Jega: Our Nietzchean Superman

IF you read the philosophy of the German, Nietzche, you won’t fail to notice that he said dire circumstances throw up supermen and women. That is why, for instance, you might explain the rise of people like Napoleon Bonaparte in France who stepped in to stem the distortions of the French Revolution.
Also, in a similar way Oliver Cromwell rose to attempt to end the nattering nabobs of royal negativisms of English Kings. Infact, he executed one of them after his successful coup against him.
In Nigeria’s case, our dismal condition since independence in 1960 have equally precipitated the emergence of supermen and women.
Examples of the abound. For instance, we have the likes of Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, Isaac Boko, Papa Awo, Col Saliba Mukoro, Dr. Edwin Madunagu, Prof. Festus Iyayi, Dele Giwa, Prof. Ayodele Awojobi, Dr. Bala Usman, CP Olayinka Balogun, Fela Anikulapo-kuti and Dora Akunyili of recent, I cannot forget to mention General Muhammadu Bahari (rtd) and Dr. Oby Ezekwesili. Both of them are also in the Nietzchean superman/woman category for working tirelessly to midwife the fall of the inglorious PDP government of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Enter Efe Osafuonmwan anchor man for the MAN AROUND TOWN Programme of Independent Radio, Benin. Undisputedly, he is a media superman. To cap it all, our latest Nietzchean Superman is Prof. Attahiru Jega, INEC’s chairman.
At the juncture, you may be wondering at my categorization of superman and womanship. What is my reason for this? Here it is. A superman/woman is a person with spiritual poise, courage, gritty determination, steely principles, doggedness, unblemished conscience, fearlessness and a locomotive drive to succeed in all he or she does. Ultimately, his or her goal in life is to add positive values to society so as to make it a better place than he or she met it. No woman, no cry.
No superman/woman, no progressive change in Nigeria’s current stasis of underdevelopment. None. A Goliath giant with feet of clay won’t take us anywhere. Bula superman and woman will. When Prof. Attahiru Jega, a former ASUU president, was appointed as INEC chairman in 2011, I told a confidant that he would grow into an adult Nietzchean superman. Alas in 2015, my secular prophecy has come full circle. It has been fulfilled.
Well, let’s begin from 2014. That year, Jega declared that to avoid rigging of elections which Nigerians has been engaged in since 1960 only Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) backed up with biometric Smart Card Readers (SCRs) would be used in the 2015 general elections. Despite the multifarious challenges posed by our sick country, where nothing seems to work, Jega achieved 81.2% PVC, distribution as at March 13, 2015. That is fifteen days to the Presidential and National Assembly elections slated for March 28, 2015.
This wasn’t all. Jega imported 180,000 card readers for use in the elections with 30,000 of them as back-up. Also, he ensured that the ICT Department of INEC was given all the requisite training in the use of the card readers by their Chinese manufacturers. Only qualified hands were recruited into this highly technical ICT Department. No god-father sends were allowed into it as we find all over the country. If you are an Nothing To Offer (NTO), Jega has no time for you. Only a superman of his status has this character profile that roots for excellence, not mediocrity.
Each imported card reader came with a spare battery. All the batteries have a lifespan of 12 hours and are rechargeable. Therefore, each one of the batteries can serve each polling unit from 8am – 8pm on an election day. Furthermore, each card reader was configured to read the biometrics of eligible voters in a designated polling unit to prevent multiple and cross-polling unit voting. Alas, the superman in Jega had created realpolitik innovative game changers into Nigeria’s electoral system unknown in its history. Don’t forget too, he customised all the sensitive materials for the elections.
Progress!! Again, Jega took his card reader innovation for fitness test abroad. Behold, the card reader passed it with an acceptable statistical error margin. Nothing made by man is ever perfect. Afterall, even man created by a perfect God is imperfect, sui generis. So, why should we expect Jega’s card reader to be perfect.
However, the fear of the tested card readers soon become the beginning of wisdom to diabolical, rigging minds in Nigeria’s political system. The babel in certain circles was that the card reader won’t work in Nigeria given our crooked telecommunication highway and the subsidiary issue of our proverbial digital incompetence.
Jega chuckled. Therefore, he set out to prove the critics of the card reader wrong. In February 2015, he took it to the National Assembly for another test. Once again, the card reader did not disappoint. Cynics of the digital device were filled with profound admiration for it in the assembly.
Jega didn’t stop here. On March 7, 2015 he took the card reader for open field tests in statistically-generated geo-political areas of Nigeria. Specifically, 171, 857 PVCs and the card readers were used for the tests in 225 polling units and 358 voting points distributed in 12 states within the nation’s six geopolitical zones. Nothing spoil. The card readers passed this test.
Well, once there is society trust there must be sin, crime and detractors. Nigerian society was not different. So while Jega was working hard to domicile the PVCs and card readers for the 2015 elections, some Esaus raised by Jacob set out to shoot them down. Invariably, on April 4, 2015, fifteen political parties led by the Advance Congress Party began a virile protest to stop Jega from using the PVCs and card readers in the elections.
Later, five presidential candidates joined them in the protest. Meanwhile, a case instituted by 4 parties against the use of the PVCs and card readers had been in court since March 20, 2015. Then, of course, three weeks to the presidential election, a nondescript spoiler, Young Democratic Party, sought a court order for INEC to register it for the elections when all materials for the elections had already been printed and warehoused by INEC in preparation for the elections.
As if all these distractions for INEC weren’t enough, a remote PDP senatorial aspirant, Walihu Taiwo, joined the fray. On the eve of the Presidential election of March 28, 2015 he was in the court presided over by Justice Ademola Adeniyi seeking to stop Jega from deploying the card reader for the presidential election holding the next day. He failed to secure his evil wish. The case was adjourned to April 24, 2015 when the general elections must have ended 13 days afterwards!!
Despite all these Herculean challenges posed by these Liliputtian Esaus in Nigeria, superman Jega triumphed over them. Well, the Esaus never relented. Immediately, the presidential election was held, they went to town with the story that the card reader failed woefully as earlier predicted by them. But Jega ignored their porous public, gallery intellectualism. He explained with statistical depth that out of 150, 000 card readers used in the election only 374 of them malfunctioned which worked out at a meagre 0.25% non-performance. No one disputed Jega’s statement, including Gods-day Orubebe whose Goliath’s behaviour to taint Jega’s image later on failed woefully at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
So far, so good, we have Jega as our superman today. But by June 30, 2015 he will leave office. When he does, will INEC keep the superman clean slate achieved by him in 2015? This is the question. A very disturbing one, why? It is because methinks, INEC is not yet a full-blown, strong institution. Hence, discerning critics with mathematical minds are now saying that in post-June 2015 INEC – Jega will be equal to zero. Well, I hope this equation is wrong.