By Rotimi Fasan
A  LOT of what would make the 2011 elections successful is being hinged on the personal integrity of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega.

While it might be reassuring to know that a much-mistrusted body like INEC has a Chairperson who can be relied upon to deliver on the expectations of Nigerians concerning the forthcoming elections, it is too much to expect that the presence of a respected chairperson is a necessary guarantee of both electoral success and impartiality.

As I’ve had cause to say here in the recent past, a tree does not make a forest. Jega is but one of thousands of Nigerians who would be involved in the making of the elections. Many of those whose involvements would determine the electoral fortune of many candidates, and consequently, the fate of Nigeria are persons such as members of the National Youth Service Corps, whose faith in Nigeria has been put under tremendous stress and doubt.

They are persons who can’t see their own stake in the success or otherwise of the country. Even worse is the fact that thousands of INEC staff are persons whose participation as biased umpires in previous elections makes them unfit to continue in their present office. Such persons have neither been identified nor punished for their ignominious part in the killing of this country.

But we continue to believe that the presence of Jega is enough to ensure that nothing would go wrong. That reliance on the personal integrity of one man started with President Jonathan himself.

Weeks before he announced a replacement for Maurice Iwu, Jega’s predecessor at INEC and one man whose removal from office, we have been informed by Wikileaks’ revelations, was one of the preconditions put before Jonathan before he could count on the support of the United States’ government for the 2011 elections- in the tense weeks that preceded the appointment of Jega, President Jonathan had assured Nigerians that Iwu’s successor would be somebody Nigerians could count on to put smiles on their faces.

While assuring Nigerians that the person to be appointed was entirely unknown to him, he was convinced of his bonafides as a credible electoral umpire. Quite naturally, Jega’s appointment was met with much commendation even as some Nigerians warned on the obvious implication of too much reliance on the personal integrity of just one man, however, good his intentions.

True, the biased job Iwu executed at INEC was enough reason if no other for Nigerians to see the problem with INEC as one emanating from its venal leadership. But if that problem started with the body’s leadership, it has not been limited to it. Rather, the rot in the head has, like with a rotten fish, crept down the entire body.

And this is the reason why there can’t be much wisdom in Nigerians thinking that the removal of the corrupt leadership of INEC is enough to restore the battered health of the body.

For whatever it may be worth too, we know now that Jega is neither entirely new to INEC nor Iwu who was his deputy during Jega’s years of activism as Chairperson of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

It beggars belief that a top ASUU activist, a ‘progressive’, during the fire-eating years of ‘extremists’ in the 1990s could turn out to be as ‘reactionary’ as Iwu eventually became. What’s the moral from this? That we can’t rely too much on the personal integrity or word of one person.

Rather than rely on or depend on the personal goodwill of individuals, we should create institutional frames that make such individuals incorruptible. Even where individuals might be committed to their job, ready to discharge their responsibilities in as forthright a manner as possible, obstacles could still be erected in their way.

There might be both deliberate and inadvertent pitfalls that make their work more difficult to execute. One of such pitfalls, in the case of Jega, concerns the theft of units of the Direct Data Capture machines that were pilfered right at their point of arrival at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport. So far the police want us to believe that the theft was executed by so-called petty thieves.

But comments from one of the thieves shows that the heist can’t be carelessly explained away like the police did. The ‘petty thieves’ who carted the CDD machines did so only to outsmart the big thieves who initially spirited the machines out of the airport, dumped them in nearby bush with the obvious intention of coming back for them. Of course, the police have also told us of the recovery of the machines.

Even while the police was not responsible for the theft, we need more than the words of the police to believe that claim of recovery of the stolen items.

But what the theft actually hints at is the fact that some Nigerians, and these are not ordinary Nigerians- but some Nigerians are already working to subvert the electoral will of their country people. How much can Jega do to stop the activities of these Nigerians? Indeed, of what avail is Jega’s own personal integrity here?

How do we know planeloads of DDC machines have not been directed to secret locations in different parts of the country? This theft follows a well-known pattern of electoral crime. We saw it during the 2007 elections when similar machines were allegedly delivered to the home of the late Ibadan politician, Lamidi Adedibu.

What came of that revelation then? Nothing but the millions of stolen votes that outnumbered registered voters.

Whenever Nigerian politicians plan to rig an election, which seems to be every time, they commit both time and energy to it. It’s a long-time project that is heralded by seemingly innocuous mistakes such as late registration of voters, non-review of voters register, late release of funds to make the review process possible and choky electoral dates among other tricks. How many of such tricks can Jega monitor?

Will the removal of the likes of Ayoka Adebayo, the fallen electoral angel of Ekiti/Ondo, be guarantee against the corrupt/criminal tendencies of other INEC staff to say nothing of politicians? I guess we can’t afford to be too pessimistic. But how much transparency can we expect from INEC, how well should we rely on the personal assurances of Jega, with all these pitfalls? These are the questions we must answer. Do have a merry Christmas holiday.