By Ochereome Nnanna
THE new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, got me worried when he gave the “salvaging” of the Maurice Iwu voters register as an option. In his maiden press conference on Thursday, July 22, 2010, he had hinted that his Commission would have no choice but to attempt a salvage of the old register if the N72 billion required to acquire the machines and logistics for the creation of a credible and computerised electoral register and database was not granted.

It is gratifying to note that, in his avowed determination to ensure a free and fair election next year, President Goodluck Jonathan has already granted the request for the fund without snipping a kobo off. But suppose the President wanted to play pranks or the fund was not readily available, I shudder at the readiness of Professor Jega to settle for the second option of “salvaging” a register that was used to conduct elections which the whole world has thumbed down.

Compromise was not the picture painted in the minds of Nigerians by those who were rooting for the appointment of Professor Jega as the Chairman of the INEC. I was not looking forward to Jega giving the slightest gap to anything that could result in only 10 per cent success rate, especially in the all-important compilation of the voters register.

The fact that any attempt to salvage the Iwu-created voters register could only result in a 10 per cent rate of success should have rendered that option unworthy of being considered as an option. Jega should simply have asked for the money – and time – to give us a credible election.

That would have bolstered his image as a decisive electoral umpire who will not accept half-measures. We hope we do not have on our hands a university professor who will allow himself to be derailed by the many pressures that lie ahead of him.
Another issue that worries me is his insistence that “May 29, 2011 handover date is sacrosanct. Please have no illusions about it”. I am worried but I understand.

The INEC is bound by the Constitution, which confirms that on May 29, 2011 the tenure of those elected four years previously must come to an end. Ordinarily, this should never be an issue for debate. But we are faced with an extraordinary circumstance in which as a nation we lost three months to an ailing president, during which governance was at a virtual standstill.

We also lost momentum due to the removal of Professor Iwu and the long period it took for his replacement to be sourced. The nation has no regrets for the removal of Iwu, but if that had not happened, the electoral calendar released by Iwu on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 had intended that the review of voters register would start on April 26,  2010.

Little did Iwu know that three days after this date he would be asked to embark on a compulsory terminal leave. I said the nation had no regret for getting rid of Iwu because he merely intended to “review” his nonsensical voters register when what we need is a fresh, sanitised one.

If Jega is able to start the compilation of a voters register in August as he would like to, we would still have lost four months to political instability. Credible and acceptable election is a sine qua non for a stable government. Without the foundational issue of credible voters register being settled, there is no way an acceptable election can ever be held.

Having been squeezed into a very tight corner by this problem, added to the complication of a new constitutional provision that compulsorily brought the 2011 polls forward to January from the old April date, Jega resorted to begging the National Assembly to amend the Electoral Act of 2006 to reduce the time for the registration of voters from 120 to 60 to squeeze out more time for a new registration exercise to be completed.

Even if the Assembly grants this request there is no guarantee that more complications will not emerge, as the electronic machines have not been ordered from the manufacturers, neither have the personnel who will man them been trained.

The task of preparing for a credible, foolproof election in 2011 is not such that the paring of a few weeks off the remaining period can suffice. We must run away from the Nigerian style of waiting for the last minute before we start major national assignments, such as preparations for elections. If we force ourselves to hold elections in January 2011, we might spend another four years suffering the crises of legitimacy that hounded the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua to his grave.

We should either postpone the coming into effect of the First Amendment to our 1999 Constitution to enable INEC enough time to conduct the election in April 2011 or even restore October 1 as the day a new government is sworn into power as was the tradition before General Abdulsalami Abubakar unilaterally shifted it to the curious May 29 date. I am in favour of the latter option, which many well-meaning Nigerians and civil society groups have clamoured for. All it requires is for the National Assembly to, once again, summon the ‘Doctrine of Necessity’.

We have many things to gain and nothing to lose. October one is our National Day. May 29 is nothing. This period will give Jega and his team enough time to plan and give Nigeria the best election they can. It will also allow President Jonathan to prove himself as an achiever, failing which we will be at liberty to look elsewhere for his replacement.
In Nigeria we rush every major event. That is why we never get it right.