Professor Attahiru Jega, the former chairman
of the independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) has spoken about his
experience when he was in the commission
noting that he had to battle with politicians
who were desperate to own power at all cost
and “ militicians ’ who tried to subvert the will
of the people.
Vanguard reports that Jega said this at the
first University of Abuja public lecture on
Thursday, October 29.
He said through compliance with the law,
INEC was able to thwart the effort of the
desperate politicians “From my experience, I quite often say that
Nigeria has a special breed of politicians
(Militicians). They generally tend to believe
that political power through elections has to
be ‘captured,’ and this has to be done by
hook or by crook; and by any means
necessary. To them, winning election is,
literally, a do-or-die affair.
“INEC faced perhaps its greatest challenge in
containing the predisposition and reckless
mindset of Nigerian politicians. Any wonder
then that our political arena increasingly
resembled a bloody battlefield, with maiming,
killing, burning, and unimaginable
destruction of lives and property.
“Navigating the minefield of do-or-die
politicians as an impartial electoral umpire
required nerves of steel, and we had to
quickly muster the requisite thick skin, as
well as appropriate containment strategies.
“A series of badly conducted elections could
create perpetual political instability and
easily reverse the gains of democratization.
If adequate care is not taken, badly
conducted elections can totally undermine
democratization and replace it with
authoritarian rule, of the civilian or military
varieties.
“At best, they can install inept and corrupt
leadership that can herald, if not
institutionalize, bad governance. There are
many illustrations or manifestations of this
throughout Africa.
“But nowhere is this as amply illustrated as
in the Nigerian case, especially between
1999 and 2007.
“The 2007 elections were manifestly the
worst in Nigeria’s history, as declared by
both domestic and international observers.
The EU observer mission, for example, noted
that the elections fell ‘short of basic
international standards,’ and were
characterized by violence and crude use of
money to buy votes.
“There was reckless mobilization of ethno-
religious cleavages and heightened use of
money and thugs to influence results.
“The pre-electoral processes, such as party
primaries, were conducted in grossly
undemocratic fashion. In many cases, the
results were said to have gone to the highest
bidder.
“The winner of the presidential election, late
President Umaru Yar’Adua, himself admitted
on the day of his inauguration that there
were serious flaws in the election that
brought him to power.
“There are also other associated challenges.
For example, meeting the production
deadlines in the production of PVCs was
seriously affected by power failures, which
damaged equipment, which the vendor could
not quickly replace “The use of the SCR was constrained by the
fact that some polling units were located in
areas where there was no Internet coverage.”
Jega also applauded the appointment of
Professor Mahmood Yakubu as the new
chairman of the commission and said he
would make the country proud. https://www.naij.com/622513-battle-politicians-jega-reveals.html

Jega my man. I love the way Jega calm Elder Orubebe "The Commander In Chief of Wailers".

Much respect My Prof.

I remember Jega telling us the election in rivers was free and fair. If the supreme court upholds the tribunal and appeal court judgements then jega has some questions to answer and more heads needs to roll. I'm for truth and justice.

Jegaliser

i give him 50 percent kudos for the election because he jegalised orubebe.

Tunami:
i give him 50 percent kudos for the election because he jegalised orubebe.

Lol, well jega is a great man of high esteem, he was never in support of electoral malpractices .he even went further, to tell us what happened during 2007 election...that man is the best INEC CHAIRMAN I had ever known...

Who cares. He is a crony of the ethnic 5% president

Incompetent fool being celebrated for holding elections that he insisted at [b]great cost [/b]that all must vote with pvc only for him to reverse the rule in the middle of the game. With 'manual voting' now becoming the order of the sensational results started flying out of Rivers, Kano (which recorded no voided vote), Kaduna and just about anywhere else.

Anyone that can say they really know who truly won the elections must be God. That is how muddled up Jega's electoral process was.

And this man is to be celebrated as a hero. Pity a nation without genuine heroes.