Appointing an electoral umpire in Nigeria is always a sensitive matter. This is hardly surprising because it is integral to shaping the future of the electoral process in the country and deepening the democratic practice as a whole. As the United States President, Barack Obama, said during his visit to South Africa two years ago, “Elections provide a crucial opportunity for citizens to hold their leaders and political parties accountable and to give ordinary citizens a role in determining the future of their nations through peaceful political competition.” So, whatever becomes of democracy in the country will depend largely on the choice President Muhammadu Buhari makes.
Understandably, Buhari’s job is made a wee bit challenging because whatever choice he comes up with is going to be a replacement for Attahiru Jega, a man believed to have served with distinction as the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission before bowing out at the end of his five-year tenure in June. Ordinarily, the expectation of many Nigerians was that his tenure would be extended so that he could further consolidate the gains the country made and make his legacies more enduring. But Jega had made it clear before his tenure expired that he would serve for just one term.
It has been more than two months since Jega left office and it is time the President presented Nigerians with a substantive INEC boss. The next set of elections may seem far away but the Nigerian electoral body has never managed to have enough time to organise elections, which is responsible for the occasional adjustment of dates witnessed before elections. There is therefore the need to make the appointment of the INEC boss a matter of urgency so that the new appointee could settle in quickly and set the ball rolling.
In appointing the new INEC helmsman, it will be difficult to ignore the standards set by the immediate past occupant of the office. Jega, by virtue of his performance, has provided the touchstonefor determining credible elections in the country. Not many may agree entirely with his style, especially in areas of logistics and other niggling problems that precipitated the postponement of the last elections. Yet, it will be difficult to dismiss the integrity and sincerity of purpose that he brought to bear in the discharge of his duties, which helped to confer credibility on the electoral outcome.
The sanity that pervaded the 2015 polls, given the parody of elections witnessed in the past, can be credited largely to Jega’s innovative inputs. For instance, the permanent voter cards and card readers he introduced made it impossible to witness the bizarre figures usually turned out as election results. The card readers also ensured that cards were not transferred, which used to be the case in the past.
Besides, in the face of intimidation and threats, he was able to stand his ground and deliver one of the most credible election results ever witnessed in the country’s political history. Unlike in the past when electoral officials always saw themselves as owing allegiance to those who appointed them – rather than loyalty to the country – Jega kept a safe distance from the government of the day and organised elections that were deemed fairly free and credible even by international observers. It was not by accident, therefore, that for the very first time, an opposition candidate was able to unseat a sitting president in an election in Nigeria.
Therefore, in appointing a successor to Jega, nothing short of a personality with the capacity to do even better would be acceptable. The country has a history of appointing professors and legal personalities as the chief electoral officer. It does not necessarily have to be so. What matters is a Nigerian of integrity, whose independent-mindedness would be guaranteed. Not only should he be able to shrug off pressure from the government of the day, he should also be in a position to take Jega’s innovations of integrating high-tech solutions into our electoral process to the next level. Such a person should not shy away from introducing electronic voting into Nigeria’s electoral culture, to eliminate rigging.
What should be paramount here is the building of “strong democratic institutions,” as advocated by Obama. Although the success of the last elections has been credited to Jega, Nigeria should be able to grow to a level where even a corrupt person would not be able to corrupt the system because of the robustness of the electoral institution. Emphasis has to shift from personalities to institutions.
Already, tongues are wagging as to the factors that should come into play in appointing the next INEC boss. Some have brought in the issues of zoning and ethnicity. Some believe the next INEC boss should not come from the same section of the country as the President. While the craving for balancing is appreciated, it is important to note that religion, ethnicity and geographical background should only play a minimal role in that appointment.
If Buhari eventually gets it right in his appointment, Nigeria’s election management agency will be able to enjoy stability, the type that has helped Ghana to produce some of the most transparent elections in Africa. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, who had supervised all elections in Ghana since the country’s return to democratic governance in 1992, just retired after serving in that position for 23 years and was succeeded in June by Charlotte Osei.
Nigeria should, by now, also be thinking along that line, instead of the high turnover experienced in the election management process in the country, which invariably leads to new appointees beginning a learning process all over again.
