3.No one is infallible, not even professors
The Jega-led administration at INEC has no doubt introduced notable changes in the electoral body. Being an academic, Jega decided to collaborate with people from his primary constituency, Bayero University Kano, where he was vice-chancellor. Lecturers and youth corps members are employed on temporary basis during election periods and this has brought about a far better situation than what obtained in the past when some corrupt politicians capitalised on the weakness of desperate electoral observers to buy their way through. There is perhaps a modicum of integrity in most of the officials that conduct election in the country.
An electoral observer linked Jega’s “sterling performance” with the collaboration with academics. A staffer of INEC also reasoned along that line.
Another point raised in support of Jega’s decision to employ the services of academics during elections is their proficiency. However, an incident that occurred at the state headquarters of INEC during the collation of results almost punched holes into that belief.
A coalition officer was asked to announce the result of his local government and the professor of a leading university in the country could not give a good account of himself by emulating those who had done the same earlier.
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The results had already been documented and programmed into INEC’s database. The collation officers were only asked to read out the hard copy, which coincidentally was being displayed on a projector. However, apart from the fact that he was incoherent, the professor kept mixing up the figures.
Firstly, the returning officer subtly told him to start all over again because his figures did not tally with the one appearing on the screen. He tried again, but could not get the result until he was asked to leave to prepare himself all over again.
About 30 minutes later, he was called to reel out the actual figures. Though there was a slight improvement, the man still did not live up to expectation. However, the audience got bored, having waited so long for the result of that local government, and therefore cheered him up when he finished. A resounding applause roared for prof in the hall, but was there any need to say that he understood the real message?
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