For the third time in one week, Professor Attahiru Jega has announced the failure of INEC to conduct elections in Nigeria. The fist two were outright postponements of the National Assembly elections. Last Saturday, on the 2nd of April, he announced the cancellation of elections when the exercise was in full progress, citing the lack of result sheets as an excuse. Painful and wasteful as it was, Nigerians accepted the excuse that you couldn’t have an election without result sheets. The elections were postponed to Monday, 4th April by Jega. Nigerians got ready to go out and vote on that day. But the next day, which was Sunday, he again said the elections of Monday 4th were no longer feasible, and will take place on the 9th instead. The elections planned for the 9th and 16th were also postponed by one week each. And now, two days before the National Assembly elections which had been postponed twice, he has announced that elections will not hold in 15 Senatorial Districts and 48 Federal Constituencies. The excuse is the same. Essential voting documents for the affected areas were either missing or wrongly printed. Many Nigerians will not vote for their Senators and House of Representative candidates until the 26th of April, the same day appointed for the elections of Governors and Members of State Assembly. On that day, they will have to vote for four candidates: Governor, Senator, Member, Federal House of Representatives and Member, State House of Assembly.
To say that Nigerians will be disappointed with Professor Jega will be a major understatement. This act of postponing the elections for the third time in some parts of Nigeria over a matter which is the most basic electoral requirement, that is, ballot papers, has raised questions regarding the Chairman’s competence, and will give Nigerians real reasons to doubt whether this INEC can actually conduct the 2011 elections. Until now, many Nigerians had accepted all of Professor Jega’s excuses, and many have praised his courage and humility when he apologized and accepted responsibility for the embarrassing levels of incompetence which led to an election being conducted without result sheets. In spite of his monumental failure to address the most basic elements of an election, many people thought his integrity and courage were enough to sustain their faith in him.
When he again shifted the elections from the 4th to 9th of April, alarm bells started ranging in many quarters. If Jega had organized the elections on the 4th, just two days after he postponed them, they would have been the worst organized elections even, with neither result sheets nor the correct ballot papers in many parts of Nigeria. Did he not know how ill-prepared he was when he gave himself only two days to conduct the elections? Again, many Nigerians continued to pray for, and support him and INEC, because the elections had to be conducted creditably only by Jega and INEC. But his decision-making capacity was being severely suspected in many circles, and it was becoming obvious that there are major gaps in his linkages with vital sections of the electoral machinery, such as his Commissioners and Staff.
The nation believed that Jega and INEC had plugged all loopholes, and addressed all shortages for tomorrow is election, which it had postponed twice. This is why it was bitterly disappointing that INEC again has to postpone elections into 15 Senatorial Districts and 48 Federal Constituencies because of the need to print, re-print or correct printed ballot papers. Printing or reprinting of ballot papers is so basic to organizing an election that the failure to do so can only be attributed to an unacceptable level of incompetence. One or two mistakes are acceptable, but to continuously inform the nation that you have failed at the most elementary stage is to take the patience and faith of Nigerians for granted. Those who think that Professor Jega and INEC are being primed to fail have no more grounds to make these baseless assumptions. INEC’s spectacular failures have been exposed, and the fate of the 2011 elections in the hands of Professor Jega and INEC need our prayers and higher levels of vigilance. There is no excuse this time for this partial postponement, and no one should make any for Jega. More important, Nigerians should be more prepared to press and ask Jega and INEC how prepared they are now to conduct the Presidential and Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections.
The seemingly casual manner in which INEC cancelled elections in some Senatorial and House of Representatives elections is disturbing, and should raise our collective levels of concern. But the legal angle to the postponement is also worrisome. Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2010 gives INEC the powers to postpone elections on account of cogent and verifiable emergencies. Even the most forgiving critic of INEC will question whether the failure to print or receive result sheets and ballot papers for which you received full funding and had ample time to print represent cogent and verifiable emergencies. INEC apparently thinks it does, and that it can postpone elections many times over under the same excuse. But the nation has to contend with section 47 of the Electoral Act 2010 which makes it mandatory that voting in any particular election under the Act shall take place on the same day and time by the Commission throughout the Federation. This provision will appear to have taken away from INEC the power to postpone elections into to the same offices in some parts of the country, while others are allowed to go ahead. There will be some Nigerians who may go to court to challenge INEC’s decision to postpone the National Assembly elections in some parts of the country on the basis of this provision. If they succeed in making the case that the postponement is illegal, the nation will go through a major constitutional crisis, and the entire national assembly elections may be cancelled and organized again, if there is time before the expiration of the life of this administration.
The decision to reschedule the elections to the 26th, and merge them with the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections will also pose serious problems for millions of voters who will be required to cast four ballots. Given the levels of literacy and public awareness, the decision to ask voters to choose Governors, Senators, Members of House of Representatives and Members of State Assemblies all in one election will deprive millions of Nigerians the opportunity to choose under less challenging or confusing environment than their fellow citizens who will vote tomorrow. This will be wrong, and certainly less demanding than if they voted with the Presidential elections next week Saturday when they will vote for a President, a Senator and Member, Federal House of Representatives. Again, if Nigerians who will not vote tomorrow suffer handicaps, they will all have to do with the failure of INEC to address the most basic requirement of credible elections.
If there are no legal or other restrictions on other Nigerians who have been enabled to vote by INEC tomorrow, Saturday 9th April, they should all go out en-mass to vote. Although we have no reasons to believe that INEC’s incompetence is part of a grand plan to frustrate the nation’s deep yearning for free, fair and credible elections, we should nonetheless insist that INEC improves its managerial capacities. Clearly, while Jega’s credibility is important, his competences are also vital to the success of the elections. We have received enough apologies from Jega and INEC, and all Nigerians hope that the other two elections are safe in their hands.
Nigerians should treat INEC’s weaknesses and disappointments as one of the prices we have to pay for credible elections. While INEC should be reminded that our patience and tolerance have limits, we should not let its problems discourage us. This time, Nigerians want to elect their own leaders fairly and openly. INEC should help us, not cause us more problems.
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