By Olusegun Olanrewaju
Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and a professor of Political Science, Attahiru Jega, yesterday took a hard look at the nation’s electoral process and gave a damning summary: Politicians have commercialised elections in Nigeria.
According to him, aside from the fact that the 2023 general elections were very compromised by politicians and their foot soldiers, in a lot of the areas, there were very serious challenges in which political activists ‘played a direct role’.
Though he believes that the 2023 general elections were “credible in many substantial aspects,” blames the problem of compromised elections should be ‘appropriately apportioned’.
Mixed reactions had trailed the elections, their outcomes, ensuing legal battles, and some of the decisions by election petitions tribunals and, subsequently, the Court of Appeal.
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But in a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Jega said his favourable assessment of the polls was not necessarily in defence of his successor in office, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
He said, in many instances, like the elections held in Kebbi and other states, elections were such compromised that many voters, particularly the women who came out to vote did so only vote monetary considerations, some very meagre.
He, however, absolved his successor of the whole blame in the exercise, saying, “I would say that (poor performance by the electoral umpire), but in many substantial aspects, it (the election) was credible.”
Jega, a former university Vice-Chancellor (VC) added, “In areas where we have seen serious challenges that are avoidable and should have been avoided, I believe that to a large extent — and you asked me to be very frank with you — we have a tendency to heap blame on the leadership of an electoral management body and I have had my fair share of those kinds of blames.
“We should apportion blame appropriately,” he argued, adding that such influence “more or less circumscribed the powers” of INEC and its chairman.
“So, to my mind it’s unfortunate it has happened on the watch of Yakubu Mahmood, but it has happened not because — to my mind, I have no evidence that he is complicit in these things.”
Jega’s position yesterday aligns with his stance ahead of the 2023 general elections when he expressed worry over the monetisation of politics in the country.
He was the INEC chairman when an opposition political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), dislodged the then-ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015 to form the government at the centre.
He had said during the National Working Committee (NWC) meeting of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), of which he was a national chieftain in Abuja that in civilised climes, elections are won based on integrity, truth, confidence, and support of the electorate.
”It is not money that wins the elections. Although in this country, it appears it is now on the front burner in winning election” he said.
Jega also said, “It is about time we stopped recycling fruits from a poisoned tree. A lot of politicians come from a poisoned tree and most people from poisoned trees are recycled.
“We are coming in as fresh people and a fresh government. And that is what Nigeria needs because they (recycled politicians) have done it and they have failed.”
