The issue of ineffective governance in the country and its implications account for incredible elections which results in leadership tussles in our society.

The 1999, 2003 and 2007 elections  are now history, but it is left to observers to judge whether or not any of those  elections  were blatantly rigged. The issue is, how much difference will Professor Attahiru Jega make in the 2011 election? (more…)

No one can accuse President Goodluck Jonathan of a lack of seriousness in his much-stated desire to reform Nigeria’s problematic voting system. After a long and much debated search, Mr Jonathan appeared to have hit the jackpot with the choice of former academic, unionist and administrator, Attahiru Jega as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The choice of Mr Jega and some other commissioners has been largely hailed, although some wary commentators have cautioned that the problem afflicting the electoral system have more to do with its rules than with the personnel.

To be fair to the critics, it is partly true that the problem with INEC is more systemic than one of individuals. The task facing Mr Jega and his team is further underlined by the dictates of time.

The new leadership of INEC has only a few months (the new electoral time table is not even out because it is dependent on the constitutional amendment exercise being carried out by our lawmakers) to get a grip on the commission and tackle the many problems facing it.

For starters, Nigerians do not know which political parties will participate in the polls yet, although this is hardly the problem of the electoral body. Politicians of all stripes are still holding meetings and consultations to construct appropriate political vehicles for realising their ambitions in the polls. INEC will, however have to process these vehicles and decide which of them will be able to present candidates for the elections.

The organisation also has to deal with internal staffing inadequacies. Perhaps no other set of public officials, except maybe those of the Police force, are as distrusted by Nigerians as officials of INEC .There is no doubt that the new electoral managers will have to re-staff the organisation to the appropriate size and subject its personnel to training and retraining.

But above all it is the widespread angst over the National Register of Voters that of uppermost concern to many Nigerians. Both politicians and ordinary voters agree that the voters’ register used by INEC for the last elections is so badly flawed as to be dysfunctional. Something surely has to be done about this. In fact, some political groups and civil society organisations have threatened to de legitimize the next elections if the register is not overhauled.

An analysis done by the Inter Society-Nigeria, with the example of the last election in Anambra State , shows that out of 1.84 million ‘registered voters’ in the state’s Register of Voters, only about 600,000 were real names or verifiable names.

A little above 301,000 of them voted in the February 6, 2010 governorship election in the state, which returned Peter Obi as victor .

The list is filled with thousands of contrived identities and symbols, along with names of the dead and foreigners. All these come with INEC- given code numbers and this bogus compilation which boosted the list to the stated 61 million registered Nigerians creates room for a lot of shenanigan.

As stated by Inter Society, if a genuine election is conducted in Nigeria as was done in Anambra State, the winner of the presidential election may not score more than 5 million to 10 million votes. Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was said to have scored 24 million votes in 2007.

INEC is also supposed to periodically update its register with new voters , deleting the names of those who have died. This is a tough task, because even the National Population Commission has struggled to update its roll of Nigerians.

But INEC has apparently not even attached much importance to this. Thus millions of Nigerians who missed the last registration exercise done years ago, because they are newly of age or they were out of the country, might not partake in the next election either, unless a new exercise is conducted.

But registration is not the end of it. Millions of people who registered during the last exercise are yet to get their voter cards. In Lagos alone, the figure of those without their cards is said to be about 2.1 million people, out of a total registered list of 4.2 million.

It is therefore in the interest of the new INEC leadership to get to work winning the hearts of Nigerians by starting a new voters register. It is to the benefits of all.

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has promised  sweeping reforms to ensure only credible candidates are elected and sworn into office next year.

Chinedu Offor, reporting from Lagos, said Jega promised President Goodluck Jonathan that only credible members of the INEC staff will be retained.

“What that means is that he is going to fire a lot of workers whom he thinks have compromised their position and increase the wages of those workers to insulate them, if that is possible, from financial inducement or bribery from politicians.

“He will also carry out training of the staff, especially in…using computers to assure votes are counted,” said Offor.

Jega will encounter challenges in his efforts to achieve these goals, Offor said.  For instance, he will have to contend with influential politicians who want their candidates to be elected.

Jega also has to deal with the funding of INEC. Offor said the Senate wants it to be an independent body, not just in name, but also in reality, by having its budget set aside, instead of the being controlled by the president.

Another challenge will be to reduce the number of political parties.

“Right now, in Nigeria, we have approximately 53 potential parties, and most of them are not viable.  So [Jega] has to find a way of reducing the number of political parties, which the Senate has asked him to do,” explained Offor.

“But the big question is: ‘How is he going to do this democratically?’

“The constitution of Nigeria allows anyone to set up their own political association.  How are you going to prune down the number of political parties that have already been approved by INEC?”

Atta Jega says he will do everything possible to ensure there is a legitimate number of political parties in Nigeria that can effectively challenge any ruling party.

Zamfara State chapter Co-ordinator, Barrister Mustafa Mahe Maradun, announced this in a statement made available to the Leadership Newspaper, in Abuja yesterday.

Barrister Mustafa Mahe stated that former Governor Yarima’s political approach toward issues on Zamfara political unity were very dubious and callous, capable of creating political disunity among majority of the Zamfara State people.

He said the way and manner Yarima conducts his political campaign were very dangerous, shameful to the survival of peace and unity of the state, going by the outcome of last week’s attack on some innocent victims passing along Kasuwar Daji, in Kaurar Namoda Local Government and Maru-Gusau road, in Maru Local Government respectively.

In France and Nigeria, politicians have stepped out of line by acting as though their national teams’ World Cup disasters are major affairs of state that should divert them from other, truly vital issues of life. They are not. And pretending otherwise just smacks of political opportunism.

If soccer players need to apologize to anyone for on- and off-field performances, then it is to their longtime supporters — to the ordinary men, women and kids who root for them, not to politicians whose sudden interest in the misfortune of a national squad is suspiciously timed.

Yes, Nigeria had a poor World Cup. It hasn’t won a World Cup match since 1998 and again went without a victory this time.

But no, that doesn’t mean Nigerian players should now be made to sit in disgrace in a corner, banned from taking part in any international soccer for the next two years — which is what the West African nation’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, has decreed.

“The nation has been punished enough. Enough,” said Rotimi Amaechi, head of a presidential task force on the nation’s World Cup team. “People have had heart attacks, people have had all sorts of issues because of Nigerian football. We now want to reorganize and get back to what it used to be when it was the pride of the nation.”

Sounds serious. Way too serious, in fact. Losing is as much a part of sports as winning. Nigeria’s government should perhaps be explaining that simple fact to disappointed fans not whipping up emotions by taking an extreme view of defeat. The hundreds of death threats that were e-mailed to midfielder Sani Kaita after he collected a red card in Nigeria’s 2-1 loss to Greece showed how ugly things can get when soccer passions spill over.

Media reports out of Nigeria say the government will also be investigating allegations of soccer corruption there — there’s nothing wrong with that if the probe has no hidden political motives. And the government won’t be faulted if it catches soccer bosses with their hands in the till and misspending money that should have gone toward the sport.

But the best way to get the national team, dubbed the Super Eagles, to play better can hardly be by stopping it from playing at all. Two years out of international soccer, if it really comes to that, would mean Nigerian players missing the next African Cup of Nations and perhaps even the 2012 Olympic Games. That hardly seems likely to position them nicely for the next World Cup in Brazil in 2014, if they even qualify.

Whether the Nigerian president really does have the power to clip the wings of the Super Eagles, who are not meant to take their orders from government, remains to be seen. But the end result may be the same if soccer’s international governing body, FIFA, determines that Jonathan is sticking his nose into matters that shouldn’t concern him. FIFA takes a very dim, if at times also selective, view of political meddling in soccer and could respond by suspending Nigeria. That would mean no international soccer for all Nigerian teams, including clubs.

France’s government is also making a political mountain of the national team’s World Cup fiasco. France’s players made fools of themselves by rebelling against their coach Raymond Domenech and the French Football Federation at the World Cup, even refusing to practice one day. And French lawmakers have subsequently looked foolish, too, by acting as if this really is a major issue for France.

They grilled Domenech and outgoing federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes on Wednesday. But they let the pair off the hook by holding the hearing behind closed doors. That was unfair to fans, because instead of speaking to lawmakers, to whom they owe no explanation, Domenech and Escalettes should have spoken to and apologized directly to the French public — which they still have not fully done.

None of this is to say that soccer players and officials shouldn’t be held accountable — to fans — when they play or act poorly. And politicians of course should have a say when matters in sports go beyond the field of play. That could be the case with doping, for example, which is both a sports and a public health issue.

But let’s not turn World Cup players into political footballs just because they disappoint.

Press Statement by Founder of the Odua Peoples Congress, Dr Frederick Fasehun

Having watched with a mixture of disbelief, disgust and disappointment the unfolding events that have beset our Beloved Nation these past days, we wish to bring to your attention the need for the National Assembly to act promptly and decisively to stave off calamity arising from this disquieting drift.

Like anybody with any tinge of human feeling, we strongly wish Alhaji Umar Yar’Adua ultimate recovery from the ailment he suffers from. However, we wish to place on record that because of the impunity with which he has treated the Nigerian people and the Constitution that he swore to uphold, His Excellency has completely spent the goodwill of majority of Nigerians. (more…)

by Bankole Olubamise

Karl Maier’s seminal book on Nigeria –This House Has Fallen (Public Affairs 2000), Robert Kaplan’s “The Coming Anarchy” – The Atlantic Monthly – Feb 1994 and the recent presentation by Ambassador Princeton Lyman at the Brown University Colloquia on Chinua Achebe (2009), especially the statement that – “Nigeria is fast becoming irrelevant to the world”- which more or less sums up the entire presentation, are three external commentaries on Nigeria that we must all take to mind when considering the current state of the Nigerian nation.

We have been praying for many things! However, we have to face reality and do the RIGHT things for our prayers to be meaningful. (more…)

President Barack Obama few minutes ago gave more insights into how 23 year Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab got indoctrinated into terrorism and attempted bombing a US airliner Christmas day

Speaking through his weekly Radio and Internet site, Obama alleged that al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen apparently ordered the Christmas Day plot against a U.S. airliner, training and arming the 23-year-old Nigerian man accused in the failed bombing,

“This is not the first time this group has targeted us,” Obama said, reporting on some of the findings of an administration review into how intelligence agencies failed to prevent Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding Detroit-bound Northwest Flight 253.

In his most direct public language to date, Obama described the path through Yemen of Abdulmutallab. He also emphasized that the United States would continue its partnerships with friendly countries — citing Yemen, in particular — to fight terrorists and extremist groups. (more…)