President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan promised the country free and fair elections, and he kept to hisword. He also expanded the space for Nigerians to participate in the democratic process while the whole world was watching, which happens to be one of the best legacies that has come to stay in the Nigerian political system.
However, some political stakeholders have expressed mixed feelings about the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) due to some irregularities which occurred during the electoral process, however Mr President has urge those who may feel aggrieved to follow the due process according to Nigerian constitution and electoral laws, in seeking redress.
Mr President set the tone for a successful election by appointing Professor Attahiru Jega as INEC’s Chairman and giving him thenecessary support to ensure that the 2015 presidential election is free, fair and violence free.
Professor Attahiru Jega aware of the power conferred on him as the INEC Chairman, ensured that the election process was free, fair and very transparent.
The acceptance of the card reader was the beginning of the end of the ruling party (PDP) and President Jonathan, their attempt to drop the idea proved abortive, they tried all they could to revert the use of the computerised Card Reader Machines by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for accreditation and tracking of information on the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs). According to INEC, the machine could help to put a check on rigging as it is programed to display information on any person who has voted. But the PDP feared that the machine may not provide credible elections, or might not give them room for manipulation. Despite immense pressure on the President to flush out Prof. Jega, the INEC Chairman continued to maintain that he would only leave on his own volition. When asked if he would resign weeks before the elections, the 58-year-old academia said, “It is unfair for me to say I will resign when I have a job to do. I remain focused”.
All thanks to Professor Attahiru Jega for insisting on the use of the card reader, which was a strategic masterstroke that has added to the credibility of this crucial elections.He was also fair of Mr Jega to have allowed Mr President to use the register after three failed attempts made on the card reader to read Mr President and the First Lady’s permanent voter cards after about 30 minutes. The same process did not take General Buhari and his wife more than two minutes to be accredited using the same card reader. Although, the card reader recorded 0.25% of failure across the nation, the process was still rated free and fair by international communities like ECOWAS, US and UK.
There is greatness in following the rule of law, orderliness and extreme patience in all you do, all these attributes were practically put to use by Professor Attahiru Jega. He is always calm;For a man who is in the eye of the storm at the moment, Jega remained cool, calm and collected. His focus and determination to make a success of the most keenly contested elections in the country appears to be unshakable, most especially during the proceedings of election collation, when Nigerian former Minister of Niger Delta, Elder Peter Godsday Orubebe attacked him “Professor Attahiru Jega”, alleging that the result of the elections have been falsified and accusing him of being bias and partisan.
Professor Jega was magnanimous enough to have allowed Elder Peter Godsday Orubebe to throw tantrums before addressing the issue reasonably stating among others “……….Mr Orubebe, you are a former Minister of the Federal Republic. You are a statesman in your own right. You should be careful about what you say or what allegations or accusations you make. Certainly you should be careful about your public conduct". Professor Jega's response to Orubebe has been hailed as mature and worthy of praise.
If there’s one thing I very much appreciate about professor Jega style of leadership, it is how he was able to calm the nerves of all Nigerians , by taking his time in announcing each states results and also going on recess, which gave a lot of Nigerians the time to quickly do the summation themselves and also wait patiently for the final result. Prof. Jega has proved to be the only man with the power to keep Nigerians glued to their television sets for hours just to listen to him read out boring figures. By the time the final result was announced, all Nigerians already knew who the likely winner was.General Muhammadu Buhari was announced to have won with 52.41% votes as against the incumbent president with 43.67% votes and a 2,571,759 margin.
Jega’s systematic approach in announcing the final result, gave President Jonathan and his camp enough room to concede defeat early enough and also prepare his official statement, a concession speech.
The President’s concede to defeat after he realised that he lost the contest, made him an hero in the eyes of all Nigerians and international observers according to Lai Mohammed, APC spokesman.
One major tool that was an advantage to the 2015 Nigerian Presidential election was the social media. APC won the presidential election long before it was announced. This we knew with the help of the social media by engaging professional social media entrepreneurs/freelance like @Omojuwa, @chude, @delemomodu and many others. They did a very good job in promoting the image, vision and manifesto of APC on twitter, Facebook, blog sites, Instagram and many others. The APC slogan “CHANGE” also strikes a chord in the heart of many Nigerians who are ready for rapid change at the national level.
For the very first time in Nigeria’s political history, an opposition candidate won the presidential election and the final results was majorly accepted by all Nigerians and international observers with little or no complains. In a way it’s no surprise that the social media was accurately reflecting a trend. Nigeria happens to have the highest percentage of social media users.In 2014the social media added 10 million new users which gives a total of 75 million internets users today in Nigeria. Nigerians who voted during the presidential election were about 30 million. The #OccupyNigeria and the #BringBackOurGirls nationwide campaign in 2011 and 2014 respectively invited a lot of Nigerians to the social media.
One of the factors that made President Jonathan lose his re-election campaign according to Omojuwa, was his absence from his twitter handle @presgoodluck with 32 tweets and 25, 000 followers, which was abandoned since 2011. Wondering what could have happened to the president’s social media image if he had not abandoned it for good four years, unlike his main challenger Gen Buhari who only joined twitter in December 2014 with 900 tweets and 117, 000 followers alongside his running mate Prof. Osinbajo who, with 430 tweets has almost 80, 000 followers. APC understood the trend in Nigeria and they were quick enough to plug their campaign into the organic anger against the government that has been cooking in Nigeria’s social media space for at least 4 years.
Finally, the presidential election has made me realise that, you don’t surround yourself with people you do not trust, nor do you give your subordinates too much freedom in running your campaign with little or no checks and balances like Ayo Fayose and Fani Kayode who used their personal characters to destroy the image of President Goodluck Jonathan. It is worthy to note that you should never allow your best tools for success leave you for no reasons, because they might come back to hurt youas was the case with Chief Obasanjo, Dr Saraki and Gov. Amaechi.
@papabaks, papabaks@gmail.com
