By Emmanuel Elebeke
The Minister of Culture and Tourism and the Supervising Minister of Information, Chief Edem Duke, has debunked the rumour making rounds that President Jonathan has an agenda to sack the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, illegally.
The Minister spoke during his maiden meeting with information correspondents at Radio House, Abuja, adding however, that ‘’this is not to say that, if it is time for INEC chairman to naturally exit his office, then the natural course of public service rule will not take place when he has reached age of retirement or exhausted his tenure.”

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega
He said, “I align myself with Mr. President that he has no plan to sack the INEC chairman. President Jonathan reaffirmed the confidence reposed on the INEC chairman and reiterated that the administration has no plan whatsoever to send the electoral umpire illegally packing. Bu nothing would debar the INEC boss from proceeding on retirement when the need arises, in line with the civil service rule and as enshrined in the constitution.’’
Although the Minister did not explain further it was gathered that the administration was angry with Jega for introducing the Card Reader as a means of accreditation for the general elections without briefing the Federal Government over the issue.
‘’Jega wants to try a new system of accreditation without briefing the Presidency over the issue. No freedom is absolute. Section 125 of the constitution forbids electronic voting. Although the card reader can not be used for voting, it is for checking voters.
‘’Secondly, the point Jega also missed is that Nigeria is not a place you can introduce that type of system without trial or experimentation. You try some of these things using local government elections .You can start with council election, beginning with councilors, local government chairmen in that other before you proceed to governorship and presidential elections.
‘’But Jega is starting his experiment with the presidential election, It is wrong even though people are playing politics with the matter,’’ the source told Saturday Vanguard.
Meanwhile, Duke has urged media practitioners to beware of rumour mongers and ensure that that they separate truth from propaganda that was now the order of the day in the country due to the ongoing   electioneering campaigns.
“With the elections around the corner, it is important for every one of us to apply some sense of decorum, sense of patriotism and sense of judgmental guide in a manner that whatever we do, especially at this critical time of our nation’s development, we must be guided strictly by spirit of professionalism and love of our country.
‘Those who are competing for offices in the course of these elections are the ones feeding social media with propaganda because they have no records to back their aspiration; they had spent a lot of resources, time and ingenuity building social media propaganda so that by the time campaign commenced, they were ready with propaganda against government in power.
“They embark on massive publicity campaign, recruit electoral PR companies to sell products that do not exist and these are thrown to the public during election. But we must realise that truth struck a thousand times will always rise again because the eternal age of time belongs to truth.
“You can’t use social media to say 14 new universities were not build, import bill has not dropped with marshal plan for agricultural revolution. You cannot use the social media to blindfold Nigerians that government has not build over 125 Almajiri schools or that 22 airports were not remodeled or five new international airports are not being built. You can’t say Nigeria is not the biggest economy in Africa and that inflation is not at single digit with a growth rate that has positioned Nigeria as one of the six fastest growing economies in the world,” he further said


Source:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/02/jonathanll-not-sack-jega-but-fg/

I like Jega but using the card reader without trial at lower level elections is irresponsible. Accreditation will be chaotic. You think a rigger and thug will just walk away when told he cant vote? You think an eligible voter will not cause ruckus at the booth if there is a "system error"? Even the best technology equipment freezes from time to time so card readers can not be error free.

Ijebulogic:
I like Jega but using the card reader without trial at lower level elections is irresponsible. Accreditation will be chaotic. You think a rigger and thug will just walk away when told he cant vote? You think an eligible voter will not cause ruckus at the booth if there is a "system error"? Even the best technology equipment freezes from time to time so card readers can not be error free.

So it shouldn't be used?

“You can’t use social media to say 14 new universities were not build

We need quality not quantity, what are the standard of those universities?

22 airports were not remodeled or five new international airports are not being built.

The roofs of some of those airports are still licking while some of them looks like river Niger when it rains. Also, changing the name of an airport to "international" is nothing less of a scam.

You can’t say Nigeria is not the biggest economy in Africa

Of course, you can say that, on paper.

and that inflation is not at single digit with a growth rate that has positioned Nigeria as one of the six fastest growing economies in the world,” he further said

Yet, more than 50% of the population are POOR.

I pray this Jega overcomes the pressure being mounted on him now. The man may even resign judging by the degree of the stress he is being subjected to.

Trust GEJ at your own risk. He is a desperado who does not give a damn if Nigeria goes up in flames over his desperation to remain in office.

Is there any sense in conceiving a sack or terminal leave for Jega less than a month to the election?

GEJ was an error that must be corrected NOW.

Oklander:
So it shouldn't be used?

He is simply saying JEGA shud av tried such new mechanism on smaller scale- chairmanship or state election. That bcuz there will definitely be chaos if an elegible voter shud be denied voting bcuz of system malfunction. U cant tell me I shudnt vote bcuz of ur own error after spending the whole day queuing up. Kasala go burst hoo haa. I must vote.

Just wondering though, shud the card reader both malfunction especially those in the rural areas, wud the entire boot center be denied voting. I hope JEGA has lots of contingency plans. Serious plan B, C D to E shud that happen.

From this I can easily deduce that Jega is a goner. The statement of his impending terminal leave was clear here, nothing is hidden anymore.

Seriously, dis card reader ish is really a controversial one. And d worst part is it gives d PDP a legitimate case to do dia usual lubbish.