Jega and 2011
Professor Jega is a man of integrity, man of honour; a man that follows the path of justice, equity, fairplay. But one thing that I will say is that it is not about Jega. It is about the Nigerian system. It is about the generality of the people involved in the electoral process.

Election is a process. It is not an event. It is about the credibility of the people who will be co-opted or will participate in the election. It is about the willingness of the political office holders to allow integrity to reign. As far as I am concerned, I am not expecting too much from Professor Jega, because I know that we are in Nigeria where we have desperate politicians; criminal people who have criminal intentions, who will do anything to get to office.

He cannot be in all the 36 states of the federation, in the 774 local government areas, in all the wards in Nigeria. He would be in one place. He is human. He is not God. A human being, there is a limit to what Jega can do. How about the others? What about the Resident Electoral Commissioners(RECs)? What is their level of integrity? That is why I agree with Nuhu Ribadu when the idea was mooted that they would give it to him. He insisted that he would appoint his resident electoral commissioners because it is not about the head, because the head may give directives. What is the guarantee that those directives would be carried out? The head may have the best of intention but what is the guarantee that those working with him are ready to cooperate? This is not about Jega but the 36 RECs. This is about the returning officers at the poling units. This is about the polling clerks. So it takes a whole lot of things. That is why I say election is a process not an event.

Jonathan and zoning
Some Nigerians are even worried that the polity might be overheated if Jonathan contests. What heat are we talking about? Look we are talking about elections, we are talking about Nigeria, and we are talking about our constitution.As far as I am concern, I have not seen it anywhere in the constitution where any person is restrained, or deprived of his right to contest election or participate in the process. I have not seen it.

All this issue about heating up the polity is contrivance of people with criminal intents. What is heating up polity about somebody who wants to come out and contest election. Somebody who wants to come out and canvass for votes? It is because we have not got the issue of our election right in this country. We talk of contrivances; we talk of issues that are not there. What is heating the polity about somebody coming out to go from door to door to campaign? If Jonathan is coming out to campaign, let him come out and campaign. Let him come out and contest if he thinks he has the credentials. But let me tell you it is because the votes of the people do not count.

These people know that once a certain political party anoints you, you are almost there. That is why they talk about heating the polity. What has heating the polity got to do with me? I sleep in my house, I wake up, and I eat. Somebody who sleeps on the streets and doesn’t have food to eat, what is his business whether the polity is being heated up? Are they heating it with heater or stove or with what? It is our mentality about the participants in the process.

Jonathan’s presidential race
Why not? Who says he cannot? Our Constitution says he can run and he has met that criteria. Once you meet that criteria nobody can stop you. The issue of zoning is a party affair. I am not a politician. I am not a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). So, I don’t care what they say. It is for their own contrivance. As far as I am concerned, all those fears of zoning, has it benefitted the ordinary Nigerian on the street? Does he have shelter? Does he have food? Has zoning placed food on the plates of the almajiri on the streets? The years that late Yar’Adua spent there, how was the lot of the ordinary Nigerians in the north? Was it better? For all I could remember, those years of zoning were queues in petrol stations, blackouts, no water. So what are we talking about zoning? Zoning is the contrivances of a group of people that want to control the country by other means that are not democratic.

Atiku, Babangida’s role in zoning
What did Babangida do in the eight years that he was there? In his eight years as a military head of state what did he do? What did he do as a person with military fiat that he wants to come and do now?

Salvaging the situation
The ordinary Nigerian can only salvage the situation if we wake up and insist on the right thing being done and we insist that our votes must count. But the issue is that how many Nigerians are aware that they have a right? Very few. Go to my village in Benue State, how many of my people know that they have a stake in what is happening? Go to the remote parts of Gamawa, or Jama’are, how many of them know that they have a right to participate in the process and that they have the right to cast a vote and they have the right to insist that their votes count? Very few. And that is why the elite continue to cash in on the ignorance of the people to continue to perpetuate the atrocities that they are perpetuating.

This corruption you mention, it is widely known that most of the politicians and other office holders are very corrupt, and they use their money and influence to buy votes. Is it impossible to stamp out this monster? It is not impossible. It is very possible. Ghana was once like that but there must be first of all the preparedness and then the will to tackle it by those in power. But so far, those in power in Nigeria are still the same circle of people who keep recycling themselves.

Let me tell you, from 1998 till date when the military mooted the idea of democracy nothing has changed. It is the same old people, and yet no democracy. For now, we are in a civilians rule, a shift from the military era where civilians rule and determine who rules. But when we get to a stage where it will be democracy, thepeople will actually decide. But we haven’t got there yet. If you like, it is a few elite who call themselves leaders that we have now. Look at the Senate President, he didn’t win any election but he is there today. But gradually it will change and we will get there. It is a process.




http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/politics/2010/nov/11/politics-11-11-2010-001.htm