Why must we continue to do everything in an untidy manner? It seems we never learn.

This was sadly demonstrated by the events before the death of  President Umar Yar’Adua.  At a period during that unhappy period, the public was so confused that many people, including members of the Federal Executive Committee, could not tell whether he was dead or still alive, but gravely ill.

There was some argument on whether the Vice President should retain that title in stead of that of  the Acting President in the protracted absence of the President. It was all so messy.

Some of the problems were ascribed to the shortcomings of the 1999 Constitution, which was amended thereafter. There had indeed been an intermittent outcry against the unsuitability of  the Constitution almost from its inception for various reasons, not excluding the fact that it was formulated under a military regime.

Its inadequacies, perceived or real during the Yar’Adua episode seemed to have propelled our lawmakers to swift action in amending some sections of it. After the necessary preliminaries had been satisfied, the amendments were returned to the National Assembly for due endorsement.

The ratification was granted by the Senate almost as a matter of course, and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, declared that a Presidential endorsement was in no way compulsory for the amended sections to become law. That led to another celebrated to-do.

The position of the Deputy Senate President found an upsurge of support among several legal experts including Professor Itse Sagay. Dissenting opinions quickly followed from another erudite luminary, Professor Ben Nwabueze, to the effect that the sections would be illegal without the President’s official assent.

Other authorities soon joined in, led by Chief Richard Akinjide, an icon in his own right in matters of  Constitutional law. All to no avail. The position remains unclear up till the time of writing this piece, and Ekweremadu has advised those who do not agree with him to go court.

It must have been a “tongue- in-the-cheek statement, for even the lawyers who make their living from the courts have been openly critical about proceedings there, especially on constitutional matters. So we now run a Constitution which houses some sections that are deemed illegal by several eminent Nigerians. So messy.

Everybody, or almost everybody, has welcomed the appointment of  Professor Attahiru Jega as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission. It must be based on the gentleman’s antecedent since he does not come with any glittering credentials of an appreciable expertise on national elections.

But maybe no extensive experience is really demanded for the onerous task. The encomiums that have greeted his appointment therefore look good on him.
When one contemplates the magnitude of the job he is called upon to perform, words like “daunting” come to mind.

Take for example, the polling stations, with every site featuring a booth; the number of the stations is being increased from state to state, it would now appear.

Then consider the security officers, apart from the election officials, in each state. Think of the mammoth scale of the organization demanded by such a structure, and all of them under one man. Don’t tell me – I know that he has other officials under him hundreds of them.

But who remembers any other name beside IWU now that the chips are down? In like manner, JEGA is the name that will be on everyone’s lips when it is all over. It could be there at that time with a smile, or with a sneer. It all depends on him, for he has to bear the responsibility

The time-table already published is the beginning of the responsibility. Many people are cynical about it. The time appears rather short, and he would need time to do a thorough job.

In fact, time appears to be the only luxury he may have to some extent, and he must remember that equipment and materials do not usually appear on schedule in Nigeria. He has not been given all the money he thinks he should have, especially for the all-important task of compiling the Voters’ Register.

He has to understand that money is a perennial basis for disagreement in Nigeria, and so he has to be long on patience and short on fiery reaction, especially with members of the press who, on their part, are long on memory but short on forgiveness.

There is hardly ever any need to antagonize them.Finally, he would need to be very strict about one aspect of  his organization: the arrival of equipment in good time, or else, the decision to alter his schedule very quickly to avoid the recurring untidiness of the past.

While the Peoples Democratic Party is trying to punch its way out of the “zoning” paper-bag, the old specter of the “mega-party” is rearing its head again. It would appear that what sticks in the craw of these respectable citizens is the issue of a one-party system.

They envisage that the political development as indicated by the existence of the PDP, at this time, calls for serious consideration. It is apparently not against the PDP itself, but against what it stands for. Well, is that the same thing? I should suppose so.

When you look at the line-up of the motivating forces of this group, you will observe that they are people who are no longer in the spring-time of their lives.

They no longer have much to look forward to in life, personally. What seems precious to them right now would appear to be the well-being of their nation, Nigeria. I speak, of course, for the octogenarians among them – and there are quite a few.

I am not so sure about the altruistic incentives of others, even though of an advanced age, especially the sprightly seventy-year-olds who may still be nursing some burning ambition darkly. The honest core has my compassion. They are doing a good thing, but they are doing it wrongly.

It would have been more savoury to form a party with a manifesto in which is included the desire to foil any attempt at forming a system that ensures the introduction of a one-party system, among other items of national aspirations in their programme.

The desire to stop a political party, as it were, not for any purpose other than the seizure of power from another, seems too thin a basis for consideration. It is almost ludicrous. But when all the chips are down, that is what it all comes to, isn’t it? But going at it this way looks rather untidy.
Time out.