The worst job in the world (1)

I think I’ve seen Professor Attahiru Jega once at a NUC research seminar.  It must be he who spoke that day and had me bristling with goose pimples because of the sheer depth and intelligence shown.  I must have told some of my friends about him.  And I must have cautioned a few, that our […]

I think I’ve seen Professor Attahiru Jega once at a NUC research seminar.  It must be he who spoke that day and had me bristling with goose pimples because of the sheer depth and intelligence shown.  I must have told some of my friends about him.  And I must have cautioned a few, that our assumption that ‘all northerners are stupid’ will soon put us all in trouble.  

But I was sad when I heard that he had been nominated as the next INEC chief.  People must be careful of the kind of appointment they take on, and which regime they work for.  And I would expect that Professor Jega should not interpret the tasks before him merely from an academic or management perspective.  I suspect that Maurice Iwu will laugh last on this matter.  

In the first place, it needs to be said that 90% of the time, people go into government service to try and make a difference.  Only a minority go there to steal the place blind.  Those who go to serve may also not mind making some good money on the side as they tag along.  The problems come up when it becomes impossible to make money and make a difference at the same time.  When public servants make money, it usually comes at a cost to their integrity and conscience.  And so people like Maurica Iwu could have set out, thinking they can do a good administrative job, and make money as well.  The result of this ‘pharmaceutical’ experiment (combining two volatile chemicals – money making with managerial integrity), is what led to his being disgraced out of office, like almost every other person who has ever served Nigeria.

And Attahiru may yet leave that seat in disgrace.  In fact I thought about naming this piece ‘Run, Attahiru, Run’.  Not to run for political office, but for his life, for his name, for his integrity, for his sanity!  For there is truth in what the Monster (Ebora) of Otta said, that even Jesus Christ couldn’t conduct a free and fair election in Nigeria.  The only problem I had was that this was coming from his mouth, being the very person that saddled Nigeria with a desperate brand of politics.  In 2003, Obasanjo mandated all PDP members to ‘deliver’ their constituencies.  The result was embarrassing to the few reasonable people in PDP as at then, especially the then Chairman, Audu Ogbeh.  But Obasanjo is a nihilist, an extremist, who has scant respect for Nigerians and humanity in general.  It is either his way… or the highway!

Since Obasanjo’s incursion into Nigeria’s politics, we have gone downhill.  Not in terms of money, but in terms of humanity.  In terms of desperation and lust for power by every means.  And the situation is getting worse by the day.  That is what should worry Professor Jega, not logistics, not organisation, not management.  The kind of Nigerians he is going to have to organise elections for, have changed from what they used to be.  Obasanjo cemented the decay by christening the 2007 general elections, a ‘do or die affair’.  Since then, politics in most parts of Nigeria has become a do-or-die affair.  The only opportunity we had was when Umaru Yar’adua openly declared that the elections that brought him in were flawed and sought to remove that desperation from politics.

I am angry.  Because we who pontificate that we know, just seem to know so little.  Or perhaps those who know the truth in this country, deliberately mislead the populace, stoking the anger of the ‘educated’ and the illiterates alike, to achieve devious aims.  And they seem to be successful, given the state of morass that Nigeria is in today.  Let us think back to the terrain before Obasanjo left.  Elections had been criminally usurped in Imo, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Adamawa, Rivers, and Anambra and just about everywhere else, in gangster fashion.  It was because of Yar’adua’s insistence on ‘rule of law’, which ensured that some ‘big boys’ could not just walk into Aso Rock and get him to subvert justice at will, as they were used to in the Obj era, that some of those illegalities were reversed, and we even had something close to sane elections in Anambra, late last year.  It used to be that the ‘big boys’ simply donated a fraction to the PDP and obtained import duty wavers running into trillions of Naira

Obasanjo ensured that the illegalities remained in the whole of the southwest, save for Lagos.  The only region he could not railroad that easily, into his destructive scheme, was the core north of Nigeria.  The aftermath of his strategy is that Nigerians have become a more desperate people, desperate more than ever for power and money; a people whose moral fibre has been grossly eroded, who will not stop at any limits (murder, kidnapping, massacres), in order to get what they want.  There is already a thriving industry among our youth, targeted at the rigging of elections.  Boys and girls are prowling about, looking for the ‘business’ of thumb-printing for the highest bidder.  We must thank the great Obasanjo for ‘assisting’ this country in the most destructive manner.  Now we are back to the era of wheeling and dealing aren’t we?  Or why would Femi Otedola be following President GJ on all his gallivanting trips around the world.  The brutal neo-capitalists have taken over again, and Nigerians are the worse for it.

So, Professor Jega, I will list here the attributes you need to be successful on your new assignment.  And you can take these and run with them.  Firstly, you must possess the ability to see through the minds of ALL your Executive Commissioners and Resident Electoral Commissioners, knowing full well that some of them are nominees of powerful people in this country and they have instructions to carry out.  You must extend your CLAIRVOYANCE and SUPERNATURAL powers to dominate the Presiding Officers, Returning Officers and Clerks and everyone involved in the process.  I have left you out of the equation, because I know that because of your personality, culture and religion, you may be truly incorruptible.  But it is evident that the politicians who appointed you, merely want to use your good name to do a bad job, and achieve a bad result.  Sir, You are the GUINEA PIG for their experiment.