Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu,
to see his reappointment as an opportunity to improve on the nation’s
electoral processes.
The party gave the advice in a statement issued by its National
Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja on Wednesday.
Ologbondiyan said the reappointment entrusted on Yakubu the fate, hope,
and future of some 200 million Nigerians as well as that of generations
yet unborn.
He said PDP, in the light of the five-year extension, were of the hope
that miscarriages of justice in the country’s electoral process would
have no place in the new order.
Ologbondiyan stated that with Yakubu’s reappointment, he had been given
ample time and opportunity to redeem the image of INEC as well as
preparation for more credible, free, and fair elections.
“At least, with this reappointment whatever happens in our future
elections cannot be ascribed to inexperience and lack of adequate
preparedness on the side of INEC.
“We consider this reappointment by President Muhammadu Buhari as an
impetus to demonstrate a readiness for a free, fair and credible
election, which Mr President had always promised to bequeath at the end
of his second and final term in office in 2023.”
Ologbondiyan urged the INEC Chairman to spend about two years before the
next general election to rejig the situation at the commission.
“Yakubu should work out appropriate electoral policies and guidelines
and push for an amendment of the Electoral Act, in conjunction with the
National Assembly, to give our nation a credible electoral process.
“He must be mindful of the aphorism that to whom much is given, much
more is expected.
“His reappointment, therefore, comes with a lot of expectations by
Nigerians.”
Ologbondiyan also advised Yakubu to quickly take a painstaking look into
issues that aid manipulations, rigging, violence, and inconclusive
elections which marred most of the previous elections.
“Yakubu should note that the future, stability, and corporate existence
of our nation have been entrusted in his hands as a credible election is
the bedrock of any democratic society.”
He urged the National Assembly, particularly the Senate, to focus on
those pertinent issues in the course of screening Yakubu to ensure that
the failures of the past were not given accommodation in the new era.
(NAN)