Prof. Attahiru Jega

Professor Attahiru Muhammadu Jega was 58 years old yesterday but this is not a citation or profile of him, for as events have shown, I’m not qualified to write any such thing on this bright and outstanding personality. However, I’m connected in a number of ways to Professor Jega and I told him this when members of the Executive Committee members of the Bayero University Kano Alumni Association visited him at the INEC headquarters on 3rd March, 2014. The two of us are Alumni of BUK and Government Secondary School, Birnin Kebbi; we are kinsmen and I am also a friend of at least one of his brothers. For those three reasons and more, therefore, I had a stake in his success or failure as the country’s electoral umpire. Thank God, Professor Jega’s tour of national duty, contrary to our scepticism, turned out to be a brilliant one.

In the run up to the 2015 elections, Professor Jega had come under tremendous pressure from politicians, political parties as well as the government of the day over what people regarded as a life and death contest for political offices. The embattled INEC chairman was even accused of enriching himself and owning property all across Abuja and to be frank, some of us were sucked in. God have mercy, it was all gutter reportage as Professor Jega maintained matchless integrity. Contrary to what former President Olusegun Obasanjo said, someone, other than Jesus could indeed organise a successful election in Nigeria and Jega did it. Yes, he did. If the result of the 2011 election was tolerable in Nigeria, the 2015 elections attained global recognition as it reflected the free choice of Nigerian voters as well as the expectations of the international community.

Professor Jega’s academic background, trade union activism, Vice Chancellorship and membership of the Justice Lawal Uwais’s Electoral Reform Committee had all prepared him for the chairmanship of INEC and glory be to God he has acquitted himself and become a reference point for well organised and successful election administration, at least in Africa.

The 2011 election was a dress rehearsal for that of 2015. In 2011, there were suggestions of widespread interference from some of the security forces and the politicians. However, a number of innovations adopted by the Professor Jega-led INEC took the winds out of the sail of perennial election fixers and fraudsters and in 2015, they met a stonewall.

Professor Jega’s introduction of Permanent Voters Card (PVC) meant that politicians would not be able to just manufacture cards and find voters to cast ballots for them. Worse still, the adoption of Smart Card Readers torpedoed the plans of unrepentant, rent seeking, evil-minded politicians who hitherto wrote and allocated votes to their handpicked candidates inside their bedchambers and hotel suits.

Equally noteworthy was Professor Jega’s employment of his academic colleagues to serve as state electoral supremoes. Many of these Professors refused to cooperate with fraudulent politicians that had always negotiated victories. They had a modicum of integrity and wouldn’t allow their names to be soiled by cash and carry politicians. A lot of them rejected gratifications and stuck to the rules.

Professor Jega’s use of the members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) also helped raise the bar of electoral integrity. Many of these corps members also turned down strange and unsolicited gifts in cash and kind intended to compromise them. Fresh from the universities, many of them couldn’t bring themselves to accept bribe and endanger their lives, having learnt from the bitter lessons of others.

Professor Jega had hinted that just one term was enough national sacrifice for him and wouldn’t accept re-appointment. No sooner had he completed his tenure at INEC, than the honours began to roll in. Professor Jega’s constituency made up of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian universities and other academics feted him and were proud to have him back. By August, 2015, just two months after he had left his post, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State had appointed Jega as the ProChancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the State University. Sunsequently, Jega won the Democracy Award of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in Washington DC, United States of America.

If it were possible to use INEC chairmanship to declare someone a governor, Professor Jega would have announced Maj Gen Bello Sarkin Yaki as the winner of the 2015 gubernatorial election in Kebbi. Not only are the two of them close friends but they were classmates at the GSS Birnin Kebbi. But it wasn’t the stuff of this Professor

Professor Jega’s integrity, calmness and sincerity of purpose must also have been inherited from his family; his father, popularly called Mamman Jega, led a frugal life and till date remains a reference point for probity, selfless service and exemplary leadership in the civil service of the old Sokoto State.

Professor Jega’s composure in the face of Elder Godsday Orubebe’s provocation on national television during the announcement of presidential election results is a study in the psychology of man and political perspicacity. Jega’s reply to Orubebe was both diplomatic and razor-sharp. If Jega had fallen for the bait, he would have vacated the national electoral chief’s seat. If he had left that seat, the result would have been different and Nigeria wouldn’t be this tranquil. Orubebe would attempt to truncate the process and help his masters, Jega would remain on top of the situation and conclude the business efficaciously Orubebe the crafty politician met Professor Jega, the politician’s teacher.

Professor Jega’s integrity, calmness

and sincerity of purpose must also have been inherited from his family; his father, popularly called

Mamman Jega, led a frugal life and till date remains a reference

point for probity, selfless service and exemplary leadership in the civil service of the

old Sokoto State