2011 Nigeria National Elections
10
the south enjoyed eight years under President Olu
ṣẹ
gun Mathew Okiki
ọ
la Ar
ẹ
mu Obasanjo between
1999 and 2007. In the minds of the PDP northern members, a northerner should still have been the
party nominee in 2011. Yar'Adua's untimely death, and Jonathan's swearing in as president,
complicated this unwritten balance of power.
4
This turn of events caused many northerners to
become wary of the new president, and suspect—rightfully so as events showed—that he would
eventually have an ambition to run for the presidency in 2011.
Appointment of Dr. Attahiru Jega, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission
Within weeks of assuming office, President Jonathan took a significant step toward restoring public
confidence in the executive by appointing Professor Attahiru Jega to the position of INEC
chairman. Jega is known for his integrity. He earned a doctorate degree in political science in the
United States (from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois), studied and wrote about the
construction of a stable democratic system in Nigeria for the better part of his life, served as vice-
chancellor at Bayero University, actively voiced his opposition to military rule while president of the
Academic Staff Union of Universities and—through his work with civil society organizations—was
credited with changing fundamental aspects of Nigeria's ineffective political system. He was also an
integral member of the Electoral Reform Committee that inspired the 2010 Electoral Act.
Though Jega's appointment came with only half a year to prepare for the 2011 elections, it was well-
received by the Nigerian people and by reform-minded politicians who hoped to see a more honest
and transparent process as the country prepared for its 2011 national election cycle. The short
timeframe meant that Jega faced a seemingly impossible task. The public perceived INEC and its
previous leadership as complicit in pervasive electoral fraud, aligned to the PDP, prone to patronage
and institutionally dysfunctional. Not only did Jega have to strengthen INEC's ability to organize
elections, he also had to reform INEC into a respectable and independent entity, capable of
producing credible elections in less than a year's time. Ultimately, Jega's authority to achieve this was
somewhat limited since the president—rather than INEC—was still mandated to appoint the
resident electoral commissioners in each state. Still, the former professor and civil society activist set
out to amend many fundamental aspects of Nigeria's electoral process that had failed in the past.
Date of Elections
One of the key decisions Jega fought for in the period immediately following his appointment was a
political consensus on postponing the elections from January 2011 to April 2011. Initially, Jega's
INEC worked hard—and demonstrated a visible effort—to prepare for elections in January 2011;
however, between August and September 2010, it became increasingly clear to all stakeholders that it
would be logistically challenging to hold organized and credible elections in January. Principally, the
postponement would give INEC more time to produce a new voter register to replace the flawed
2007 register. Building a new voter register, free of fraudulent registrations and inclusive of as many
legitimate Nigerian voters as possible, became a top priority for Jega and an essential cornerstone to
improving the quality of the 2011 elections. Consensus on this issue was required, however, because
the January 2011 election dates were fixed by a timeframe defined in the Nigerian constitution; a
formal amendment to the constitution was thus needed to alter these dates. After much deliberation
and stakeholder dialogue, Nigerian political parties, civil society organizations, media and citizens
4
The zoning concept had not been previously tested for a situation in which the incumbent dies in office or
otherwise had his or her term in office cut short.
