INEC, this history must not repeat itself

Most Nigerians hailed the choice of the one-time president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Attahiru Jega as the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission.

The Jega-led INEC which came on board in July 2010 enjoyed so much public appeal that it could, as the saying goes, “get away with murder.”

So much hope was invested in the commission’s promise to deliver substantially improved elections, at least, when compared to the sham conducted in 2003 and 2007.

This hope was tested to the limits a few hours after voting commenced in the Presidential and National Assembly elections on April 2, 2011.

Jega announced to a stunned nation that the elections had been postponed.

Sounding like one of several military rulers who had in the past foisted their will on the Nigerian people, he began his address with the all too familiar phrase: “Dear Compatriots.”

After describing the situation at hand as an emergency, the INEC boss went on to say, “As you know the National Assembly (House of Representatives and Senate) elections are supposed to be taking place as I speak.

“You would also have noticed that things have not proceeded smoothly as expected with the elections.

“The reason for this is the unanticipated emergency we have experienced with the late arrival of result sheets in many parts of the country. The result sheets are central to the elections and their integrity.

“Accordingly, in many places, our officials have not reported at the polling units, making it now difficult to implement the Modified Open Ballot Procedure that we have adopted.”

He explained that the system the commission adopted to ensure the credibility of the polls would fail if proper procedures were not followed.

According to him, the process requires that election results as well as the number of accredited voters are entered into the result sheets.

While noting that INEC could have proceeded with the elections in the few states where all the materials were available, doing so, according to him, would adversely affect the integrity of the entire elections.

Smarting from the brazen manner with which ballot boxes were snatched, stolen and stuffed- followed by the announcement of controversial results by the previous election management body, Nigerians swallowed the bitter pill and gave Jega and his rejuvenated INEC the benefit of the doubt.

The 2011 elections held as rescheduled days later and the outcome was generally accepted by international and local observers as free, fair and credible. However, the postponement left a sour taste in the mouth.

While it was understood and accepted that INEC at that time had very little time to prepare for the 2011 elections, the same is not the case this time round.

The logistics challenge which led to the botched first attempt in 2011 will be a hard sell this time round. The commission had four years to fine-tune its arrangements and should be told that things must be done differently in 2015.