SINCE his birth in the agrarian community of Jega on January 11, 1957, in the defunct Northern region Prof Atahiru Jega has certainly been a big story.
His footprints on the paths he had walked are as constant as the northern stars.
Be it in academia, activism, or public office, Jega’s trajectory is indeed a notable narrative.
Admired and perhaps misunderstood with same measure, he meant different things to different people at different times.
With a blend of ideology, resoluteness and intellectualism, he simply comes across as a modern political scientist with an urbane understanding of the dialectics of governance.
At some critical junctures in the nation’s life, providence had consciously thrown Jega up resulting in him becoming one of the protagonists of such times.
To prepare him for such defining roles, the young Jega bagged his First School Leaving Certificate at Sabon Gari Primary School, Jega in the present day Kebbi State between 1963 and 1969. He then proceeded to Government Secondary School Birnin Kebbi.
Political evolution
Rather than securing employment as was the fashion for secondary school leavers of that era, he proceeded to the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, (Bayero University College) where he studied Political Science.
Armed with a Bachelor of Science, B. Sc degree, Second Class Upper Division, at the completion of his studies in 1979, the man, who would later become one of the renowned political scientist, secured a teaching appointment at Bayero University Kano ,BUK.
A fellowship at the North Western University, Evanston, Illinois, in 1981 provided an opportunity for his doctorate degree in Political Science, which was completed in 1984.
Afterward, Jega returned to BUK to commence a lecturing career at the Department of Political Science, where he would later play critical roles in the nations’s constitutional and political evolution.
As the President of Accademic Staff Union of Universities ,ASUU, during the regime of former Head of State, Gen Ibrahim Babangida ,retd, , the ideologically leftist Dr. Jega as he was then known, led the progressives in the fight against military dictatorship.
Despite the burden of other national concerns of that era, Jega’s leadership impacted in salutary ways on his immediate constituency, the academia.
He was credited to have been the brain behind the promulgation of Decree 7 of 1993 which established the Education Tax Fund to improve the quality of education in Nigeria.
Also worthy of note at that time when ASUU was mostly proscribed, was the signing of a critical agreement with the Federal Government which resulted in improved wages and working conditions for university lecturers.
At other times, he was a visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, between March 1992 and March 1993 and visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science, University of Stockholm, Sweden.
Prof Jega’s proficient intellectual and administrative capacity saw him becoming the Deputy Vice-chancellor (Academics) of BUK in 1995 and subsequently Director, Centre for Democratic Research and Training of same institution in 2000.
In 2005, his robust career in the academia, peaked with his appointment as the Vice Chancellor of BUK, a position he held until his appointment as the Chairman of Independent Electoral Commission ,INEC, in 2010.
As the Vice Chancellor of BUK, Jega brought to bear, the experience garnered as a labour leader resulting in the laudable changes the institution witnessed during his tenure.
At a time when INEC was challenged by integrity crisis, then President Goodluck Jonathan appointed him the head of the commission.
This appointment came after he participated at the Justice Mohammadu Uwais-led Electoral Reforms committee.
Succeeding his predecessor, Prof Maurice Iwu, who perhaps was perceived to have through omission or commission earned INEC a partisan reputation, came with burden of expectations.
From inception, Jeja’s INEC left no one in doubt about its determination to represent a fundamental departure from the nation’s sordid history of election management.
The novelty of his stewardship at INEC was evidenced in the introduction of the Automated Finger Print Identification aimed at putting an end to incidents of multiple registration.
There was also the practice of using Vice Chancellors of Universities and other academics to superintend elections, a development adjudged to have added up to the credibility of the electoral process.
Electoral process
Under his watch, the Permanent Voters’ Card, PVC, and Smart Card Reader, SCR, were introduced to further curb the rate of multiple voting and other forms of all electoral malpractice. The Continuous Voter Registration ,CVR, exercise he had introduced, led to the registration of 68.8 million eligible voters at the end of the exercise.
These innovations which were reflective of his resilience and avowed commitment to making sure that the elections were credible largely influenced the credibility of the two general elections he conducted in 2011 and 2015 respectively.
The globally acclaimed credibility of the 2015 exercise, which culminated in the peaceful transfer of power from a defeated ruling party, to a victorious opposition simply placed Jega’s name on the positive side of Nigeria’s history.
Thus, when the books would be written, Jega the activist, academic and public administrator would stand out as a high impact contributor to Nigeria’s steps to nationhood.
Source: Vanguard
0 comments:
Post a Comment