By HUGO ODIOGOR
ANALYSIS
IF there is one thing that Prof. Attahiru Jega must avoid at this point of preparing Nigerians for the next general election, it is; suffering credibility deficit so soon. Social psychologists will tell the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that he will never regain or recover from the damage if he trifles with it.

Barely 10 days after the wobbling start of the voters’ registration exercise, there have avalanche of reports of inadequacies and poor preparation for the exercise and suggestions for possible extension of the date of exercise. The latest insinuations from INEC officials that the commission may not attain the initial projected figures of 70million Nigerians, to say the least is disheartening .

When Prof. Jega dropped the figures, Nigerians with good head for figures especially demographic statistics were skeptical about how the INEC boss came by his figures.

Not  many people bothered to ask about our life expectancy at birth which is put at 52 years for men and 55 years for women. This means that Nigeria is largely a country of young population. Nobody raised issues about how Prof. Jega came about the 70 million figure given the fact that this constitutes 50% of the total national population, going by the 2006 national population census. In a country with relative young population, the target 50% will include at least 18% of people belong the voting age by April 2011. But all these were brushed aside as INEC approached the National Assembly to ask for a budget of N83 billion.

This figure was outside the statutory allocation for the commission in the budget. The speed with which the National Assembly approved the INEC request was a demonstration of the seriousness and a measure of good faith that Nigerians were prepared to invest in the democratic process, especially when democracy has been equated with development.

The observed logistics problems and lapses in the voters’ registration exercise has exposed lack of preparation on the part of INEC. The organisation has fallen victim of  the typical Nigerian malaise which manifests in our abysmal failure or lack of preparation for major national assignments.

From delay in delivering the over 16,500 Direct Data Capture by Avante,  sundry reports of disappearance of the Direct Data Capture, to piece meal distribution of the equipment, the poor training of personnel and technical problems are some of the avoidable hiccups that could have been corrected if Prof. Jega submitted such a monumental undertaking to a a pilot commencement.

The attempt to put the blame on the National Youth Service personnel and the ad hoc personnel assembly on fire brigade basis belies serious planning on the part of INEC. It must be said that for all the short comings of INEC, Nigerians have shown tremendous enthusiasm for the Voter registration exercise basing their optimism that their voters will count and for once they would truly elect their leader.

This has led to acceptance of the closure of schools and accepting to fully participate in the process regardless of the attempt by some cheap popularity seeking politicians to declare no registration, no salary policy as if the citizens have in the past 12 years enjoyed the expected benefits of democracy.

Taken together, the leadership of INEC should rather heed the counsel to extend the date of the voters’ registration rather than adopt the miliary approach to resolving social problems. Nigerians have been used to public officials promising so much and delivering so little.

It is no exaggeration that Nigerians from all walks of life have invested so much confidence on the person of Prof. Jega at the expense of forgetting that the system that he is expected to perform miracles is still weak and corrupt, it will be another tale of woes if Prof. Jega and his INCE are unable to accomplish their target but finding excuses to justify human and systemic failure so earlier is a massive blow to public expectation and confidence.