Better late than flawed

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2 April 2011

Better late than flawed

Attahiru Jega, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission is receiving a lot of flak, and many will say rightfully so, for the fiasco which unfolded on Saturday. He postponed the National Assembly election because according to him, an “unanticipated emergency we have experienced with late arrival of result sheets in many parts of the country. The result sheets are central to the elections and their integrity.’’

The electoral body appears to have had serious logistic failures that meant voting materials like ballot papers and score sheets didn’t reach their destination on time. This is the official explanation. However, in Nigeria nothing is ever that straight forward. Theories abound about the real reasons for the postponement. They include a conspiracy theory that suggests Mr. Jega is being sabotaged by his own staff who have been ‘settled’ so he can be disgraced and forced to resign; to rumours about governors who hijacked election materials forcing Mr. Jega to first consider postponing election in a few states, and then nationwide because it became clear that theft of electoral material was once more widespread than INEC first realised.