THE QUESTION: Are the presidential election results being deliberately delayed?

ALthough Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), promised to announce the result of the presidential election within 48 hours, only the result of 18 states – plus the federal capital territory – have been made public three days after the election was conducted.

At Sunday’s press conference at the INEC headquarters, Jega had assured Nigerians that the result would be announced in record time.

“In 2011, we declared the results within 48 hours, and we want to improve on that. We have been working assiduously to beat that record,” he said.

But that is not how events have unfolded. First, the commission scheduled the announcement for 12pm on Monday, saying it would give time for collation officers across the country to arrive the federal capital territory.

When the exercise eventually commenced, the chairman called for four hours of recess after announcing the results of nine states. Well, those four hours were not four hours, after all. Rather than start at 8pm, collation and announcement of results did not begin until nearly 9pm.

After only an hour into the exercise, Jega called for another break, this time for just 10 minutes. By then, the results of 18 states had been announced. Jega’s 10 minutes was to spiral into an hour, prompting jokes on social media such as one saying one should hit the bed if Jega says good morning!

There is so much anxiety in the air; Nigerians are eager to know who their next president would be. Whether it would be change or continuity.

There are fears in some quarters that the delay is intended to alter the result in favour of a particular party or, in the end, force the commission to declare an inconclusive result.

Responding to TheCable’s question in that regard, Jega had said: “I’m not under any pressure to declare the election inconclusive.

However, the continued delay has been a source of worry, and it is now believed that the governments of the United States and United Kingdom who earlier warned against interference in the collation of results, must have stumbled on some information the public doesn’t have.

“The governments of the United States and the United Kingdom would be very concerned by any attempts to undermine the independence of the Electoral Commission (INEC), or its Chairman, Professor Jega; or in any way distort the expressed will of the Nigerian people,” the statement read.

“So far, we have seen no evidence of systemic manipulation of the process but there are disturbing indications that the collation process—where the votes are finally counted—may be subject to deliberate political interference.”

But we will not attempt to preempt the result, although there is hardly any other option in the face of the current delay. Unlike the guys who hacked INEC’s website on Saturday, we will, for now, not attempt to hack Jega’s mind. We will give him the benefit of the doubt, and hope this delay is all in the interest of transparency, fairness and the country’s overall interest.