He hardly speaks about them or do we say he tries to avoid questions around them? But at the weekend in a in a lecture to mark the 50th birthday celebration of All Progressives Congress (APC) Legal Adviser Muiz Banire (SAN), the former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega condemned the desperation by politicians to win elections at all costs.
He said the commission’s greatest challenge was containing “the disposition and reckless mindset of Nigerian politicians.” Speaking on “Challenges and Prospects of sustainable credible elections in Nigeria”, Jega said:
“I quite often say that Nigeria has a special breed of politicians (‘militicians’). They generally tend to believe that political power through elections has to be ‘captured’, and this has to be done by hook or by crook and by any means necessary. Continue...
“For many of them, winning election is, literally a ‘do-or-die’ affair. That is why the Nigerian political/electoral arena increasingly resemble a bloody battlefield, with maiming, killing, burning, assassinations and unimaginable destruction of lives and property.
“Navigating the ‘minefield’ of ‘do-or-die’ politicians as an impartial electoral umpire required nerves of steel and requisite thick skin, as well as appropriate containment strategies.”
