He made this assertion yesterday at Chatham House in London in an interactive session after delivering a lecture titled: ‘Challenges of Modernising Election Processes: the Nigerian Experience’.
“When I was vice-chancellor, I thought students were the most difficult to deal with,” the Academic said, stressing that at INEC, he found out that politicians in Nigeria were the most difficult to relate with.
He recounted that despite making efforts to carry politicians along by keeping them abreast with INEC activities and initiatives, they would later turn round to reject what they approved or accused the electoral body of trying to favour rival parties if things were not going the way they wanted.
Citing an instance, he said that both the former government and the National Assembly approved funds for smart card readers and permanent voters cards, among others, after being convinced of their necessity in ensuring credible elections, but when it dawned on them that they would not be able to manipulate elections as they did in the past, they strongly opposed the initiatives.
Jega maintained that politicians could easily change tunes and cry foul when they realise that issues do not favour them or they could not manipulate them for their personal gains.
The ex-INEC Chair attributed the huge success of the 2015 general elections to the adoption of technology in both the planning, management and conduct of the elections, and expressed optimism that “transparent and credible elections have come to stay in Nigeria”.
He listed funding, people’s suspicion of technology and aversion to changes by politicians, security of data, qualified manpower, among others, as some of the challenges of using technology in the conduct of transparent and acceptable elections.
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