By Owei Lakemfa

THE news hit like a thunderbolt; people were shell shocked. It had never happened before; that a national election that  had commenced was being postponed. This is what in aviation circle could be called an air return; an aircraft that had taken off having to make a return to the  airport for emergency reasons. In fact, an emergency situation was what the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) characterised the situation.

After some recovery from disbelief and a sense of scepticism on the origin of the story, there was a scramble for the nearest television set or radio. It was true! There was the familiar voice of INEC chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega  delivering the unpalatable news  in as dignified a manner as he could. The primary reason for the postponement, he said, was the late arrival of the result sheets which are required to register the number of accredited voters and enter the election results.

What I understand is that elections have been consistently and repeatedly rigged from colonial times. To break this jinx, and given the dexterity of politicians, the INEC had printed sensitive materials abroad and tried to bring them in as close as possible to election date to avoid their being stolen, sold or cloned. It had therefore picked Thursday afternoon as the delivery time. That would have given it some 36 hours to distribute them. But the materials failed to arrive as scheduled.

A secondary reason was the late arrival of electoral officials at polling centres, and rather than allow elections in parts of the country where materials and officials had arrived on time, INEC decided to postpone the entire elections.

This was the Jega INEC’s first time out; there had been no dry runs, no rich experience, no worthy tradition to fall back on, and the team was made up of  human beings imbued with human frailties. For me therefore, the issue was not Jega, but how we can rescue the electoral process which is vital to  the well being of the country.

I think what was uppermost in the minds of the Jega team at that point was how to recover the sensitive materials already released and quickly hold the elections before the materials are cloned and used for rigging. So it picked Monday as the new date.

The Jega team  was also confident that within the new time schedule, it would be able to distribute the materials nationwide. INEC knew that there would  have to be some restriction of persons  during the elections, but left the issue of public holidays  to the federal and state governments. And indeed, some state governments declared Monday a public holiday.

As good as this plan seemed, there were problems.  First was that having shutdown the country and its  borders on Saturday, Nigerians were not prepared for another closure on Monday. Some were low on cash, some students had examinations, the informal sector that had been shutdown on Saturday was to be joined on Monday by the formal sector. Then there was the lack of consultation with the political parties, and the complaint by some parties that their logos were missing from the ballot papers.

The postponement, the  obvious challenges of a fresh date and Jega’s acceptance of full responsibility for the turn of events were ammunition for a combination of sceptics, angry politicians,  impatient analysts and   disappointed voters. They demanded that Jega and his team throw in the towel. Such people became more interested in the person and politics of Jega rather than the solution to a national challenge.

I believe that the demand that Jega and his team step down was presumptuous, pre-emptive and unhelpful. If the Jega team were to step down, how can elections take place this month? If elections do not hold  this next month or early next month, how can the  May 29 handover date  be realistic? The call was obviously  an invitation to political, economic and constitutional crisis.

If the Jega team were to step down, what time  would we have to assemble a new team, screen it at the National Assembly, get a handover and enable it to settle down before conducting the elections? Or can the demand  be that the discredited Prof Maurice Iwu gang be reassembled  to perfect its infamous rigging methods?

Asking the Jega team to resign immediately or be sacked  is like dismissing  a pilot and the entire flight crew  while the aircraft is airborne. If  there is any  need to force the resignation of the flight crew or sack it, the logical thing is first to allow the aircraft  land. In other words, those angry enough to ask  that the Jega team resign , are actually suggesting that  that the entire 2011 general elections crash. I do not think that allowing a crash and picking up the pieces is a viable or logical alternative.

There were debates across party lines and political interests; it is thanks to the collective wisdom of Nigerians and their high sense of patriotism that all elections were shifted. The issue is that we want free and fair elections, we want the vote to count so that we can hold our leaders accountable, and if necessary, be in a position to punish them with our votes. For this to happen, we need to make necessary sacrifices.

The Jega team, like the Samson Siasia team managing  the Super Eagles, appears to be the best shot for the country; we all collectively have a stake in its success. So, it is  not the person of Jega that is paramount, it is not whether we like Siasia as an individual, it is the collective interests of the country and our future that should dominate our thoughts.

I am sure that the Team Jega has learnt valuable lessons and would guard against future falls. But let me clarify, I do not expect perfect elections, there would still be errors, but I do not think these will be deliberate. Whatever the issue, we need to be vigilant; there are people who do not want successful polls.