INEC’S ANAMBRA DEBACLE It is difficult not to feel sympathy for the Prof Attahiru Jega Chairman Independent Electoral Commission because the buck must stop on his table. As a former University Vice Chancellor and President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) he is widely seen as an astute intellectual with a strong sense of ethics and morality. His personal integrity isn’t a factor in the repeated failure of INEC to conduct hitch free elections but as he repeatedly fails to improve their performance people are beginning to doubt his suitability for the post. Many critics wonder why he finds it so difficult to come to grips with the fact that the organization he presides over is a cesspool of incompetence and corruption rather he chooses to accuse politicians of “reaching our people to subvert the process”. Human Resources experts say he was never the man for the job in the first place. According to them for an INEC Chairman to understand how to tackle the rot he should be a technocrat trained in physical distribution management, logistics, operations research and statistics. It is increasingly evident that despite all the best intentions an academic political scientist doesn’t have what it takes to run the organization effectively. The INEC Chairman has proved incapable of ending either the corrupt practices of its staff or the large scale manipulation of voter’s register and election results. All the expense on permanent voter’s cards, card readers, data- capture machines, and so on, continues to be a diversionary waste of money as they still resort to manual verification and manual voting. In 2011 they requested and got 89 Billion to enable them put in place a credible voter’s register. Of this amount 35 Billion was spent on so called “direct data capture machines” and the rest supposedly used to amongst other things create a “central database”. Despite this colossal amount Jega himself admitted the voters register for Anambra State contained over 93,000 foreign names. He announced a “clean up operation” as a consequence of which on voters in Anambra thronged the polling stations only to find their names missing from INEC’s multi billion naira database. The PDP candidate Tony Nwonye, as well as his mother’s and father’s names were missing from the voters list! In one fell swoop INEC had effectively disenfranchised a candidate and prevented him and his family from voting. This isn’t the first election since 2011 where we have seen this type of electoral incompetence and fraud playing out. One thing we can be sure of is the Anambra debacle will lead to lengthy costly litigation involving the election tribunal, Court of Appeal, and perhaps even the Supreme Court. Naturally the PDP candidate vowed not to accept the result calling the process a “monumental fraud” and embarrassment even going as far as openly accusing INEC and the security agencies of electoral malpractice. The APC candidate has also said the result won’t be acceptable. The last thing the nation can afford is for the Courts to order a complete re-run. In its final report released on Sunday afternoon the Nigeria Civil Society Election Situation Room, an election monitoring team, slammed INEC over the conduct of the election saying they repeated too many common mistakes. Their spokesperson said “It is our overall impression that the conduct of the election leaves a lot to be desired and reflected the lack of competence on the part of INEC in the conduct of elections”. The incompetence and corruption manifested itself in the mix up of election materials as well as the usual stories of late arrival of officials and election materials, late accreditation and late voting at many polling centres. It is totally unacceptable that INEC is still not able to deal with these logistical problems even when conducting elections in only one state. The voting itself was marred by a low voter turnout attributed to all the fuss and inconvenience. Many Christians didn’t vote because they came out on Saturday but INEC failed to deliver election materials and asked them to return the next day. Apart from the inconvenience of expecting people to come out twice to vote INEC did not consider that the following day was Sunday. What sort of turnout would they expect if elections in a northern state were scheduled for a Friday? INEC are living in self denial and never accept responsibility for low voter turnout no matter how shabby their preparations. They fail to understand that time is money and as long as they continue conducting voting in their time wasting and inconvenient manner the electorate will continue to respond by staying away. Nigerian elections continue to be an international disgrace as international observers and news agencies mock the shambles. In recent years INEC has conducted some of the worst elections in Nigerian history where many have died in violence, millions wasted in litigation, results regularly overturned, elections cancelled and expensive re-run elections ordered by the courts. The Supreme Court continually strives to save us all from the fiasco of INEC presidential elections. In every instance the Apex Court has ruled the presidential elections to be defective and flawed but in “substantial compliance” with electoral laws. This is the basis under which the nation muddles through with INEC who have developed a voracious appetite for spending money while rejecting constructive criticism. They continue to waste huge sums on never ending contracts for ballot boxes, ballot papers, umbrella’s, vehicles data capture machines and so on while deluding themselves into thinking that there is no better, more cost effective, more efficient or more voter friendly way to conduct elections. The Anambra debacle has cast serious doubts on the ability of INEC to conduct the 2015 general elections. Those who love Professor Jega should advise him to resign honourably before INEC ruins his reputation entirely. Meanwhile the EFCC should carry out a criminal investigation as it is evident INEC has not put in place what the country has spent massive amounts on.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 04:52:16 +0000
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