Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has reiterated the resolve of federal legislature towards the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in 2019.
This, he said, during a meeting of the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Mahmoud Yakubu.
The Speaker, who acknowledged gains recorded during the last election cycle in 2015, urged the electoral umpire to ensure that standards are improved upon.
“I want to reiterate that we are committed to an electoral process that will better our experiences of our 2015 general elections.
“We have already set a standard where the world has avowed our electoral process to be fair to a certain degree and we must not go below that standard,” the Speaker urged.
He pledged the commitment of the National Assembly to enabling INEC achieve this goal through appropriation.
The Speaker further expressed concerns about what he described an emergency approach being taken towards the 2019 elections.
“As leaders of the National Assembly, we are committed to appropriating whatever is needed within the confines of the resources of the nation for INEC to be able to actualise this and that is why this meeting is important.
However, personally, I have some questions that I intend to raise, but I will raise these in the process of discussion because it appears that we are treating this 2019 election as an emergency, which it ought not to be, so that is just my concern.”
On his part, Mahmoud Yakubu, INEC chairman who applauded the leadership of the National Assembly for their continued support, stressed the need to fast track the process in order to achieve the desired success.
“Let me, on behalf of the commission, thank your excellencies and the leadership of the National Assembly for this meeting.
“We are now re-energised and more reassured that our plans for the 2019 general elections are absolutely on course as far as funding is concerned.”
He, however, stressed the need to act quickly, especially as elections are “exactly a 190 days away,” the INEC chief noted.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
