By Jide Ajani, Editor, Northern Operations.
Today, the rescheduled elections into the Senate and the House of Representatives are expected to hold across the nation.

Voters being accredited before the postponement last Saturday

Immediately after the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, shocked the nation with his postponement, some praised him while others pilloried the action.  More importantly, this report examines the lessons that may have arisen from the postponement; and whether the lessons have been learnt.

As it was in 1987, so it happened in 2011.

It was Professor Eme Awa who was saddled with the responsibility of holding local council elections in December, 1987 but he buckled under the weight of logistics problem.  He was Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, NEC, as it was then known.

Last Saturday, April 2, it was the turn of Professor Attahiru Jega.

In what has come with a mixed baggage of praise and vilification, Jega’s decision to postpone the elections into the national assembly was at best surprising and, on the other hand, disturbing.

Lessons have arisen.  But have the lessons been learnt?

Tight Schedule/Request For More Money

From the beginning when Professor Jega began reeling out his schedule for the process, Nigerians were quick to ask whether the schedule was not too tight.  They were and this became manifest soon enough.
Over and over again, Jega had to keep requesting for more time to enable him get it right.

Even funds that he requested and which were expeditiously approved because of the urgency and the sense that Nigeria needed to get it right, did not match the expenditure at the end of the day and more and more funds were again requested.

At a time, Jega appeared uncoordinated in the way he went about his job but he kept harping on the need to get it right – better late than wrong.

Today, Nigerians and Jega know better.

Particularly, the INEC chairman’s forced postponement is in tandem with his approach to getting it right. He insists that today, almost all the lapses would have been tackled for a better organized election.
Nigerians wait.

Logistics
In addition, logistics has almost always played a key role in reducing elections In Nigeria to a shambolic engagement.

At every turn of the way when elections are held, voters complain about being disenfranchised because they were either not allowed to vote because the voter register brought to their polling unit did not have their names on it or lack of voting materials – which may not be enough for the number of people who want to cast their votes.

Now, how come an election that had been scheduled months ago would still suffer the discount of late arrival of materials or total non_availability?

Jega’s INEC says it has learnt the right lessons this time around and that materials are already in the states.

Seeking Permission Or Not!

Information available suggests that Jega’s decision to postpone the elections was a solo one.

One of the lessons that emerged from the postponement was whether or not it would have been right or wrong for the INEC Chairman to seek permission from President Goodluck Jonathan before announcing the postponement.

He was said not to have informed the President.  Not that he was under any obligation to seek permission from Jonathan, but some observers have suggested that it should have been a minor matter of courtesy.

Some have even attempted to draw a parallel between last Saturday’s event and what happened in 1987.  On that fateful Saturday when the council polls were already going wrong because of logistics problem, Prof. Awa reportedly sought and got permission from General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, then military President.

Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Tonnie Iredia, hurriedly got the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, and Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, correspondents to announce a two hour increase in voting time that Saturday.  The election did not go without its hitches but Awa’s NEC tried its best.

Security Council Meeting With Political Parties?

Another lesson that may have been learnt, this time on the part of the President was the furore which the Congress for progressive Change, CPC, created by insinuating that the invitation of Professor Jega to the national Security Council, NSC, meeting late Saturday was, in the first instance not necessary and which, if at all it should have held, should have enjoyed the compliment of leaders of the other political parties.

Now, this may be totally unnecessary.

President Jonathan convened the meeting in his capacity as the Commander_in_Chief of the Armed Forces.  The postponement created a security concern which needed to be addressed and the only person who could give enough information was the INEC Chairman.

To have invited leaders of the 63 political parties in the country to the NSC meeting would have introduced a life of its own which would have made a joke of the exercise.

In fact, it is because of the nature of politics in Nigeria that would make a party insinuate that the President wanted to induce or influence the INEC chairman, hence his invitation to the NSC meeting.

But pray! What contributions would the other party leaders have made?  Or should it have been an invitation to all the candidates contesting the elections since the claim by those opposed to the meeting was that since

Jonathan was a candidate, then other candidates should have been in attendance.

More Work, Less Talk

Jega may have learnt one very bitter lesson but what he discovered last Saturday.

After even addressing Nigerians less than 24 hours to last Saturday’s election, Jega has now discovered that it pays more to do the work and talk less.

Jega’s optimism became infectious at some point because so much was expected.

Unfortunately, it has come to light that Jega wasted more time talking about what he wanted to do and almost forgetting that he had a job at hand.

Jega’s saving grace is his integrity which nobody has come out to fault yet.  But being a good man is not enough to do a good job.

Readiness of Nigerians

One signal which Nigerians sent loud and clear last Saturday was their readiness to perform their civic responsibility as they turned out in their millions across the nation but went home disappointed.

For those who have been preaching change, the turn out last Saturday was massive, very massive.  Virtually all the parties appreciated the window of opportunity that Jega’s postponement afforded them because they simply went back to the drawing board to re-mobilise their supporters.