Doyin Abiola's Bombshell

“Why Jega Will Fail”

+My June 12 Experience

The recently appointed Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Prof. Atahiru Jega may have well be on an impossible mission as far as conducting an acceptable general election is concerned if the observation of Dr. Mrs. Doyin Abiola are anything to go by.

Dr. Mrs. Doyin Abiola was one of the Speakers at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Annual October lecture held in Abuja last week where the INEC Chairman presented a paper on how his commission intends to organize a general acceptable election come 2011.

Registering her pessimism at the lecture, Dr. Doyin Abiola, wife of late Chief MKO Abiola the acclaimed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election adjudged to be the fairest and freest in Nigeria said though Dr. Jega may mean well for the country, but there are powerful personalities standing on his way to success and whose toes he can't afford to step on.

Speaking in an emotional laden voice, the former defunct National Concord Managing Director said there are selfish and powerful people in the country whose toes Jega must step on to do a good job, adding however that the INEC Chairman dare not else he would be consumed.

Further registering her doubts over the possibility of a free and fair election in 2011, Mrs. Abiola said it is not possible for any country to conduct an absolutely free and fair election not even in the United State of America.

She enthused, declaring that the mission becomes more impossible in Nigeria because it's a one party state.

“It is absolutely impossible to have a free and fair election in a country where there is no opposition,” she stressed.

Further putting holes in Prof. Jega's free and fair election resolve, Mrs. Abiola said aside the fact that INEC has the issue of multiple registrations of voters to contend with, Prof. Jega, she averred, is just one of the many INEC officials, adding that saboteurs are bound to be among officials of the commission.

Contrary to the belief that Nigeria is made up of many major towns and cities, Mrs. Abiola, went down memory lane and divulged that her involvement in her late husband's presidential campaign in 1993 gave her the opportunity to discover the complex nature of the country adding that INEC cannot effectively fathom what difficulties that may spring up from the various hinterland in the country's general elections.

Nigeria, she registered, is very large, adding that there are some areas that exists in the country now that may not likely be in Jega's picture for now, yet, they will eventually come into the picture when it would have been too late to factor them into the preparations.

Wishing the INEC boss good luck, Mrs. Abiola concluded however, that the INEC boss no doubt has a big task before him.        

November 11, 2010