@PEAO1 DESK{>>~ My fears for 2015 polls – Jega By Joe Nwankwo, Assistant Editor, Abuja TheChairman, Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, said that though his commission was putting in place adequate resources to make the 2015 elections a tremendous success, his greatest challenge is the attitude of the political class. Speaking at a National Stakeholders’ Forum on Elections organised by the Civil Society Situation Room on Achieving the Implementation of Credible 2015 general elections, Jega said his greatest fear for the 2015 elections was making politicians to play by the rules. He said: ”Attitude of the political class is the greatest challenge. They want to intimidate, harass and induce,” he lamented. He said that investigation conducted by the commission showed that Corps members who were engaged were threatened by politicians to either collect gratification or be killed. He therefore called on politicians to play by the rules of the game during the 2015 elections. Jega said that the commission had identified and blocked many of the loopholes exploited in the past by politicians to rig elections. He said: “I am confident that 2015 will be better operationally and logistically. We have in place now a better voters register while all ballot boxes and ballot papers were being numbered serially.” This, he said, was not so when he was appointed in 2010. Jega said that upon assumption of office, he discovered that many basic things that could lead to credible elections had not been put in place and that his team had to start afresh. He said that security remained a challenge even as he said all security agencies had come together to address this challenge. He said: “Security is also a challenge especially in the three states in North East. We cannot put our men and resources at risk. But we are having an inter-agencies security meetings going on frequently.” Also speaking at the event?, the Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, warned that the imposition of candidates by the President and Governors would heat up the polity and frustrate the outcome of the polls. Kukah said INEC could conduct a credible election in 2015 only if Nigerians themselves wanted a credible election. Kukah noted that Nigeria is yet to develop a culture of succession adding that this had resulted in what he described as, “a system of government by the corrosive poison of anointing,” which he said promotes rent seeking. “The President and governors are all determined to install their own favourite wives (as in Zimbabwe), their sons (as in Museveni) or their godsons and daughters as we see in the land. By forcing candidates, sitting presidents or governors simply heat up the system and frustrate outcomes in elections by contriving outcomes.” He also noted that a situation where people hurriedly resign their appointments to go and seek elective posts implied that there would be no level playing ground for all candidates. He asked: “What chances do new comers have to win elections if they are competing with those who have had access to state resources by virtue of the positions they held before they left office?” He explained that since political office continues to be the domain of patronage and privilege, the country would be caught in the predicament of the men and women in the fortified city: those inside cannot get out and those outside can’t enter. “It is this convoluted logic that produces the violence and the humiliating culture of accumulation and theft? in the land. There should be a law that would ban political office holders from resigning from their positions with looted funds to contest in elections,” he added. Both the Nigerian Medical Association and the Nigerian Bar Association used the occasion to appeal to politicians and the electorate to make the 2015 elections peaceful.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 09:51:59 +0000