Despite
restriction on open
campaign for the 2015
polls by President
Goodluck Jonathan, it was revealed yesterday
how forces close to the
administration plan to
reduce the powers of
the Chairman of
Independent National Electoral Commission,
INEC, Prof. Attahiru
Jega. According to Vanguard’s
findings, powerful
elements within the
government had
perfected a plan to
replace the current secretary of the
commission, Alhaji
Abdullahi Kaugama,
with a trusted ally and
confer him with
enormous operational powers that would
make him more
powerful than Jega
prior to the 2015
elections. The hawks, said to be
headed by top officials
of the administration,
are said to be relying on
the tradition of fielding
INEC secretary’s position from outside the
commission by previous
administrations. Incidentally, Kaugama,
who is the first
secretary of the
commission to be
appointed from within
the staff pool, was named in 2008 and he is
due for retirement next
February. It was gathered that
some influential
members of the ruling
party had become
increasingly
uncomfortable with what a source described
as ‘Jega’s overbearing
powers’ , which he could
use to scuttle the
political ambitions of
their supporters in 2015, if unchecked. The source hinted that
the protagonists of the
plot, who had fallen out
of favour with Jega had
suggested to the
Presidency that he (Jega) could not be relied upon
to give them victory in
2015 and should,
therefore, be stripped of
some of his powers.
They asserted that some of these should be given
to a trusted person that
could be manipulated. “It is as a result of a
high-wired political
agenda that you hear
the Attorney General
and Minister of Justice,
Mohammed Adoke, saying openly that Jega
is not the CEO of INEC
and that the man should
not parade himself as
one. “What they want to do
is to take the
operational powers
from Jega and confer
same on one of their
own, likely to be picked from outside the INEC
anytime from now so as
to protect their narrow
political interests. “These people are just
looking for ways and
means to protect their
interests at all costs by
keeping someone as
their ‘operational man’ at INEC to do their
biddings. “But if they say that
Jega is not the CEO of the
commission, let them go
to the law establishing
the commission and find
out if the man is not a full time chairman and
the chief electoral
officer,” the source said. Attempts to confirm the
receipt of the AGF’s
letter by INEC were
unsuccessful, as the Chief
Press Secretary to the
INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, did not
pick his calls and did not
respond to text
messages sent to him. Jega overbearing
power One of the sms sent to
the CPS at 2.05pm read,
“Please confirm if the
letter published in the
media today about Jega
not being the CEO of INEC, purportedly
written by Adoke had
been received.” There
was no reply to the sms
at the time of going to
the press. Jega, a former Bayero
University Kano Vice
Chancellor, was tapped
by President Goodluck
Jonathan on June 8,
2010, to head the Independent National
Electoral Commission,
INEC, as part of his
effort to reposition the
electoral body and
ensure credible elections in the country. But Jega might have
played into the hands of
his adversaries by
sending an innocuous
letter he wrote on June
19, 2012, to the AGF to clarify who was the
accounting officer of the
body, as part of his
efforts to ensure
effective service
delivery. But in replying to the
letter, Adoke in a
response dated July 26,
2012, bluntly declared
that Jega was not the
accounting officer of the body and quoted several
sections of the law to
buttress his position,
leaving the chairman
guessing on what next
to do. Part of Adoke’s reply
read, “I have examined
relevant provisions of
the law particularly, the
Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the
Electoral Act, the Public
Procurement Act and
extant Financial
Regulations in order to
determine whether the law has expressly
provided for the
position of either the
‘Chief Executive Officer’
or ‘Accounting Officer’
of the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC. “Regrettably, it would
appear that no such
terminology was used in
the statutes examined.
Item 14(1)(a) of Part 1 to
the Third Schedule of the Constitution only
provides that the
Chairman shall be the
Chief Electoral
Commissioner. The
provision does not state that the ‘Chief Electoral
Commissioner’ is the
‘Chief Executive Officer. “I have similarly
examined the functions
and powers of the
Commission as provided
for in item 15 of Part 1
of the Third Schedule to the Constitution and
sections 2, 3, 4 and 5 of
the Electoral Act and
wish to observe that
these are functions and
powers that can only be exercised by the
Commission and not by
the Chairman or any
individual Commissioner
except as may be
delegated by the Commission under
Section 152 of the
Electoral Act or item
15(h) of Part 1 to the
Third Schedule to the
Constitution.” “Consequently, in the
absence of any clear
donation of the powers
of a Chief Executive
Officer or Accounting
Officer by the relevant statutes, and in the
absence of any evidence
to indicate that these
functions and powers of
the Commission have
been delegated to the Chairman, I am unable to
come to the reasoned
conclusion that the law
contemplates that the
Chairman of INEC shall
be the Chief Executive Officer or Accounting
Officer of the
Commission,” Adoke
stated. But the Attorney
General of the
Federation and Minister
of Justice, Mr.
Mohammed Adoke,
yesterday distanced himself from the
development in INEC,
saying that he had no
hand in whatever was
going on there. Adoke, a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria,
who spoke through his
media aide, Mr. Ambrose
Momoh, said INEC was
an independent body constitutionally-
empowered to carry out
its duties without
reference to his office
and that he had nothing
to do with the agency. He declared: “I do not
have any personal
interest in what INEC is
doing and that is the
truth.” The situation in the
commission will become
clearer in the next
couple of weeks as the
secretary prepares to
bow out. Incidentally, Kaugama is the first
INEC secretary to be
picked from within the
commission. All others
were nominated from
outside by the government, which
now appears poised to
do same as soon as the
current occupier of the
office leaves. Source www.vanguardngr.com/2012/09/2015-how-pdp-plans-to-weaken-jega/

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