Nigeria: What an International Disgrace!

This Day

3 April 2011

Nigeria: What an International Disgrace!

Simon Kolawole

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Incredulity. Anger. Disgust. Pick your choice to describe the farce that went on yesterday. It was like a joke when I first heard that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was going to postpone the National Assembly elections nationwide because of shortage/non-arrival of certain materials, specifically the result sheets.

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Despite my anger, however, I'm not going to join the hang-Jega crowd just yet. I will give just two reasons for this. The first is that it is very obvious that INEC is fractured. Jega is generally seen as too straight and difficult to manipulate. According to some insiders, Jega has made it very difficult for people to do business as usual. He has put so many stumbling blocks on the path of commissioners, including RECs, to prevent them from being contaminated by politicians. He has set security agencies on them, monitoring their movements and activities. So there is no way they would be happy. They would want him to fail. If there is anything they can do to make sure Jega fails, they do will it. Really, they would gladly fold their arms and watch him fail spectacularly. Put simply, Jega could be battling with fifth columnists in this instance. If this is true, then he has my sympathy.

The second reason is that Jega said the decision was taken to protect the integrity of the elections. In other words, what is worth doing at all is worth doing well.