INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, has received a lot of credit for the conduct of this year’s general elections which has been adjudged generally as the fairest ever conducted in Nigeria.

With Jega’s tenure as INEC chairman set to expire in June and having stated that he is not interested in an extension, all eyes will be on incoming president Muhammadu Buhari to see who he appoints to succeed Jega as the head of Nigeria’s electoral umpire.

Yesterday, Jega expressed fear over the constitution next month of a new INEC leadership, saying that the gains of the last few years could be reversed if a good choice is not made.

Speaking at the presentation of the 2015 general election observation report carried out by Election Monitor, a civil society group, supported by McArthur Foundation, Jega – who was represented by the commission’s, Director, Elections and Party Monitoring, Mr. Sheu Wahab – said: “A lot depends on civil society organisations as of what we do now. Yes, elections have been conducted in Nigeria, yes, elections have been acknowledged to be credible than past elections, and Nigeria have also been able to assess the role of technology.

“As CSOs, we need to continue to beam the searchlight on post election events, and the first thing that will come to your mind is the reconstitution of new INEC, Jega’s commission will be winding up by the end of June, a new commission is going to be put in place. If we are going to consolidate on the gains of 2015 elections, I think CSOs have every reason to watch out for the new commission that is going to come in place.

“For me, I’m interested in a post Jega, a new commission that will do a lot better than what he has done; and consolidate on what he has done. I therefore expect the CSOs to watch the new commission, check the record of the members of the new commission and let the people know who they are.” The INEC chairman stressed further that the CSOs should beam their searchlight on the incoming members of the commission, adding that they should not wait till things get out of hand before they start criticising.

“The role is that of CSOs for me than any other organ because you can never expect the party in power to see anything wrong in what they are doing. Lai Mohammed, the spokesman of All Progressives congress (APC) will continue to defend APC even though they may not be doing well…, you can’t use the barometer of these parties to measure how the government is performing.”

He pointed out that the media should have been another focal point, but stated that the ownership structure was affecting the reportage of the media.