Special Scoop: Jega To Proceed On Compulsory Retirement March 1, With Prof Mimiko Replacing Him

Information reaching NewsBeatPortal indicates that President Goodluck Jonathan may have finally succeeded in implementing his plan B - send INEC Chairman Prof Jega on a compulsory retirement - having earlier coerced the Independent National Electoral Commission into postponing elections in the country by six weeks.

Prof Jega will be asked to proceed on a compulsory retirement on the 1st of March, 2015 in compliance with the civil service procedure, even though by operation of the Law the date ought to have been March 24, 2015.

In a related development, the successor to the out-going Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega has being rumoured to have been nominated.

The In-coming INEC chairman is Prof Nazim Olufemi Mimiko, a professor of Political Science and International Relation and a former Vice Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State.

It remains to be seen if three weeks would be sufficient enough for the in-coming INEC chairman to properly conduct the presidential and governorship elections which had been rescheduled for March 28, 2015 and April 11, 2015 respectively.

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Exclusive: Jega’s Tenure Ends On March 24, 2015 By Operation Of Law

In the interest of full disclosure, let me say from the outset that this piece is non-partisan. It is, instead, an apolitical academic exercise, primarily intended as a simple legal treatise, without being personal, on the legalities of tenure of Prof Attahiru Jega as INEC Chairman.

Having said that, let me then give reasons why Jega's tenure legally or actually comes to end on March 24, 2015, instead of the presumptive June 24, 2015.

Jega was appointed by President Jonathan on June 8, 2010, and confirmed by the Senate on June 24, 2010. Under the law, his tenure runs for five years. Mathematically, therefore his tenure 'exactly' ends on June 24, 2015, counting from the date of Senate confirmation.

But accordingly to extant rules and our time-honoured conventions, his tenure 'actually' comes to an end on March 24 because he is required, without more, to compulsorily proceed on terminal leave three months to the mathematical end of his tenure. And this is being very generous because, if you go by the 'doctrine of relation back', a strong case can be made that his terminal leave shall commence on March 8 (the date he was appointed), instead of March 24 (the date he was confirmed).

For those who might argue otherwise, there are legions of precedents, including, most notably, that of Jega's predecessor, Prof Maurice Iwu. Iwu's tenure was due to expire on June 13, 2010. However, on April 28, 2010, then acting President Jonathan, ordered Iwu to proceed on terminal leave. That Iwu's own terminal leave was less than three months to his mathematical five years was probably a matter of expediency of that turbulent era and presidential grace, to boot.

In recent times, we have seen other equally constitutionally-tenured public servants proceed on terminal leave before the exact date of expiration of their tenure. Here are few examples. Former IGP Abubakar's tenure was due to end on July 30, 2014 but he proceeded or was sent on terminal leave on May 12, 2014.
Former Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Dahiru Musdapher voluntarily proceeded on terminal leave three months before the constitutional or mathematical end of his tenure. Ditto for former PCA, Justice Salami, even though his own was somewhat exceptional because he was on suspension when his terminal leave clock began to tick. I might add that Salami fought his for its exceptional equities but still lost. Jega has no such equities.

To underscore that there are no exceptions, the Federal Government, in a well-received circular issued by the former Head of Service, Alhaji Isa Bello Sali, had "called on those affected to comply with immediate effect by observing the three months terminal leave as provided for in the extant Rules". Unarguably, those affected included, without exceptions, all public servants that have constitutional or legal tenure, either based on fixed tenure-track, as in the case of Iwu, Jega, etc; or straight retirement based on 35 years service (the IGP) or age (Justice Musdapher).

According to the circular, which is captioned 'Three Months Pre-Retirement/Terminal Leave', the government stated that "It has been observed that the mandatory notice of retirement for officers who are due to retire is not being observed as provided for in the extant rules. Accordingly, it has become necessary to reiterate the provisions of Public Service Rules (PSR) 100238 which states that officers are required to give three months notice of their retirement from service terminating on the effective date of their retirement". For avoidance of doubt, the term retirement, in context, applies, mutatis mutandis, to those on fixed tenure like Jega.

The circular was addressed and sent to the Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Justice of the Federation, all Ministers, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Service Chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police, Chairman Federal Civil Service Commission, the Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Others are Heads of extra-ministerial departments, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Auditor-General of the Federation, Surveyor-General of the Federation, Directors-General/chief executives of parastatals and agencies.

So, as we can see from above, it is left for Jega to decide between these two options: It is either he voluntarily proceeds on his terminal leave by March 24, 2015, or he may be forced to do so by executive fiat. If, however, he is emboldened to sit tight, he has to know that any extra day he spends in office beyond March 24 is not by any force of law but by the sheer good graces of President Jonathan.

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The above piece was written by Aloy Ejimakor. Esq.

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Could Jonathan Be Afraid Of Losing and Could He Be The New Maradona? BY Bayo Olupohunda

The February 2015 general election shift had all the trappings of a well-organised plot. The time line and intrigues leading to the announcement seemed precise like clockwork.
The speculations that the February 14 date for the presidential election could be changed had dominated political discourse but no one could tell specifically that it will be postponed as widely being speculated. While the argument and debate raged on, Nigerians tore themselves apart and the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, fumed and threatened that the elections must go on.

The man at the centre of it all, President Goodluck Jonathan, kept a calm demeanour. He never gave a hint beyond the usual talk that the handover date of May 29 was sacrosanct.

When specific questions bordering on the proposed shift in the elections were thrown at him, the President kept repeating the same line he had used since the idea of the shift in date was mooted in London by his National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki. But Jonathan, whom many of his critics have described as "clueless" seems to have something up his sleeve.

Meanwhile, he continued his multi-faceted political campaign surreptitiously. In Lagos, he attended the Holy Ghost Night of the Redeemed Christian Church of God on Friday night.

On Saturday, he proceeded to the Lord's Chosen Church in Lagos where he also displayed "humility" before the Lord and delivered a homily about the plan of Boko Haram to proclaim a Caliphate in Nigeria. The faithful gasped in horror. In an election time, the "revelation" of a life under a Boko Haram caliphate reinforces a campaign already polarised along religious lines. It was scaremongering at its best. As the President was concluding his "ward round" of churches, Nigerians waited with baited breath as the Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Attahiru Jega, ran from pillar to post "consulting" his commissioners and other stakeholders about the planned extension of the elections.

Then, the bombshell came late in the night on Saturday. After weeks of intrigues and speculations, Jega announced the shift in elections to March and April putting an end to one of the much talked about issues in the run-up to an election that is poised to be a watershed in Nigeria's history. With the extension in the date of the election, President Jonathan has pulled a fast one on the opposition and Nigerians in general. Many Nigerians have referred to the extension as a democratic coup against the constitution. The shift in the elections was bound to create a controversy and heat up the polity to a boiling point but it appeared the Jonathan Presidency was prepared for the backlash, a decision which makes the entire episode a defining moment of the 2015 elections.

First, many Nigerians consider the reason given for the shift in the date of the elections suspicious. Even the timeline leading to the weekend announcement seemed to me like a well choreographed plot. Let us look at the timeline. Like a bolt out of the blue, the National Security Adviser appeared in London where he read a speech advising INEC to consider the shift in poll date so that the electoral body could have more time to distribute the Permanent Voter Cards which until that time had been haphazardly distributed. Many Nigerians were finding it hard to collect their PVCs, some were told to go to other places to get their cards. But in spite of INEC difficulties, it was still believed that the challenge of logistics would be rectified and the elections could go on according to the old timetable. But like everything Nigerian, other reasons why the elections may not take place began to spread among Nigerians.

There was a widely held belief that there could be other "hidden agenda" that may force the powers-that-be to shift the elections. Even while the reason existed in the realm of conspiracy theory, it soon became the main reason. Given what many thought to be the desperation of President Jonathan to secure a re-election by all means, it was thought that the President's camp was becoming jittery because of the widespread support being enjoyed by the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

The evidence had become clear to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the massive turnout at Buhari's campaigns, the campaign rhetoric of "Change" that seems to be sweeping across the country. Given all of these reasons, it was thought that the President had become jittery that if the elections were to have held on the former dates, he might as well be preparing his handover note. This line of thought seemed an enough reason to have the elections shifted. Indeed, never for once since the PDP has dominated power at the centre has it been confronted with the possibility of losing a presidential election to a once disparate opposition now coalesced under one sweeping broom known as the APC.

Unlike before, the PDP looks genuinely worried that it may lose the Presidency. For one, the general disenchantment with the Jonathan administration's handling of corruption, insecurity, unemployment and especially the missing Chibok girls is likely to haunt the President at the polls. More importantly, the political climate that has seen more Nigerians coming out to welcome Buhari in his campaigns seems to be a real concern for the President.

Only recently, the naira is on a free fall due to the slump in oil prices. The growing poverty among Nigerians and the President's pronouncements when he denied the existence of corruption and cited a few Nigerians who own private jets as evidence of growth had angered a majority of Nigerians.

Not even the trumpeted achievements of Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa has cut a dice among Nigerians. Opinions are divided as to the achievements of President Jonathan. While many of his supporters believe he has performed to deserve a second term, the opposition and many Nigerians think he should not spend another night at the Villa after May 29, 2015.

As the government denied it had no plan to postpone the elections, it had become glaring that the shift was inevitable given the flurry of meetings by Jega with INEC commissioners and the 28 political parties. What many Nigerians could not come to terms with was the later reason given by security chiefs that the armed forces could not guarantee the safety of INEC officials if the elections were to be held as scheduled.

The security chiefs were said to have threatened that they would not provide security for INEC staff if it decided to go ahead with the elections leaving Jega with no option but to shift the elections. The reasons given by the military raised some questions. Why did it choose the former date of election to begin a military onslaught on Boko Haram? How does the military hope to defeat an insurgency it had not defeated in five years? Certainly, there is something more sinister than what Nigerians have been told was the reason for shifting the elections.

The whole drama seems to me to be the biblical hand of Esau and voice of Jacob scenario. Is Jonathan truly afraid of losing and had to perform another Maradona "hand of God"? Even Nigeria's last known Maradona, former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida, will be green with envy.

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Opinions expressed above are solely those of the writer Bayo Olupohunda.

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The Light In This Present Darkness BY Rev Chris Okotie

The forthcoming general election, especially the presidential election, should never be regarded as a referendum on the corporate survival of Nigeria as some misguided irredentists want us to believe. Those who threaten to set the nation on fire, if their preferred presidential candidate loses, should be reminded that the critical issue of Nigeria's existence as one indivisible nation was finally settled during the 30-month civil war.

Like Gen. Yakubu Gowon rightly said, at the end of the war: "No victor, no vanquished". In the same vein, the real winners in the forthcoming elections are Nigerians, because we have managed to hold the country together for more than a century. Many older nations have disappeared from the world map; but Nigeria is still here; warts and all!

The civil war also showed unequivocally that sibling rivalries or quarrels, like internal differences in nations, are family affairs that need not degenerate into violent separation.

Despite sabre-rattling by some ethnic jingoists
prior to the just concluded National Conference, nobody or group tabled any request for secession. Clearly, it showed that the bloodshed in the war wasn't in vain. Our unity was purchased at a high price. But up till now, the wound has not fully healed. That's why we should not stir ethnic and religious passions for cheap political advantage in these elections.

The acrimonies that mark the ongoing campaigns are already creating an effluvium that is polluting the political environment, robbing it of the excitement expected of a maturing political class. We returned to representative democracy in 1999; if 16 years is not enough learning curve, what time do we need to catch up with Indonesia, Ghana, Botswana, Chile, India, Brazil and other developing countries which have continued to transit seamlessly, to the admiration of the world?

Our polity is looking very much like our senior national football team, the Super Eagles, who keep rebuilding, but never seems to be able to end rebuilding. As a nation, we seem to be ever learning, but never able to understand. Our predilection with work-in-progress accounts for half-finished or abandoned projects that litter our national landscape. The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is still uncompleted, despite it having been under construction since the days of military rule.

Beyond catchy campaign slogans, how those projects could be completed, and new realistic plans put forward to revamp the economy, ought to be the real issues on the table. Instead, we are daily inundated by repulsive, hate-driven campaign adverts that denigrate opponents, assassinate character and generally dehumanize opposing political contestants.

Our sensibilities are assaulted and our moral and cultural ethos brought to a new level of denigration, unprecedented, even for a badly fractured polity like ours. This certainly is not the politics Nigerians deserve after going through a harrowing 24-year experience with military rule, a 30-month civil war and the June 12 annulment crisis.

This is our fourth democratic project; the first three failed abysmally because of a combination of immaturity on the part of our key players and the refusal of an ambitious military to allow our democracy grow at its own pace. Today, although credit must be given to our armed forces for holding the country together after a terrible civil war, part of the sad legacy of that tragedy is the militarisation of our polity. But I dare say, that is not an excuse not to up the ante in the current electioneering process.

We watched with admiration, how the Americans ran the last presidential election. At a stage during the debate, the Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, appeared to have upstaged the incumbent democratic candidate, President Barack Obama. In the end, Obama won, and Romney conceded. He was even hosted to a post-election dinner by the victorious Obama. That is the true spirit of democracy; unfortunately, we only imported the model but ignored the spirit of western democracy.

When a transition runs smoothly, the real winners are the voters, who actually wield real power by their franchise. Why voters should indulge in violent acts, to the extent of stoning candidates, burning party secretariats, is hard to explain; especially since the elections have not even held. What happens if expected winners lose in the end? Sponsors of the Abuja Peace Accord addressed these concerns when they got the presidential hopefuls to commit to a written pledge to keep the peace before, during and after the polls. But nobody knows how the contestants could rein in their supporters who have been primed to take up arms if the results don't go their way.

It is instructive to note that each time this country gravitates within the orbit of cataclysm, God always intervenes to save the situation.

The battle line was drawn between Gen. Sani Abacha's regime and Bashorun M. K. O. Abiola's June 12 NADECO forces when, suddenly, the two principal actors died mysteriously, about 30 days apart.

Thus, the rumoured planned execution of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and other senior military officers held by the Abacha regime over an alleged phantom coup was averted. The light of God, in this case, shone brightly after these dark days to usher in the fourth republic under the leadership of Obasanjo, who stabilised the fragmented polity, which has produced two other presidents after him.

We are in the process of another transition, which is creating jitters because of the incendiary, hate-filled campaigns we are experiencing. There's now a dark pall over the elections, due to fears that the shifting of the polls may precipitate some crises. Whatever decisions we take; whatever action we take; we must remember that Nigeria is more than any of us. We must make it survive.

Transition in a democracy is the tonic that invigorates the process. It is never a smooth ride, even on the best of roads. These are the visions of my head in the twilight of meditation, before the present darkness envelopes the configuration of our faith and hope.

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Rev. Chris Okotie wrote in from Lagos State. E-mail him: okotie@ revchrisokotie.com Follow on twitter @Revchrisokotie, 08078421451 (sms only)

Opinions expressed here are solely those of the author of this article.

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Poll postponement: Nigeria in the eye of storm. BY Chidi Oguamanam

It is really true. A day in politics can make a thousand years' difference. The idea of postponing Nigeria's 2015 general election originally scheduled for February 14 and 28 was easily dismissible as a dangerous rumour from a fifth columnist. But everything changed following the meeting of the National Council of State on Friday, February 6. Politicians' inability to give uniform account of what transpired at the meeting was a first sign that all was not well. Various media reports provided some nuanced partisan spins. But the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega's late broadcast of Saturday, February 7 helped to lay any lingering confusion to rest. That broadcast was quite commendable as it doused any haunting doubts as to the intrigues that undergirded the election postponement.

While there may be cogent and credible reasons to ground a case for election postponement, the context and consequence of such a decision give strong causes for apprehension.

First, INEC should not be fully exculpated for playing into the hands of forces that wanted election postponement for ulterior motives. For one simple reason: INEC's poor handling of the distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards. A week before the elections under the original timetable, the commission was only able to deliver 68 per cent of the PVCs to eligible voters. But it was instructive that Jega insisted that INEC was far more prepared going into the elections under the annulled (that dirty word again!) timetable than it was when it conducted the elections of 2011.

In short, for INEC, the hiccups regarding the PVCs were not enough reason to warrant the postponement of the elections. As far as the commission was concerned, to the extent of its capability, it was determined to proceed with the elections under the original schedule. However, security issues are outside its control. By the way, no one has mentioned the costs of election postponement at a time of dire national economic pressure.

Second, Nigeria is in an unconventional war situation or, if you like, a serious security crisis. And beyond security crisis, we have yet to attain a position where our elections can be truly a civil process in operation, character and content. Sadly, the nation's armed and security forces are integral part of our electoral apparatus. That is why they are highly courted by politicians during the elections. The nation's topmost security agencies, which are part of the apparatchik of the government in power, have advised that they cannot guarantee the security of the elections; including those of citizens and personnel of the electoral body were the elections to go ahead under the original schedule.

The security priority of the nation, according to them, is focused on the crisis in the North-East. Decode: We did not defeat Boko Haram these five or so years; we think that we can defeat them in the next six weeks! But how does that sit with the rest of Nigerians, most of whom had construed the next elections as partly a referendum on the ruling government's handling of the so-called insurgency in the North-East? Many would wonder whose interests are best served by the postponed elections.

Third, apart from the Boko Haram-anchored shenanigans or fallacy, perhaps the most disturbing aspect of toying with the electoral timetable at the most critical hour is its constitutional ramifications. As it stands, INEC has been able to succumb to the pressure to defer the elections within a very tight window of constitutional accommodation and pursuant to its enabling law. But then, there is quite a tiny vent for further elasticity without real danger of constitutional crisis.

The tenure of the President and other actors in the extant electoral process would expire on May 29, 2015. In the event that the presidential election turns out to be inconclusive for some constitutional or other unpredictable reasons, then one wonders whether we have not by this new revised electoral calendar laid the foundations for a constitutional crisis that could undermine our fledgling democracy. It is shocking, to say the least, that after Nigeria's nasty experience 22 years ago when Ibrahim Babangida annulled the fairest elections in Nigeria's history that we would be in a position that smells close to history repeating itself. This time round, we cannot pretend that history does not teach us anything!

There would have been little reason to worry if the elections were postponed pursuant to consensus amongst all stakeholders. Such would have been more so the case if there was unequivocal confidence regarding the non-partisanship in truth and in appearance of key agencies in favour of the postponement of the elections. But there is crisis of confidence in the ruling party and agencies of government that have pressed for the postponement of the elections. The onus is therefore on them to restore the confidence of the citizenry. Anything short of that would expose the country to avoidable stress.

The opposition and all stakeholders should ensure that there is calm among their supporters. It is an opportunity for all, including of course, INEC, to go back to the drawing board and collectively work towards the best possible elections that Nigeria could deliver. They should mobilise Nigerians to civic vigilantism. We need a huge voter turnout to elect new governments at national and sub-national levels. The legitimacy of the ruling party or the opposition, whichever wins and, of course, the credibility of the electoral process are enhanced by a resounding mandate. One month begets another; as does February, March. We should not be like the tortoise whose patience ran out only a few minutes to its rescue after it had been holed in for decades. That would not be a path of wisdom and patriotism.

As for the security agencies, we hope that they would appreciate the enormity of the responsibility they have taken on. The high expectation of Nigerians and, indeed the world, are on them. In all of this, theirs is a far higher burden. They can only discharge that burden by remaining non-partisan and resisting all attempts by politicians to drag them into the fray. That is the only way they can restore the confidence of Nigerians. If there is any excitement in these uncertain times, it is the security agencies' indirect promise to restore order in Nigeria's troubled North-East. In that case, six weeks of postponed elections would be a worthwhile price. Perhaps by then, the Chibok girls can get home, get their PVCs and go to the polls! A win-win. Fingers crossed.

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Oguamanam is a Professor of Law, University of Ottawa, Canada

Opinions expressed above are solely those of the writer.

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A clarion call to Nigerian youths BY Lanre Jimoh

I am speaking directly to the Nigerians born in the 1980s and 1990s. As a member of this generation, we have watched Nigeria emerge from its dark days of military dictatorship into a fledgling immature democracy. The purpose of this piece is to implore, coerce, beg, cajole and guilt you (if possible) to exercise your right to vote in the forthcoming elections.

My generation occupies a very special temporal space in Nigeria's history. Some of us were born towards the end of the Buhari/Idiagbon tenure; most were born in the Babangida years and the youngest of us were born in the Abacha's regime. We remember tuning in to our television sets to watch our military leaders promise elections and transition to democracy year after year. We also remember the excitement that surrounded the 1993 elections. Or, who can forget "Hope 93"? We saw the two main parties run a spirited campaign that culminated in the freest and fairest election Nigeria has ever seen. Unfortunately, we also watched M.K.O. Abiola get arrested, languish in an unlawful detention and eventually die under mysterious circumstances.

Fast forward to 2015, we have enjoyed an uninterrupted 16 years of democratic government albeit with a lot of imperfections.

The process has been ugly and the results are reflective of that. When kingmakers impose candidates using all the powers at their disposal, we end up with rulers and not leaders. Worst of all, we end up with rulers whose main goal is to reward their benefactors and thereby ensure self-perpetuation at the expense of the masses they took an oath to serve. In 2010, when Acting President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in, I wrote an article urging him to have just a one-point agenda: Ensuring credible elections. Unfortunately, Mr. President had his own agenda.

Democracy is not a native form of government to most groups in Nigeria historically. The Igbo people's council of elders form of government is the closest thing to a democratic form of government in pre-colonial Nigeria. Democracy was birthed in Athens around 600 BC and now perfected by the United States of America.

However, the largest democracy in the world is India which shares many similarities with Nigeria like a heterogeneous, diverse population with multiple religions and multiple party system that features a main ruling party and a coalition of smaller opposition parties. When we adopt a system of government that is not native to us, there is a learning curve associated with it and we must expect some growing pains. That is why I get irritated when people compare us with the USA (whose bi-cameral legislature and presidential system of government we adopted- wrongfully or rightly? That's a debate for another time). The USA has had over 200 years to perfect their democracy and we are less than 20 years into ours.

This brings me to my main point, even in the USA, election malpractices do occur. From the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 to the election of George W. Bush Jnr. in 2000. Again, my generation is old enough to remember how close the votes were in Florida and how we were disappointed about how the whole recount issue was handled.

In the end, George Bush won Florida by only 537 votes! Can you imagine if those 537 people decided not to vote because they thought that "their votes would not affect the outcome of the election"? That is why I am pleading with you to go out there, get your Permanent Voter Cards and vote. Even if they rig, they can only rig so much. My fellow young Nigerians, rigging is hard; rigging is expensive and rigging is becoming increasingly more difficult to execute. Even in Florida, during the recount, they found out that there was evidence of over-voting (when 100 per cent of registered voters vote and one candidate gets 99 per cent of the votes).

There was also evidence of convicted felons voting illegally and lastly, there was evidence of dead people voting (which I found to be especially embarrassing).

I decided to write this article as a concerned Nigerian in the Diaspora. I had the opportunity to participate in the last elections as I was back home doing my youth service and it felt amazing. Unfortunately, our electoral institutions are not strong enough to allow absentee ballots yet and I will be unable to vote this time round. However, in my discussions with my friends in Nigeria, there is a new way of disenfranchising people- making it impossible to get a PVC. My fellow Nigerians, this is only a ploy and we will not allow systematic rigging. Even in the USA, some southern states have been creative in filtering which Americans are eligible to vote.
The most famous one again is Florida in the 2012 election. The Tea Party Republicans put up rigid voter ID laws to disenfranchise African-Americans and other immigrant population.

The result was a backlash that saw President Barack Obama winning Florida handedly with 74,000 votes. In fact, there was a 102-year-old African-American woman in Florida who went to the polling station multiple times and had to wait almost four hours in order to cast her vote. There was another 92-year-old man who waited four hours to cast his vote. These are people who remember the days they were legally ineligible to vote. They saw their friends die for the right to vote and they are willing to do whatever they could to ensure that that right was never taken away from them by ridiculous "new voter suppression laws".

We have been a very lucky country, we have never really had to fight for anything (apart from the civil war). We did not have to fight for independence like South Africa and God intervened on our behalf in those dark days when Gen Sani Abacha was going to transform into our own Robert Mugabe. We watched with admiration when youths took over Tahir Square in Egypt to demand change and I think that inspired our finest hour- when we took to the streets to protest the abrupt removal of fuel subsidy in 2012.

We came together as one, irrespective of ethnicity or religion and we made a change. We shook the government, they panicked and we won. I want you all to remember that feeling.

That is the beauty of democracy and that is why it is worth fighting for. Please get your PVC even if it takes five hours to wait, you have no excuse if a 102-year-old woman could do it. You have your phones with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Waiting in a queue has never been easier; or read a book. Your country is worth your time. Without the youth and minority votes, I dare say Obama would not have won the presidency especially in 2012.

I want to urge you to make up your mind on who you want to vote for. Your vote does matter and will count. Even if they rig, because you voted, you will end up making it harder for them to rig the votes in their favour. When you vote, and each polling station counts its vote right there in your presence, then you can manually add up all the returning numbers from the different polling stations.

Also, they cannot report anything greater than 100 per cent of registered voters in a particular state, so, when you don't vote or participate, you make it easier for the election to be rigged!

Obviously, I am not campaigning here for any particular candidate. What I am campaigning for is civic duty, the right to exercise your inalienable right to choose the future direction of our dear country. This is the ultimate expression of love, not just for your country but for our future and our unborn children's future.

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Dr. Lanre Jimoh wrote in from Tennessee, USA.

Opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

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This Election Postponement Is A Coup. BY Anthony A. Kila

Whilst it is true that every well-meaning Nigerian within and beyond the borders of the country should act with caution and avoid utterances and actions that can heat up an already charged polity, it also true that at times like this, it is crucial not to mince words or hide behind technicalities or formalities. In that vein, we must soberly and clearly state that the recent so-called postponement of elections in Nigeria is not just a postponement but in reality an annulment and when coupled with the mode in which the elections were annulled, though called postponed, we have nothing short of a coup d'état and we all must take a stand.

Yes, in 1993, the results of the June 12 election were annulled; in February 2015, it is the electoral process itself that has just been annulled.

One does not need the spectacle of military tankers on the streets or the voice of a military office saying, "Fellow Nigerians, after due consultation…" to understand and feel a coup has taken place. You don't need gunshots to have a coup and you don't need a new head of government either.

Those of us old enough to have seen and to remember a series of coup d'états in Nigeria and elsewhere like those who have read enough to understand what a coup is will readily observe that a coup is simply wherein we have the infiltration of a small, but critical, segment of the state apparatus used to displace the system or other organs of the system from its control of the remainder of the system or government. This small but critical segment of the state apparatus appears in different forms and in the Umaru Yar'Adua era, Nasir el-Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu referred to and presented them as a cabal.

The system displaced on Saturday, February 8, with the announcement of the annulment of the February elections is the electoral process; students of politics and those of strategy will easily confirm here that a displaced or adulterated electoral process is inferentially to a mutilated democracy.

The organ displaced from its exercise of and delivery of its duty is the Independent National Electoral Commission. Could the Attahiru Jega-led INEC have done a better job than it has done so far in managing the electoral process and delivering his duty? The answer is clearly yes but Jega has made it clear that he and his commission are ready for elections and it is a small but critical segment of the state, the military, telling the commission it cannot go ahead and Nigerians cannot hence vote as planned. Having the military as the decisive factor in an election process is not unfortunate, it is a coup.

This annulment and coup d'état however goes beyond Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress; it goes beyond President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party. It is an assault on our dignity and our fundamental rights as a people, regardless of our political inclinations or preferred candidate. Maybe, President Jonathan is not aware or cannot remember and those around him do not care but the fact is that in a system run by a small but critical segment of the state like the military or the cabal that treated him like a houseboy not long ago, he and his likes would never have got power let alone nominate ministers and award contracts.

As a people, we need to remember that a coup leads to another coup and that once abusers of power like any other bully see they can get away with a bit of abuse, their instinct is to do more.

Clearly, these security chiefs who knew the calendar of the Nigerian elections since at a least last year and have heard the INEC chair as well as the President and his political rivals repeat the calendar over and over again do not see anything wrong in disrupting people's lives and plans by asking for six weeks for military operations they had more than enough years to carry out.

These security chiefs do know or care that people, schools, business and several organisations across the world have made plans based on dates and the programme that INEC and the government had declared. They don't seem to know how much this dangerous and ridiculous move is going to cost in terms of finance and other logistics to people and organisations.

But let us not kid ourselves, this small but critical segment of the state in the form of security chiefs with their induced annulment called postponement are following a script. The script however does not take into account how much the big critical element of the system called the civil society or the structure of the society can be critical in the system. Their coup in the form of an induced annulment called postponement is designed to favour a part in the electoral race.

They are daring us and it is time we taught them a lesson. The civil society needs to take a stand not by turning violent because that is what they expect or even want. Instead, the civil society should stay put and soberly fight back by making sure that nobody gets any undue benefit from this annulment called postponement.

Lawyers and judges should refuse to be instruments of fraud against Nigeria; teachers should teach the importance of certainty and transparency in institutions; bureaucrats and other professionals in the civil service should question any instruction they are given and ask themselves if this would be possible if we had elections as planned.

Even those planning to vote Jonathan and the PDP should act the way they would have acted were the postponement proposed under a Buhari/APC administration and vice versa.

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*.Prof. Anthony A. Kila is the Director, Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies.

Opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

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Just In: INEC Extends Collection Of Permanent Voter's Card To March 8, 2015.

The Independent National Electoral Commission has extended, by four weeks, the deadline for collection of Permanent Voter Cards by registered voters.

Collection of Permanent Voter Cards earlier scheduled to end on February 8, 2015 will continue until the 8th of March, 2015.

The extension of PVC collection by the Independent National Electoral commission was announced in a statement signed by its Secretary, Mrs. Augusta Ogakwu.

According to Ogakwu, "The Commission hopes that this extension will finally avail every registered person yet to collect his/her PVC the opportunity to do so in readiness for the general elections".

The presidential election earlier fixed for February 14, 2015 was last week shifted by six-weeks by the commission, with the new date being 28th of March, 2015.

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Service chiefs arm-twist INEC to shift polls – Civil Society Organisations

A coalition of over 18 Civil Society Organisations on Monday in Abuja called for the immediate resignation of service chiefs "for arm twisting the Independent National Electoral Commission" and abdication of national responsibility.

The CSOs however passed a vote of confidence in the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega.

According to them, the call followed the alleged grand conspiracy by the security chiefs to arm twist the commission, using the excuse of insecurity to shift the February general elections.

They also alleged that the action of the security chiefs to satisfy narrow political consideration was a clear indication of the abyss to which the military had descended.

The Chairman of Transitional Monitoring Group, Mr. Ibrahim Zikirullahi, who spoke on behalf of the CSOs at a press briefing, said the military which was supposed to be on the side of Nigerians were joining forces with the government to subvert democracy.

He said, "The most worrisome reality is that the Nigerian military, which is supposed to be nationalistic and patriotic in outlook, has allowed itself to be led by those they serve for express narrow interests.

"To say the least, the military has failed the Nigerian people. It is a betrayal of trust for the military in connivance with the National Security Adviser to have allowed itself to be used to suspend Nigeria's electoral process.

"The grand conspiracy to arm twist INEC to shift the 2015 general elections to satisfy narrow political considerations is a clear indication of the abyss to which the military has descended.

"The claim that they will not be able to protect INEC personnel and materials for the polls that were to hold on 14 and 28 February 2015, is a national disgrace and embarrassment."

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SOURCE: The Punch
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Plot To Disqualify President Jonathan From Contesting March 28 Presidential Poll Thickens

Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court has ordered that court documents in a fresh suit seeking to disqualify President Goodluck Jonathan from seeking re-election in the March 28 poll should be served on him, Premiumtimesng reports.

The court said the papers should either be served on the president through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, or the Office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.

The suit, FHC/ABJ/CS/1112/2015, instituted by Nkemjika Nkemjika was assigned to the court of Friday. The defendants in the suit apart from Mr. Jonathan are his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

According to Premiumtimesng, a separate suit had earlier been filed seeking Mr. Jonathan disqualification from the presidential race before the court and another is also pending at the Court of Appeal.

Mr. Nkemjika had in his ex parte application said the court's document could not be served directly on the president because he lives in the Aso Rock Villa, which is fortified.

He had asked the court to determine whether, having regard to the provisions of sections 135(1) (b) and 135(2) (b) of the Constitution, the president was qualified to contest the presidential election.

He contended that Mr. Jonathan's second term in office would end on May 29, because Section 135(2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution (amended) does not envisage that the vice president should complete the unexpired tenure of office or unexpired term of office of a deceased President.

According to him, the president should be qualified to contest the 2015 presidential poll if he had won an election supervised by the Senate President in 2010 in accordance with the provision of Section 146(2) of the Constitution.

Section 146(2) provides that: "Where any vacancy occurs in the circumstances mentioned in sub-section 1 of this section during a period when the office of the Vice-President is also vacant, the President of the Senate shall hold the office of the President for a period of not more than three months, during which there shall be an election of a new President, who shall hold office for the unexpired term of office of the last holder of the office."

Mr. Nkemjika asked the court to remove Mr. Jonathan's as the presidential candidate of PDP in view of the provision of Section 135(1)(b) of the Constitution, which states: "Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, a person shall hold office of the President until he dies whilst holding such office."

The judge subsequently adjourned the suit to February 26.

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SOURCE: Premium Times Nigeria
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