Prologue: 2015 Elections: A postponement foretold

9 years ago

Prologue: 2015 Elections: A postponement foretold

Between Attahiru Jega and his God, he knows what has gone down.

For this column, we also know, in details, what went down on Saturday, February 7, 2015. But do Nigerians know? Do Nigerians care to know? Do Nigerians want to know? Do Nigerians need to know?

We take them one after the other. Nigerians in their millions, across the partisan divide, do not know what went down before Jega’s announcement of the postponement of the 2015 elections.

To the second question, Nigerians, across the partisan divide, and in their millions, do not care to know because the environment has been sufficiently poisoned by those whose stock in trade is political environmental pollution, using spheres like the traditional and social media, civil society groups and those who are the most vulnerable – the hoi-po-loi.
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But don’t be deceived, some patriotic Nigerians would really want to know the truth about what actually happened.

However, do Nigerians need to know? Yes! Nigerians must be told the truth for, in the final analysis, when the drama between the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, has ended, people will have their conscience to deal with whichever way the pendulum swings and, thereafter, live with the consequences of their actions – be it a Goodluck Jonathan or a Muhammadu Buhari victory.

Jega’s conscience! My conscience! Your conscience! Our conscience!

We have a stake in the country Nigeria but we allow our emotions and desires becloud reason. Whatever we do as humans, conscience is supposed to serve as a guide. But that is a mere supposition. That is why Nigeria is in a mess.

And that is where scruples come in – for without scruples, unconscionable acts are allowed! That is why one of the most abusive qualifiers in the dictionary is the word ‘unscrupulous’. To be described as an unscrupulous individual decimates the humanity in that person.

Therefore, in all we do, a tincture of scruples as a guide would go a long way in attenuating the debilitating influence of desire and emotion over reason.

So, what do we know to be true?
By Jega’s own admission, in his presentation to the National Council of State, he pleaded that “we could do with more days of especially hands-on training for Pos and APOs”, after earlier admitting in the same presentation that “timelines have been missed in respect of the supply/delivery of some of the non-sensitive materials to states”, while, thereafter, concluding that “a bit more time of additional preparation would enable us improve and perfect the current level of preparedness”.

As at the day of the postponement of the elections, apart from the now known security challenge, the following were the real issues confronting INEC:

*Training manual not ready *Presiding Officers yet to be trained *700,000 ad hoc staff not recruited yet *PVCs still being printed abroad *RECs yet to print Voter Register *Printers for Register still in Abuja *No full complement of ballot boxes *Presidential ballot papers to arrive February 12 *No information about other ballot papers *Fake printing inks sent to states from INEC headquarters rejected *Many states yet to get balance of Card Readers.

Interestingly, Jega told the Council of State that almost everything was ready for the elections.

He repeated the same thing during his postponement speech.

That this medium has consistently put Jega on the spot regarding his responsibilities does not in any way suggest that it enjoys haranguing the embattled INEC Chairman. This is a national duty. Just about three years ago, it was this same medium – using this same platform – that went to town to extol the virtues of Jega’s paradigm shift in his drive to bequeath to Nigerians an electoral culture that could match that of any developed country. But once Jega lost focus, by allowing some of the people he appointed and with spheres of responsibilities and influence which make National Commissioners and Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, redundant, it became our bounding duty to tell Nigerians the truth about happenings in INEC.
For instance, after months of serially exposing the evil in the lopsided allocation of 30,000 Polling Units (dashing the North over 21,000 and graciously, though in a whimsical manner, giving the entire South just a little over 8,000), with Jega and his co-travelers defending the indefensible sharing formular, and sometimes barefacedly telling lies, sending tones of rejoinders and even insulting the sensibilities of undiscerning and unsuspecting Nigerians, Jega buckled under the weight of public opinion.

Now, the chap in the Commission, an appointee, Jega’s staff, who engaged this ridiculous allocation, is the selfsame individual who is expected to freely, fairly and creditably allocate voting materials.

That is not all. There is the Chinese angle to all of these. Whereas Jega told Nigerians that everything was on ground for the elections and all systems would have gone by yesterday, information emanating from China where the Commission contracted suppliers to produce the Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) has it that over 1 million cards, which were yet to be produced, will not be ready before Monday 16th February.

This is due to a compulsory public holiday celebration in China which has upset the production deadlines anticipated by INEC.
Also in the field, poor information dissemination at polling unit levels, on the part of INEC, has resulted in many eligible voters wasting precious man-hours in search of elusive PVCs with many frustrated by the futile exercise. From the current development, it appears INEC may have indeed hidden behind the security concerns to disguise its lack of readiness for the election.

Moreover, it has also emerged that thousands of PVCs, which have been supplied, were poorly sorted, resulting in many PVCs being distributed to states other than the states of their owners.

For instance, some PVCs meant for states in the South-West have been found in the South-South and vice versa while some PVCs meant for voters in the South-West ended up in other geo-political zones.

That is how prepared INEC was.

Source: Vanguard