Professor Attahiru Jega, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was recently in Ilorin, Kwara state, where he spoke in an interview published by iReporter about his return to the classroom and how the standard of elections in Nigeria has been improved by the introduction of the card reader and permanent voters card.
On how he feels returning to the classroom after completing the national task of conducting a free and fair elections, Jega said it was not difficult for him to return to the university having taught for 30 years.
“We thank Almighty Allah for His blessings and for His mercy. It wasn’t a difficult thing for me to go back to the university having taught for 30 years. Alhamdulillah, I have done five years at INEC and thanks be to God, people have appreciated that we have done our best to improve the electoral process.
“So, I was very happy to go back to the classroom, hoping that I would be able to share my experiences and also continue to teach the upcoming generation because we need educated and enlightened people to continue to help in the development of our country. So, I’m very happy, I’m one of the happiest people, I believe in this country, going back to the university, trying to live a private life, and trying to continue to do what I know how to do best, which is to study, to learn and to teach,” he said.
Jega also spoke on how the INEC can improve on the electoral process in the country saying that the next five years will be a period for INEC to consolidate on the gains and add value in terms of doing even better things than what he was able to do.
“INEC has come a long way in the last five years. We studied the problem of INEC and we did our best, put measures to address those challenges and problems, and I believe that the next five years will be a period of consolidation of the gains and value addition in terms of doing even better things than what we have been able to do because we were too busy confronting the problems that we could have done more, but we couldn’t. So, I believe that the next commission will be able to do even more because we have been able to use the last five years to address a lot of the challenges,” the former INEC chairman said.
Talking on what can be done to further improve the credibility of elections in the future, Jega advised that the electronic register should be continuously be update while challenges identified during the 2015 general elections concerning the card reader should be addressed.
“There is no doubt that the introduction of the card reader and permanent voters card (PVC) has gone a long way in improving the integrity of the electoral process in our country. I am very happy we took the decision to introduce these two elements, which relied on technology to bring integrity into the electoral process. I believe that the card has come to stay. What remains to be done is to continue to clean up the electronic register, to continue to update it and to also improve upon the card reader by addressing all the challenges that we identified during the 2015 general elections.
“Obviously, when you are using technology, it keeps on improving. So you have to also try to keep up with the changes in the technology. I envisage that we will have to update the software that we used for the card reader. We may also have to even update the software for the database.
But the good thing is that we have very good people in INEC now, who are technology savvy and who will continue to improve upon the use of technology in our electoral process,” he added.
But the good thing is that we have very good people in INEC now, who are technology savvy and who will continue to improve upon the use of technology in our electoral process,” he added.
The former INEC boss also said that Nigeria has “attained a level in which many countries are now trying to learn from.”
“As I said, we have come a long way in the conduct of elections in Nigeria. We believe that while there is still a lot of room for improvement, we have attained a level in which many countries are now trying to learn from us, and I think that is satisfactory but we have to keep on improving.
“Obviously, for elections to be ideal, we must continue to meet international expectations, use international best practices and standards and I believe in 2015 general elections, we have used a lot of these. I have no doubt that the future is very bright for INEC in terms of consolidating the electoral reform process,” Jega said.
Professor Attahiru Jega’s conduct of the last general elections that brought in President Muhammadu Buhari has earned him many international accolades and recognition.
Professor Attahiru Jega’s conduct of the last general elections that brought in President Muhammadu Buhari has earned him many international accolades and recognition.
His conduct even as Godsday Orubebe, a former minister of the Niger Delta, disrupted the announcement of the March 28 presidential election results is said to be worth of emulation.
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