President Goodluck Jonathan appeared to have perfected a strategy of keeping his appointments under wraps until the last moments notwithstanding the level of interest generated by such appointments, it was discovered on Monday.
It was confirmed that as a way of keeping many of those interested in the appointment of the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) guessing, the President had ensured that no fewer than five names were sent to the security agencies for screening as likely appointees to the post of chairman.
It was gathered that while some of the nominees were made to appear before the screening panels of the security agencies, some did not appear at all, thus further leading to the uncertainty over who the president will eventually settle for.
Checks in government circles indicate that names such as those of the retired Justice Alfa Belgore, the former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, Chairman of transparency in Nigeria (TIN), General Ishola Williams(rtd) and the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, were said to have been received by some security organizations at different times.
While the government was however said to have made up its mind not to appoint Akunyili among the lot, some other names including that of a former National Commissioner of INEC, Dr. Ishmael Igbani and the acting National Chairman of the commission, Mr. Solomon Shoyebi, also came up for consideration in the past weeks.
It was gathered that the government was inundated with reports that the situation at INEC could only be salvaged by someone, who would hit the ground running and not someone who would need one or two months to study the situation.
The report was said to have indicated that because of the shortness of time for the preparations for the next general election and the state of technical items at INEC, the situation could only be managed by someone with experience.
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