INEC: The profile of Jega’s successor

Certainly, any moment from now, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Muhammadu Jega will be leaving office as the nation’s chief electoral officer. By Jude Opara The question now is not whether the erudite scholar will be bowing out because he has said that he will not even accept reappointment by the government. So what matters now is who will be taking over the baton from Jega and what type of person is he? Jega was on June 8, 2010 appointed the INEC chairman by former President Goodluck Jonathan to replace another university don, Prof. Maurice Iwu who conducted the election that brought in the administration of President Umaru Yar’Adua and his then vice, Goodluck Jonathan in 2007. That election was highly criticized as falling short of acceptable international standard. To that effect, Late President Yar’Adua even admitted that the process that brought him to power was flawed and he set up the Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reforms Committee. Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega The conduct of the 2015 general elections became very decisive because many observers both from within and outside the country saw it as a watershed to the corporate existence of Nigeria. This even became more problematic going by the vicious campaign which the political class brought into the electioneering campaign. Before now, some international analysts had predicted that Nigeria was going to disintegrate in 2015 and the way and manner the main two political parties, the PDP and the All Progressives Congress (APC) went about their campaign added to the apprehension that ushered in the elections. Therefore all eyes were on Jega and his INEC to conduct an election that will be generally acceptable to everybody. Members of the international community were equally interested in what was happening in Nigeria with special reference to the polls. Planning for the 2015 polls In order to ensure that the usual electoral frauds were at least brought to a reasonable check, INEC introduced the use of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and the Card Reader Machine for the verification and accreditation of voters. From the beginning, INEC brought all the registered political, parties into the picture of what they intended to do to eliminate the flaws and they all gave their seal of approval. The PVC made it difficult for people to vote with voter cards that do not belong to them, it also rendered useless the idea of buying off the voter cards of some people by desperate politicians. Before now some voter cards used to trade from about N5,000 to N10,000 naira. And to use the PVC, there must be a Card Reader that will authenticate it. Low point of the 2015 polls However, it must be noted that despite the outcome of the election and its endorsement by both the domestic and international observers, there were a lot of areas where INEC failed to tidy up prior to the conduct of the polls. The Commission could not carry out enough voter education and enlightenment of the voting public so as to know what was expected of them during the exercise. Most of the voters did not know where to place their thumb hence the prevalence of void votes at the general elections. There were a lot of issues with the PVCs as well as the card reader. Granted they were good innovations aimed at ending electoral fraud, the Commission again failed in educating the people on their usage. It is on record that the demonstration of the workings of the card reader which took place in 12 states of the federation was only done after the postponement of the presidential election from February 14 to March 28. Jega-cartoon-2015There were a lot of child voters in some parts of the country even with the use of the PVCs. This means that NEC failed or refused to ensure that only Nigerians who were 18 years of age and above got on the voters register which INEC had at various times preached. The question should be why INEC registered these under-aged children in the era of the PVC and card reader machine? Again INEC is yet to get its logistics arrangement right hence the usual story of electoral materials arriving at polling units late which equally affected the credibility of the elections in a no small way. In fact in some places the materials reportedly got to the voting points in the afternoon when the accreditation of voters ought to have ended. It also goes to show that the staff were not properly trained because in some places they proved not able to operate the card reader machines, another factor that affected the credibility of the entire exercise. The remuneration of the ad-hoc staff was equally shabbily handled in most places because even after the polls we have continued to hear of some groups of the staff demonstrating and calling on the electoral body to pay them the stipend approved for them for taking part in the elections. Challenges Now the big challenge that has continued to bedevil INEC is what to do with the numerous electoral offenders. The electoral body has shouted it clearly that it does not have the financial base and time to prosecute these offenders hence the request for the establishment of an Electoral Offences Tribunal but so far little or nothing has been done in that regard. Many analysts have also argued that to be really independent, INEC should be made to be drawing its funds from the first line of charge instead of the present practice where it draws its funds from the presidency which could expose it to some undue manipulation by the government in power. The man for the job With the relative success recorded by Jega, it goes to say that his successor must be able to raise the tempo from what it is currently or at worst maintain it. Care must be taken that somebody who will even lower the standards was not foisted on the nation because it has been shown that getting the electoral process right is the first step towards the development of the country because that will make the politicians to really understand that power truly resides with the people. The new INEC boss must be a man or woman who truly sees himself or herself as a Nigerian in truth and indeed and ready to work for the entire country. An ethnic or religious jingoist (there are many of them) must not be given the most sensitive job in the land. Apart from having the necessary academic and professional qualification, the man for the job must be passionate and ready to ensure that he contributes his quota to the growth of the electoral system by not secretly working for any politician or political party to the detriment of the others. In the out-going era, there were issues about lopsided appointments and promotions, such should not be a hallmark of a true nationalist because merit must always be respected and protected from the altar of regionalism. He must also be ready to take the welfare of the staff very seriously because that is one sure way of stopping them from colluding with desperate politicians to manipulate the process.

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NECO to introduce CBT in subsequent exams – Board

The National Examination Council (NECO) will introduce Computer-Based Test (CBT) in objective papers of its subsequent examinations, says Dr Paddy Njoku, the Chairman, NECO Governing Board. Njoku made this known on Thursday in Abuja during the board’s monitoring visit to the Model Secondary School, Maitama, centre of NECO Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination. He said he was impressed with the progress of the examination as students and teachers conducted themselves well. The chairman said that the visit was informed by the fact that today’s paper — Mathematics — was compulsory for all the students. “We will introduce CBT in papers that need computer in the next exams, but some other subjects are either practical or essay; so you cannot put everything under CBT. “Mathematics is compulsory; so the hall will be full; that is why we decided to inspect them today. “We do about four levels of monitoring; we have invigilators’ supervisors, security men and external monitors drawn from institutions of higher learning, who independently, monitor without getting involved in the administration of the examination. “The board comes out to monitor and get direct assessment of the situation so that nobody tells stories and all these we do to ensure very strict control of our examination.’’ Njoku said that reports from all over the country indicated that the examination was going on fine. He said the performance of students in the examination had improved over the last two years based on students who made five credits, including Mathematics and English. According to him, the performance will continue to improve “since the rot created over the years will take some time to fix”. He blamed dwindling performance of students on the quality of teachers, adding that efforts were being made to address the problem. “ If we do not get the correct materials to teach the students in terms of teacher quality, we do not expect the students to do wonders. “We are trying to encourage, in our own way; the authorities to make sure that teachers are properly motivated to produce good students. “We have to look at the quality and commitment of teachers and to make sure they are properly trained. “It is something that should be done in conjunction with other stakeholders,’’ he said. On his part, NECO Registrar, Prof. Abdulrashid Garba, said that in 2016, all objective examinations of the body would be CBT. He said he had been visiting schools in various states, adding that the visit to Model Secondary School, Maitama, was the Board’s monitoring. “ In the schools visited so far, we have not seen anything that can cause disturbance; it has been complete compliance with the rules of the examination. “All centres in Nigeria have been adequately secured; in special areas like Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, extra security measure have also been taken.’’ Garba said that 975, 991 students were taking the examination nationwide. According to him, the results will be released 60 days from the date of the last paper which comes up on July 10

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Pepsi Academy’s 2015 U.K. scholarship selection begins

Pepsi Football Academy students from across 14 centres in Nigeria will from today to Saturday gather in Abeokuta, Ogun State, to compete for spaces in the annual Pepsi Academy United Kingdom (U.K) Scholarship Scheme. Pepsi Academy UK Scholarship is a life changing initiative, which provides opportunity for outstanding young lads of the academy to study and play professional soccer at Brooke House College in United Kingdom for two years. Director of Pepsi Football Academy, Kashimawo Laloko, described the programme as one of the best things that has ever happened to grassroots football in Nigeria, adding that the Pepsi UK Scholarship has been a source of motivation for the youngsters who are keen to take their football careers to Europe. Head of Marketing, Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc, Norden Thurston, said Pepsi through the Pepsi Academy is committed to identifying and nurturing young talents right from the grassroots to pave way for the next Mikel Obi, Osaze Odemwingie, Elderson Echejile amongst other successful soccer stars, who started their careers at the Academy. “The Pepsi UK Scholarship scheme offers our Pepsi Academy youngsters a once in a life opportunity to study and also play in one of UK’s best high schools. It is a partnership that has endured for 10 years now,” Mr. Thurston said. Since it began in 2005, more than 15 players have benefited from the programme with Oluwatosin Michael, being the first beneficiary with St Bedes School, UK and Larry Egunjobi already playing professional football in Portugal.

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VC of UNIPORT hinges varsities’ survival on increased fees

As the country grapples with failing oil prices, Vice Chancellor, University of Port Harcourt, Professor Joseph Ajienka, has warned that except public universities are allowed to increase school fees, they may soon collapse due to poor funding. According to him, the present scenario where the university system continues to strain under the weight of underfunding from statutory sources, and indifference from society at large no longer makes sense. While briefing newsmen on activities lined up to mark the university’s 30th convocation ceremony, and the 40th anniversary of the school, Ajienka asserted that universities in Nigeria today were bogged down by a combination of factors that place additional operational burden on their operators, especially the vice chancellors, who are on the frontline. He said it was now obvious that critically needed funding was dwindling by the day, in the face of failing oil prices, while the average cost of running each university is correspondingly escalating by the day. Ajienka, who said he envisaged a situation in which public universities are likely to collapse on account of inadequate funding, argued that while some Nigerians parents were willing to pay outrageous schools fees for their children in universities abroad, they were the first to kick against the introduction of some form of charges at the tertiary level of education in Nigeria. The vice chancellor said it remains inexplicable that some Nigerians were prepared to pay huge sums to sustain quality education in other countries, and yet treat the ones here with utter contempt. “The truth is that statutory federal allocations alone can no longer be relied upon to run the universities as little or nothing is left to embark on meaningful research and infrastructural development after payment of salaries. As I have always maintained, the plain truth is that we can no longer shy away from giving serious consideration to the issue of introducing some form of school fees (or charges) in the Nigerian university system, if we hope to dig it out of the deep morass into which years of unrealistic tuition-free education has placed it.” He emphasised that parents should pay a little more to sustain the Nigerian university system if they still hope to see public universities in the next 10 years. The situation, he noted, was that critical, and requires immediate remedial measures. He warned that unless something drastic was done in this respect, Nigerians’ hope of attaining the indices of true national development would continue to remain a mirage.

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Women World Cup: Adepoju urges Falcons to raise game against Australia

Warri (Delta) – A former Super Eagles player, Mutiu Adepoju has commended the Super Falcons’ 3-3 drawn game against the Swedish National Women team in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada. Nigeria's forward Asisat Oshoala kicks the ball to score a goal as Sweden's defender Nilla Fischer tries to stop during Group D match of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup between Nigeria and Sweden at the Winnipeg Stadium on June 8, 2015, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. AFP Nigeria’s forward Asisat Oshoala kicks the ball to score a goal as Sweden’s defender Nilla Fischer tries to stop during Group D match of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup between Nigeria and Sweden at the Winnipeg Stadium on June 8, 2015, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. AFP Adepoju on Tuesday that in as much as he had desired an outright victory for the National team, the eventual outcome was good enough. He, however, urged the players to raise their game against the Australians if they must qualify for the next stage of the competition. The former coach of the Shooting Stars (3SC) of Ibadan said the first game in every tournament was very important, “it goes a long way to determine whether a team will advance. “However, it is not a bad result but the second game against Australia has to be won, if they expect to qualify to move to the next stage. “An own goal can happen to anybody; that does not mean they are not good enough. They were a little jittery and did not gain confidence in good time. “I think the coaches will make corrections, where they think the team has problems in subsequent matches,’’ he said. The team came twice from behind to salvage the a point in the highly explosive encounter. The Liverpool striker and BBC player of the year, Asisat Oshoala, Ngozi Okobi and Francisca Ordega all registered their names on the score sheet for the National team. Falcon’s Desire Oparanozie had earlier conceded an own goal to give the Swedish side the two goals lead just before the interval.

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