Forum Interview with INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega

months of very hectic work, very challenging work; but I must say very satisfactory work from our own point of view. We cannot underestimate the enormity of the challenges. We have done our best under the circumstances, although there are still challenges with the ways in which elections are conducted which make many Nigerians still disappointed in what INEC does. We believe that we’ve done quite a lot to lift the bar in terms of transparency and the credibility of the electoral process.

The challenge for us as we move towards 2015 is to learn the lessons of all the elections we have so far conducted, and to continue to plan and to improve upon the conduct of subsequent elections. In spite of what I said earlier on the disappointment of many Nigerians, many Nigerians perhaps want a perfect electoral system and it is possible to have near-perfection in planning elections. But unfortunately in the Nigerian context, things have been so bad for so long, as I quite often say, that it takes a lot of time and energy and resourcefulness to be able to get there. But we are moving in the right direction. We are pleased with the trend. There are still challenges, but these challenges are not insurmountable. We will keep on addressing them as we move towards 2015. So far, so good.