The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, on Tuesday spoke about his fears for next year’s general election.

Jega, who spoke in Abuja at a national stakeholders’ forum on elections organised by the Civil Society Situation Room on Achieving the Implementation of Credible 2015 general elections, said he was bothered by heightening insecurity and the unruly attitude of politicians, which constitute major challenges to peaceful elections next year.

The INEC boss, who said the security problem was more evident in the three troubled North-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, stated that his greatest fear for the 2015 elections was making politicians to play by the rules.

“The attitude of the political class is the greatest challenge. They want to intimidate, harass and induce.

“Security is also a challenge. Especially in the three states in North-east. We cannot put our men and resources at risk. But we are having an inter-agencies security meetings going on frequently,” Jega said.

He said investigation conducted by the commission showed that youth corpers who were compromised were threatened by politicians to either collect gratification or be killed.

Jega urged politicians to play by the rules of the game during the 2015 elections.

He said the commission has identified and blocked many of the loopholes exploited in the past by politicians to rig elections.

“I am confident that 2015 will be better operationally and logistically,” Jega said. He added that a better voters’ register has been produced and that all ballot boxes were being numbered serially. This, he said was not so when he was appointed in 2010.
He spoke of other efforts being made by INEC under his leadership.

“In 2010 when I was inaugurated as chairman of INEC, we discovered that there was abandonment of doing the basic things that allow election to be credible such as keeping voters’ register. A good register is fundamental to the success of an election,” the INEC boss said.

He said security remained a challenge even as he said all security agencies had come together to address this challenge.

Also speaking at the event, the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese of Catholic Church, Mathew Hassan Kukah, cautioned President Goodluck Jonathan and governors of the 36 states against imposing candidates on the people.

He said such practice would heat up the polity and frustrate election results.
Kukah said INEC can only conduct a credible election in 2015 if Nigerians themselves wanted credible elections.

He said the country’s inability to develop a culture of succession has resulted in what he described as, “a system of government by the corrosive poison of anointing,” which he said promoted rent seeking.”

He observed that presidents, governors are all were determined to install their own favourite wives (as in Zimbabwe), their sons (as in Meseveni) or their godsons and daughters as we see in the land.

“By forcing candidates, sitting presidents or governors simply heat up the system and frustrate outcomes in elections by contriving outcomes.”

He also noted that a situation where people hurriedly resigned their appointments to go and seek elective posts implied that there would be no level-playing field for all candidates.

“What chances do new comers have to win elections if they are competing with those who have had access to state resources by virtue of the positions they held before they left office?” he queried.

He explained that since political office being the domain of patronage and privilege, the country was caught in the predicament of the men and women in the fortified city: those inside cannot get out and those outside can’t enter.

“It is this convoluted logic that produces the violence and the humiliating culture of accumulation and theft in the land,” he added