The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega has received a letter of commendation from US President Barack Obama.
Jega was presented with the certificate on Obama’s behalf by US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle. The INEC Chairman was honoured after the conduct of the March 28 Presidential elections which was described as the best ever held in Nigeria. The election was won by President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari who beat incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan with over 2 million votes.
The International MIT centre in Cambridge, Massachusetts is also set to honour the INEC Chairman by creating a statue of him. The centre described Jega as a civic hero and revealed, via its Twitter handle that it had begun designing the prototype for the statue. “At @civicMIT, we decided we wanted a statue of Prof. #Jega as a civic hero. Prototyping our new civic statue tech,” the tweet read.
Prof. Jega is set to vacate the position in June and has said that he would not continue in office even if he was offered a tenure renewal.
At @civicMIT, we decided we wanted a statue of Prof. #Jega as a civic hero. Prototyping our new civic statue tech: pic.twitter.com/LUPRgxoieZ
— Ethan Zuckerman (@EthanZ) April 3, 2015