Against a Monster Proceeds an Intentional Unfortunate: The Case of Jega and INEC

Professor Jega

Against a monster proceeds an intentional unfortunate is the statement that should best be used to epitomize the case of Professor Jega and his new assignment as the boss of Independent National Electoral Commission. From the direction things are taking in the recent developments, Jega and INEC is a clear case of a lion in the zoo cage where he still holds onto the title of the King of the jungle but can absolutely not act like one. In the very first week of Jega's appointment, I registerd my doubts that Jega upon all the roars can hardly be able to achieve what is expected of him in his new office at Maitama District in Abuja a few meters away from the Aso Villa; the very corridor of the power in the strict literal meaning of the  term. When I first posted my comment on my wall of the facebook, I said I quote "I am trying to believe that Jega's radicalism 'll deliver Nigeria. But whenever I put the puzzling pieces of the picture together I see something different. Jega's radicalism was first noticed as ASUU president. At the time Iwu, the rigging wizard was Jega's vice. According to Jega himself, he and Iwu are friends and he served INEC during Iwu's tenure as a resource person. Can anyone tell me why'll Jega be different?" It seemed then that some friends were not very comfortable with my supposition. But as time shall prove it, things begin to take a sinking direction for the ship.

Known for his principles, Jega's radicalism and honesty it appeared, seemed to have been deliberately blown out of all propositions in order to cover the intentions of the powers that be in manipulating the 2011 elections as usual. The following are some of the tricks intended to be be used against the wish of the comrade professor to manipulate Nigerians:

1. It was not a coincidence that the new electoral act was not signed from a bill to law by Mr. president until after swearing Jega into office as the new boss of the INEC. In the new act, the new boss was stripped off his powers to deal with any contestant who misbehaves in the electioneering process. Signing the bill after he takes over office left him with very little or no option than to allow a lot of misbehaviors from the contestants against his wish. In the case whereby a political party announce their flag bearers very late, there will not be chance for Jega or any well meaning Nigerian to take the matter to the court being the only option provided by the new act, even if it established fact that the candidate is a criminal.

2. When Jega submitted his quotation of the needed fund for voter's registration and conducting the election, in which he demanded N74b, the first and reasonable criticism was that Nigerians voter's registration will be the most expensive all over the world. It stood at USD 8.00 against UDS 4.00 or USD 5.00 in most of the developed countries. Even though, this seemed to be justified by the fact that double of the initially enough fund is  needed due to time constraint, the suprizing thing about the whole deal is that instead of signing the approved N74b by the senate, Mr. president Jonathan decided for unknown reason, to inflate the rate to N89b. After releasing this huge amount of money, the question remains what the additional N16b. will be spent for.  This is in addition to the N9b already given to INEC as a budgetary allocation making the surplus N25b. 

Jega has every right to refuse to appear before the Senate to depend INEC's budget as he actually did for the fact that a huge part of the money literally sneaked into his his budget without him being able to do anything about it. But the point here is that Jega's refusal to appear before the Senate did not cause any alarm to the agenda behind the scene. Not only that the money was release to him, but a top ranking official in the senate was quoted as saying "let's give him enough rough to hang himself".

Having said all these, we are left with the question; since Jega did not demand for that additional N25b, who will spend that money and on what project? I am seriously tempted to believe that Mr. president will devise a way through pseudo- real contracts to recover that fund and redirect it to his own campaign for the re installation of  himself by 2011. We shall continue to observe the course of events.