Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Atahiru Jega (left) INEC Commissioner, Dr. Igbani Ishmeal and Mrs. Thelma Iremiren, INEC Commissioner during Jega's Inaugural Meeting with INEC Commissioners and Directors on assumption at INEC Headquarters in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan

By Jide Ajani, Deputy Editor
Thrown into the high wire politics that the speculated aspiration of President Goodluck Jonathan has become, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, national chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, is fast realizing that conducting elections in Nigeria is not an academic endeavour as an investigation reveals.

He’s undoubtedly the most troubled human in Nigeria and possibly Africa. Reason:  He is torn
between delivering to his country men the best possible elections and participating in the same elections. His name is Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Last Wednesday, July 21, 2010, at night, Jonathan met with the leadership of the National Assembly.  Present were David Mark, Senate President, and Ike Ekweremadu, his deputy.  There were a few other legislators.

Jonathan requested that the legislators help amend the constitution again for the purpose of a good election, the process of which starts with an equally good and authentic voter register.

Jonathan wanted them to employ the doctrine of necessity to stay action on some aspects of the amendment to the 1999 Constitution.  Specifically, Jonathan wanted the legislators to engage a process that would lead to the postponement of the 2011 general elections on account of the need by INEC, INEC, to use to what was described as “an authentic voter register”.

To the request, the legislators were said to have demurred, insisting that there was no way they could abort a baby that had already been born. President Jonathan was said to have thereafter embarked on a voyage of sympathy, explaining to the legislators that whatever the outcome of the elections was, Nigerians would point to the fact that he deliberately ambushed the process by using a voter register that was not authentic.

Jonathan pleaded for reason: He made it clear that with the preponderance of opinion in support of a new voter register, the National Assembly has a patriotic and bounding duty to create a process that would lead to the creation of a new voter register.  The implication of Jonathan’s position as presented to the legislators was that election could no longer take place in January 2011 as envisaged by the just concluded amendment to the constitution.

The legislators said it was not possible to amend the constitution again. But they created a window for President Jonathan.  They let it be known that the newly appointed national chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, would have to go public to make a request for the amendment of the Electoral Act, for the process to begin. Specifically, they said there were some aspects of the Electoral Act that also needed to be amended.

* Ball In INEC’s Court
The consensus at the end of the meeting which was said to have dragged into the early hours of Thursday was that INEC should first place a request before the National Assembly. Therefore, when Jega hurriedly called a press conference on Thursday, making public his fears about a free and fair election, it was to fulfill the needed righteousness.

According to Jega, the commission would need between N55 billion and N72 billion to compile a new voters register that would guarantee the conduct of credible elections in 2011. The INEC boss said given the recent amendment to the 1999 constitution by the National Assembly and the ongoing amendments to the Electoral law, the conduct of elections in the country, especially in 2011 would be directly affected.

He said that based on the amendments, the commission was faced with the choice of either compiling a new voter’s register in less than eight weeks or embarking on the herculean task of ‘salvaging’ the existing register in 16weeks, noting that either of the two presented a difficult choice.

He said after a thorough and careful consideration of the existing scenario and its determination to ensure that the laws were followed to the letter, “we have sent a communication to the National Assembly requesting modifications to several parts of the electoral law as it considers the bill for a new Electoral Act presently before it.”

He added: “In that communication, we have requested the distinguished and honorable members of the National Assembly to consider the following areas:

“(i). Section 10(5) of the electoral Act: to reduce the time for the end of the registration, updating and revision of the register of voters from 120 days before an election to 60 days. This gives us an additional eight weeks, bringing the total period available to compile a new register to 16 weeks.

“(ii)section 21 of the Electoral Act: to reduce the time for the completion of supplementary list of voters, integration into the existing register and final certification from the 60 days before election to 30 days.

“That gives us a total of 20 weeks to attempt a ‘salvage’ of the existing register.

(iii) In addition, we have requested the National Assembly to amend section 11(4) of the Electoral Act which is ambiguous and creates the impression that as soon as we announce the notice of elections, registration of voters must terminate.

Jega noted that though the commission had no illusion that a voter register produced in four months would be perfect, “it would be vastly more trustworthy and capable of producing free and fair elections than the existing one.”

“If the amendments we have proposed scale through in good time, and I must say that initial indications are that the National Assembly is favourably disposed to our request, then we have four months, starting from August, to compile a new voters register for the elections, employing an electronic data capturing system.

Although this is a herculean task considering the size, population and other social and political conditions of our country, we are determined to compile a new, permanent and credible voters register since it is the irreducible minimum for conducting free and fair elections, which is what Nigerians expect from us.” When Jega said that the “initial indications are that the National Assembly is favourably disposed to our request”, he was merely referring to the tête-à-tête of Wednesday night.

But he still pointed out that apart from the issue of funding which he observed was central to successful prosecution of the outlined programmes, the issue of training and logistics was equally vital.

According to him, after extensive consultation with experts and other stakeholders, “our assessment is that it will cost between N55billion and N72billion to conduct a credible compilation of a new voters register between August and November.

“This is based on the procurement and full deployment of 120,000 composite electronic voter registration equipment, principally laptop computers, finger print scanners, high resolution cameras, backup power packs and integrated printer for producing temporary but high quality voters cards that can be used for the January elections.”

He said provided the necessary funding was available by the beginning of August, “we have to keep to almost inflexible timelines to be able to produce a new voter register by November 9, to conduct the elections by January 2011.” Jega said though the “absolute preference” of the commission was to compile a new voters’ register, not minding the constraint of time, the commission would be forced to try to salvage the existing register if “we do not get the requisite amendments to the electoral law and/or the funding is not provided in good time.”

He added: “Should such a lamentable circumstance arise, this commission can only guarantee raising the credibility of that register perhaps by only10 per cent based on what we have seen of it. This is again based on the availability of at least 30,000 direct capture machines.” Jega had said during the commission’s retreat at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State recently, that the commission found out that the existing voters register fell short of “the level of credibility required for free and fair elections.”

He had said: “We closely looked through the existing voters register sampling over 100 polling units from randomly selected 19 states. What we found were massive inadequacies including under age registrants, hundreds of blank or blurred photographs and multiple registrations by same persons.”

* Crux of The Matter
What Sunday Vanguard has been able to piece together, however, is only slightly related to what Jega announced to the world.

First, the basis for the extension of time being sought by Jega, altruistic as it may appear with a view to giving Nigerians a credible election, may have packed along with it, even if inadvertently, political undertones.

At a time when the issue of zoning within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has become thorny, even as Nigerians are asking the Jonathan-Must-Contest crowd what the President is doing or has done to justify his re-election, present reality has dawned of Jonathan that he must be seen to be delivering the goods of democracy if only to smoothen his path to re-election.  Therefore, he needs time to demonstrate to Nigerians that he deserves to be re-elected.

Then there is the other matter of INEC playing into the hands of those who are yet to have their own stock of voters’ cards for future election. The reason is that as far as what the eye can see of Nigeria’s political firmament, any voter register that is compiled so close to an election period would only end up as a gratuitous waste of time and unnecessary waste of public funds.

One of the real issues that Jega’s INEC is yet to address is the fact of cleaning up the register as it is.
Sunday Vanguard has discovered that the reason why INEC ditched the 2003 voter register was not only because it was compromised and needed cleaning up, but most importantly because of what a source described as “the disappearance of the Source Code for the platform of the 2003 voter register”.

It was gathered that “the South African firm which programmed the platform for the 2003 voter register took the source code away.

“All attempts made by the commission to penetrate the platform and retrieve some figures or even salvage that platform proved abortive”, the source said, adding, “That was why INEC had to create another platform for the 2007 elections, an update was done in 2008, 2009 and another one is to be done now in 2010”.

The source said no country relies solely on the previous voter register for fresh elections.
The register is always updated and not wholly replaced and if it is to be replaced, it would not be on the eve of an election for fear of politicians mopping up the cards. Sunday Vanguard was told that what is normally carried out is a clean up of the register to remove fake names.

INEC’s clean up exercise was responsible for the seeming ‘fairness’ of the Anambra elections because it refused to use the voter register as tampered with by politicians. This also led to the redeployment of the REC and sacking of about a dozen staff.

The Fears of Attahiru Jega
Sunday Vanguard has learnt that Professor Jega is waking up to the realities of being national chairman of INEC.

The complexities and the political intrigues that continue to bedevil the quest for free and fair elections in Nigeria are beginning to set in.

At normal times, Jega’s request for more time would have been very apt.  On the aphorism that whatever is worth doing is worth doing well, Jega’s request for more time is worthy of interrogation on the basis of the fact that there is need to for once have credible elections.

But in the light of contemporary realities occasioned by the controversy surrounding zoning, even Jega would not want to be insinuated into the crisis now rocking the polity.

For instance, PDP’s latest quest to lure Abia State governor, Theodore Orji into its fold, a move which sources say has all the fingerprints of the presidency on it, with a promise to hand the gallivanting Abia governor the PDP automatic governorship ticket.

Now, the tight rope for Jega would be how to ensure that such acts of disenfranchisement and barefaced perfidy is not allowed.  Yet, the PDP remains the ruling party.

There is also the pronouncement of Jega that Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, should not accept assistance or gifts from state governors.  Pray, would Jega become omnipresent in all the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja?

No doubt Jega wants to leave a legacy.

However, with the shambolism of the PDP, a President whose aspiration has been hijacked by political jobbers, parties that are in shambles across the land, an opposition that thrives more on the decibel of its voice than providing an attractive alternative, Jega does not want to fail.

Add to that, the arm-twisting tactics of the National Assembly which has reversed the order of elections, bringing parliamentary elections before others.

Reforms Needed For Free and Fair Elections:

*Ballot papers to be counted at polling units and the results announced on the spot
*NYSC as staff to be used instead of ad hoc
*Parties to send agents when materials are received and counted and certified before being distributed

Provisional Time table by
Maurice Iwu

Provisional time table as released by INEC in Abuja on March 16, 2010, in the event that the constitution is amended
National Assembly elections:            8th January, 2011
Governorship/State assembly elections         15th January, 2011
Presidential Election-                   22nd January, 2011

Jega’s Timelines For Delivery of
new Voter Register

The strict timelines he gave were are follows:

*Early August 2010, identification of equipment suppliers and the award of contract for the supply of the equipment; delivery of 15,000 units of the equipment and training;

*Early September to mid September; delivery of balance of equipment for registration exercise and completion of deployment of equipment to polling units

*Mid-October; registration of voters and printing of voters register for display;

*Late October to early November;

*From mid November to early December 2010 would be for display of voters register, verification, correction and certification.