. It was in 1966,
precisely from 18th January, 1966 came series of coups and counter
croups up till 1975 when Michael Ani came in as FEDECO Chairman and conducted
the 1979 general elections. Thereafter, Victor Orie Whiskey, the retired jurist
from Bendel State, who actually did not have anything to do with whiskey, but
only in name, came in as FEDECO Chairman and conducted the 1983 Presidential Election
which Shehu Shagari won but Major General Muhammadu Buhari scuttled with the
military coup of that year.
Thereafter, came Eme Awa, a professor of Political Science
and a teacher at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS,
Kuru, Jos, who was appointed to head the National Electoral Commission, NEC, by
the crafty Ibrahim Babangida to conduct national elections for governorship and
council elections on what he termed zero-party system while he was still at the
helm of affairs at the centre, at the same time making his most intimate
colleague, friend and confidant, Sani Abacha, his second in command. Ibrahim
Babangida, appointed Professor Humphrey Nwosu on the 28th of
February, 1989 as Chairman of NEC on a two party political system – National
Republican Convention - NRC and Social Democratic Party –SDP. This crafty Evil Genius
dilly-dallied all the time through until 1990 when Orkar and his mostly
minority boys in the army struck and shook up the foundations of Babangida
administration. And so in 1993, precisely June 12, Professor Humphrey Nwosu
conducted what has all along been regarded as the freest, fairest and the most
credible and peaceful election in the history of Nigeria where Dahiru Tofa and
majority of his fellow Northerners all conceded that it was indeed, free, fair
and credible, that is, including the foreign observers. But, unfortunately, the
Evil Genius who had different plans from what he told Nigerians, annulled the
election and declared that he was stepping aside thus leaving the stage for
Chief Ernest Shonekan.
Professor Humphrey
Nwosu was, nevertheless, praised for innovating an election model which he christened
option A4, the modified opened ballot system and conducted it so well all of
which made that election to be adjudged the freest, fairest and most peaceful
in Nigeria which Chief M.K.O Abiola won so squarely and his opponent – Dahiru
Tofa conceded defeat, and left the country immediately because the military was
ready to arrest both the winner and the defeated until they were satisfied
ruling Nigeria.
Of course, Professor Okon Uya was appointed on Professor
Humphrely Nwosu’s abdication of his duty when Ibrahim Babangida annulled the
June 12, 1993 Presidential Election and went only God knows where. This
Professor did not conduct any single election as the electoral (NEC) structures
were dismantled by Gen. Sani Abacha when
he seized power from Chief Ernest Shonekan, the experienced technocrat picked
by Ibrahim Babangida to head the Interim National Government, a contraption he
put in place before he stepped aside in August of the same year.
Chief Sumna Dagogo-Jack who hails from Abonnema in the then
Degema (but now Akuku Toru) Local Government Area in Rivers State, who was a
member of the Management Committee of NEC, was appointed Chairman of the new
electoral body named National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON). But,
unfortunately, this electoral body was never inaugurated by the military
administration that created it as Abacha wanted to succeed himself as perpetual
military ruler. Thereafter, came Chief Ephraim Akpata, a son of Edo State who was
made the Chief Electoral Officer during the military administration of General
Abaulsalami Abubakar in 1998, that is, after the sudden demise of Gen. Sani
Abacha in office. Chief Akpata headed the electoral body rechristened
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Abdulsalami Abubakar, who had
then taken over the reins of power from the much junior, recalcitrant,
stubborn, tenacious but very courageous Major Al-Mustapha, was said to show
sincerity and clarity in his quest to hand-over power to a democratically
elected (civilian) government even though he was accused of having a hand in the
mysterious death of Chief M.K.O Abiola just some days after Gen. Sani Abacha’s
sudden death while he was still in detention custody of the junta.
Unfortunately, Abdulsalami Abubakar was directly accused of having a hand in
the sudden death of Chief M.K.O. Abiola by the U.S government, after taking a
cup of tea on the visit of a top ranking U.S. official having a chat with Chief
M.K.O Abiola.
Nevertheless, the elections conducted by this Edo Chief were
said to be fairly very credible, thus bringing in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in
his second political missionary journey.
Dr. Abel Guobadia who holds a doctorate degree, also from Edo
State, was brought in as Chairman of INEC and conducted the 2003 general
elections which ushered in Obasanjo’s second coming as President on a civilian
platform though that ushered in Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s return mission on a
civilian template, as a presidential candidate. Suffice to say, that election
was said to be hogwash mainly according to the Yoruba press, it was the beginning
of Buhari’s entrance into the politics of Nigeria after removing his military
uniform. He, nevertheless, on his defeat ordered his supporters to torch the
houses and properties of those he perceived as his opponents (enemies), and
also main a good number of them. To put it but in half, minor hell was let loose
in so many places in Nigeria such as Mina, Zaria, Kano, Zamfara, Sokoto, etc.
Then came Professor Maurice Iwu, a Pharmacist by profession.
He was brought in to handle the electoral responsibilities of the nation in
2005 after Buhari and his supporters accused Abel Guobadia of all sorts of
electoral atrocities. Maurice Iwu brought in a lot of reforms with an attempt
to use digital technology to handle registration of voters, but in 2007, he
conducted what was said to be a very controversial general election because
Gen. Buhari, in his second coming in this new democratic platform as a
born-again democratic, accused the PDP, the ruling party, of rigging the
election for Musa Yar-Adua, a near minority from Zaria in Kaduna State, Buhari
being a “first born” Fulani from Katsina State. But Umar Musa Yar’ Adua, the
fair and kind-hearted candidate in the presidential election admitted that the
elections were not the best and that they may be fraught with electoral
irregularities. And Buhari was the happiest for his opponent to publicly admit
that the elections could be fraught with malpractices. And so he capitalized on
that public admission.
Before the nation could wakeup to face the realities of state
business, their president was fatally down in ill-health and eventually died
about two years after. Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who was his vice, took over
first as Acting President and later appointed Professor Attahiru Jega as
Chairman of INEC in 2010 when he conducted the general elections in 2011 which
Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan won. It is an understatement to say that hell was
let loose as Buhari, his opponent, went on the rampage calling on his
supporters not to allow the least child who went against him to remain alive.
In the process, the Vice Presidential Candidate, Muhammed Namadi Sambo’s house
in Zaria was burnt, so also was the house of the INEC Chairman-Attahiru Jega.
At this stage, the activities of the Boko Haram was at the pick where suicide
bombing was at the climax particularly in Abuja, Kano, Yobe, Adamawa, Kaduna,
Taraba and, worst still, in Borno. Unlike the history of all the other chairmen
in the conduct of the general elections in Nigeria, Professor Attahiru Jega performed
fairly well in his first conduct of the general elections in 2011. No other
chairman had ever conducted the presidential election twice on a particular
appointment apart from Attahiru Jega. While we will concede to him that a lot
of electoral innovations were made such as making the PVC truly permanent, the
attempt at making the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and, in particular, the
Card Reader Machine (CRM) which was in use as one Umar Hiliya boasted for
having been the brain behind its invention, that is, without any equivocation,
what Attahiru Jega used in rigging the election for his Northern brother-Muhammadu
Buhari. Quite some flaws were noticed in the preparation leading to the conduct
of the 2015 election and the (then) President –Goodluck Jonathan was told to
critically look at them and act, but he said there was no problem. So, Jega
took advantage of the quietness and care-freeness of the President regarding
very sensitive national issues such as a general election. Jega decided to act
any how he liked by way of distributing extra PVCs to, in my close view, some
selected parts of the North such as Kano, North and Central Kaduna (save South,
the Zango-Kataf area), Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Adamawa, Niger and perhaps his
own native state of Kebbe, etc. The North had so much PVCs that even little
children of 5, 6,7,8,9,10,11,12 and those less than 14 were allowed to vote
freely as shown on the television screen so as to complement their perceived
strength. The Card Reader Machines were not working in so many parts of the
country during the election and Jega’s 2015 general election was adjudged above
average being better than every other election Nigeria has ever conducted,
according to the Yoruba press. To me, there is nothing special about the 2015
election except. This was further elucidated by Amanze Obi in his beautiful
piece titled: “Why are we not talking about Jega” in the Daily Sun of Thursday,
July 9, 2015, except:
1. The main Presidential
Candidate-Goodluck Ebele Jonathan saved the situation by his own reaction
towards his own defeat.
2. The main man, with every respect
without any apology, who has been causing all the political killings and arson
at the national level is this time the winner as conceded to him by his
opponent – Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
By being declared the winner this time around he
decided not to allow any further cause of mayhem in the country. That is the
reason for the peace we are enjoying now.
MR. MARCUS ANGA.
