By Joy Enamuna
The New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has thrown its weight behind President Bola Tinubu’s nomination of Professor Amupitan as the next Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The party’s Secretary-General, Comrade Oginni Olaposi Sunday, made this known in a statement on Tuesday while reacting to the National Council of State’s approval of Amupitan’s appointment to succeed Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu as INEC Chairman.
Comrade Oginni, who spoke against the backdrop of controversies that often trail appointments into the electoral body, said the President’s choice reflects his commitment to reforming the nation’s electoral process.
According to Oginni, Amupitan already has his work cut out for him and should hit the ground running as soon as his appointment is confirmed by the National Assembly.
“The first task for Amupitan is to change the narratives of bartered image of INEC and return the trust of Nigerians to the umpire.
“INEC’s image has been so eroded over the years that the first task before Amupitan is to fight systemic corruption and the wrongs of the commission and creating confidence and trust.
“Amupitan needs to study the commission thoroughly and correct issues currently before the commission that Mahmoud ignored. Make appropriate recommendations to Mr President on who should stay or leave the commission for sanity to reign.”
Oginni commended President Tinubu and members of the Federal Executive Council for their confidence in Amupitan, saying the nomination was a sign of the President’s genuine desire to strengthen national institutions.
According to him, “President Tinubu and the Federal Executive Council members must have seen Amupitan’s capacity before nominating him, pointing out that the President is truly committed to right the wrongs in Nigeria, and may be starting from INEC.”
He stressed the need for courageous leadership at all levels, noting that the country requires individuals who can make bold and informed decisions to rebuild the nation.
“What we need in Nigeria at the moment shall be leaders who can take informed and hard decisions if we must reinvent Nigeria of our dreams,” he added.
Reflecting on the NNPP’s experience with the commission, Oginni accused the former INEC leadership of disobeying court orders and mishandling the party’s internal crisis.
“Our experience with INEC over the internal leadership crisis in our great party have given us an insight over the ills of the commission on how the body works.
“For the immediate past leadership of INEC to ignore subsisting court orders and directives to upload the NNPP new national executives was a shocker and very shameful to constitutional democracy.
“What could have stopped the former INEC boss from obeying the court orders needed to be researched. These and many more are part of issues that can erode a people’s confidence on an institution.
“Amupitan has the choice to either follow the path of past INEC chairmen or write his name in diamond. It is our hope that the Acting National Chairman shall clear the mess quickly before his assumption of duty to start in a clean slate.
“Unattended matters especially disobedience to court judgements should be cleared forthwith. It is still like a day dream to us that some bad eggs in INEC connived and fraudulently changed the logo and colour of our party symbols without the consent of the founding members and the holder of the original certificate of registration.
“INEC did the conversion without asking or sighting the original certificate of registration of the new Nigeria people’s party. This simply means that anyone can approach INEC and change the logo and colour symbols of APC, PDP, Labour and others just like that.
“The ills of INEC are so many and grievous to the extent that it does not have respect for rule of law, court judgements and internal democracy of political parties. Otherwise how can INEC be dealing with expelled members of a party and to the extent of conniving with them to change the logo and colour symbols of NNPP to Kwankwasiya movement insignia led by Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
“This is reckless, corruptly fraudulent and total abuse of power to ignore court judgements and internal democracy of a registered political party in Nigeria.
“The NNPP shall join Mr President and good people of Nigeria to give the new leadership maximum support and pray that he is not distracted in carrying out his duties,” Oginni added.
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