The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, to use his reappointment to correct the mistakes of the past.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on Tuesday reappointed Yakubu for a second term of office.
The party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said this had entrusted him the fate, hope, and future of over 200 million Nigerians as well as that of generations yet unborn.
The statement said, “In the light of this five-year extension, our party hopes that the failures, disappointments, and miscarriages that characterized the first five years tenure of Yakubu will have no place in the new order.
“It is instructive to state that with his re-appointment, Prof Yakubu has been given ample time and opportunity to redeem himself, the image of the commission and preparation for credible, free and fair elections in our country.
“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.”
The PDP said it considered the reappointment as an impetus to demonstrate readiness for a free fair and credible election, which the President had always promised to bequeath at the end of his second and final term in office in 2023.
“We, therefore, charge the INEC Chairman to spend the nearly two years ahead of the next general election to rejig the commission, work out appropriate electoral policies and guidelines and push for the amendment of the Electoral Act, in conjunction with the National Assembly, to give our nation a credible electoral process.
“Professor Yakubu 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. He must quickly take a painstaking look into issues that aid manipulations, rigging, violence, and inconclusive elections which marred most of the exercises conducted in his previous tenure.
“Prof. 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.
“Our party urges the National Assembly, particularly, the Senate, to focus on these pertinent issues in the course of screening Prof. Yakubu to ensure that the failures of the past are not given accommodation in the new era.”
