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Jonathan cannot arm-twist Jega –Balarabe Musa
Radical opposition leader and former second republic governor of Kaduna state, Alhaji Balarabe Musa has said Prof. Attahiru Jega who was appointed last week by President Goodluck Jonathan to occupy the vacant Chairmanship seat of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has the capacity to resist any attempt the President may make to arm twist him if he decides to contest the 2010 presidential election.
This is even as the Alliance for Credible Elections, ACE, said politicians who are reputed for using election umpires for their own selfish ends would meet the brick wall in Jega as they are already perfecting inducement strategies for whoever becomes the INEC boss ahead of the 2011 general elections in the country.
Alhaji Musa in a telephone with The Abuja Inquirer on the chances of Jega being fair in office in the event that President Goodluck Jonathan’s alleged ambition to contest the 2011 presidential election becomes real said, “the choice of Prof. Jega to manage the nation’s electoral body at this period of clamour for reforms is very appropriate. Prof. Jega is well known for his non-partisan principles, who understood the Nigerian political history and its peculiarities”.
He posited that “available records on the man Jega shows that he has an untainted leadership and academic lifestyle that speaks of him as an impartial personality who cannot be arm twisted; not even by the president who appointed him or any political party, no matter the size. Infact, I doubt it very much that anybody would have the capacity to use Prof. Jega against what he stands for”.
In similar vein, the Secretary GeneraL OF Alliance for Credible Elections, Nigeria, Emma Ezeagu said Prof. Jega is a good candidate that can bring credibility to the organization and conduct of elections being yearned for by majority of citizens.
Ezeagu said that while Nigerian politicians of every divide usually would make attempts to want to tempt the man with all forms of inducement, however expressed confidence that the man chosen by President Jonathan is able to deal with them.
As he puts it “we know politicians will want to use such a man with high integrity’ profile but they will meet the brick wall in him. If Goodluck Jonathan is interested in contesting, let him work very hard because,Jega will not do his bid for him”.
Since Jega’s appointment was announced last week after the National Council of State meeting in Abuja, his choice apart from putting to rest media speculations, it has widely received the applause of members of the political class, Civil Society groups, Nom-Governmental Organisations, Professional groups and the Academia.
The All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, while applauding the appointment of Prof. Attahiru Jega as the new INEC Chairman said “For the mantle of leadership of INEC to fall on Prof. Attahiru Jega could be said to be a divine intervention to revive our dead and decaying electoral body. He was a member of the Electoral Reform Committee constituted by the former President Umar Musa Yardua in August 2007 charged with the responsibility of coming out with a blue print on how to put in place a formidable electoral system for the country. Therefore, he stands in a better position to reform our electoral process.
“Although our party expected President Goodluck Jonathan to allow the Judicial council to submit three names to the National Assembly for one name to be selected as recommended by the Justice Uwais report, we still commend his choice of selecting Prof. Jega based on his past antecedents”.
Edo state Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, who announced the former ASUU leader as the choice of government for INEC described the president,s choice of Jega as “a step which signify an uncommon display of statesmanship to permit an intellectual and progressive who the Human rights community and pro-democracy groups trust, to bring transparency to election organization and conductin the country”.
Dr. Festus Iyayi who handed the mantle of ASUU leadership to Jega in 1988 at the Universty of Benin, said it is a good choice that Nigerians should be proud of in that the Kebbi state born academician has proven over the years that he can always be trusted, as he upholds the highest ideals most societies crave after.
It would be recalled that prior to Jega’s appointment, the news media, especially the print, had peddled names of persons, such as Prof. Dora Akunyili and Nuhu Ribadu, Olisa Agbakoba among others to be top contenders for the plum job.
But the choice of the former ASUU leader, impeccable sources said emerged out of a list of three nominees by Jonathan, which included Barr.Bukhari Bello and Prof. Nuhu Yakub, immediate past Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja
A Political Science academic with radical dispositions, Jega is reputed to have used his ASUU leadership position to compel an unwilling military government of General Ibrahim Babangida to sign the famous 1992 ASUU/FG agreement which sought to improve the welfare of university teachers and also recognize their role in nation building.
He became the Vice Chancellor of the Bayero University, Kano in 2005. Jega was also a member of the Justice Uwais’ Electoral Reform Committee that produced a widely hailed report, which the government is yet to fully implement. His tenure as vice chancellor is to end in October.
The highly regarded former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and current vice chancellor of BUK is clearly known, nor is he by any stretch of the imagination unsung. He was celebrated not only for giving IBB headache but also for rejecting Abacha’s offer to appoint him as education minister, apart from his self-discipline, which is legendary.
His name and those of other national commissioners would be sent to the National Assembly for confirmation.
Jega was born in Jega, Kebbi State on January 11, 1957.
He attended Sabon Gari Town Primary School, Jega between 1963 and 1969 and moved on to Government Secondary School, Birnin Kebbi thereafter.
He started his university education in 1974 at the Bayero University and graduated in 1978 with a Second Class Upper BSc degree in Political Science.
While he worked as a teaching assistant Bayero University, he won a fellowship at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States in 1981 where he earned a PhD in Political Science and a Certificate in African Studies, before returning again to Bayero University in 1984 to resume as a lecturer in the Political Science department of the institution.
He was at one time a visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) Lagos, between March 1992 and March 1993; a visiting Research Fellow, Department of Political Science, University of Stockholm, Sweden in 1994; Deputy Vice-chancellor (Academic), BUK between 1995 and 1996; and Director, Centre for Democratic Research and Training, Mambayya House, BUK between 2000 to 2004.
He was head of Political Science Department, Bayero University, Kano before his appointment five years ago as the Vice Chancellor of the university.
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