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Despite its
criticism of the Independent National Electoral Commision’s
controversial failed bid to launch the 2011 General Elections last
Saturday, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) insists calls for its
chairman, Attahiru Jega, to resign his post are unnecessary. It said Mr
Jega’s resignation will have a negative effect on the electoral process
and put the nation’s democracy in jeopardy.

“In fact, we would
like to note that if what happened on Saturday had occurred under
Professor Maurice Iwu, the election would have gone ahead nonetheless
and results would have been collated and announced, with or without
result sheets.” The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed,
in a statement issued in Ilorin, Kwara State, on Monday, said that
while the party was shocked at the poor preparations by INEC, it still
believed the one-week postponement would give the commission enough
time to rectify the problems.

“Therefore,
unfortunate and inexcusable as the failure of last Saturday’s National
Assembly election may be, it should not translate to calls for Prof.
Jega to resign or be sacked. Some of those instigating the calls are
not even doing so for patriotic reasons. In fact, we have it on good
authority that die-hard election riggers are not comfortable with Jega
as INEC chairman, since they see him as a stumbling block to their
fraudulent plans, hence would not mind getting rid of him by all means.

“We also know that
massive pressure is being mounted on INEC to jettison the Modified Open
Ballot system and replace it with the Secret Ballot system which some
unscrupulous parties see as a better system for them to perpetrate
their rigging plans. We say no to this, and warn that any attempt to
get rid of Jega and replace him with a pliable INEC Chairman will be
resisted,” Mr Mohammed said.

Questions for Jega

The party however
challenged Mr Jega to rise up to the occasion and work hard to meet the
yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians for a successful election. While
searching for answers from the commission, the party asked: “How will
INEC rectify the problems of multiple symbols, like those of AC and the
ACN appearing side by side on the same ballot? What about parties whose
symbols were not even on the ballot?

It also wants to
know if INEC has been able to fully retrieve the ballot papers sent out
on Saturday for the National Assembly elections and if it can assure
Nigerians that the ballots have neither fallen into the wrong hands nor
been printed by unscrupulous politicians?

The fear of that
eventuality also makes the party wonder if the commission intends to
use the same ballots as the ones deployed for Saturday’s ill-fated
poll, “how does INEC rectify a situation whereby some of those ballots
have found their way into some Government Houses, as is being alleged
in certain quarters?” Meanwhile, the electoral body has, on its Twitter
page, reiterated plans to ensure that all ballot papers already
distributed or used are retrieved to its headquarters, checked and
recorded as proof of evidence, after which they would be destroyed.