The founder of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, has expressed support for President Bola Tinubu’s choice of Prof. Joash Amupitan as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Aniebonam spoke amid controversies surrounding Amupitan’s appointment on Sunday in Lagos.
Chronicle NG reports that the National Council of States, on October 7, approved the appointment of Amupitan to take over from Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu as INEC chairman.
Amupitan’s appointment is awaiting confirmation by the Senate.
According to Aniebonam, Amupitan already has a lot of work ahead of him and should get started as soon as his appointment is approved.
“The first task for Amupitan is to change the battered image of INEC and restore the trust of Nigerians in the umpire.
“INEC’s image has been so eroded over the years that the first task before Amupitan is righting the wrongs of the commission and re-creating confidence in it.
”Amupitan needs to study the commission thoroughly and correct issues currently before it that Mahmoud ignored,” he said.
According to Aniebonam, 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 righting the wrongs in Nigeria and may be starting from INEC.
“What we need in Nigeria at the moment are leaders who can take informed and hard decisions if we must reinvent the Nigeria of our dreams.
“Our experience with INEC over the internal leadership crisis in NNPP has given us an insight into the ills of the commission and how the body worked sometimes.
“For the immediate past leadership of INEC to ignore subsisting court orders and directives to upload the NNPP’s 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 should be looked into. These and many more are part of issues that can erode a people’s confidence in an institution.
“Amupitan has the choice to either follow the path of past INEC chairmen or write his name in Diamond.”
According to Aniebonam, neglected concerns, particularly disobedience to court orders, should be resolved immediately by the incoming INEC leader once confirmed.
” It is still like a daydream to us that some bad eggs in INEC connived and changed the logo and color of NNPP symbols without the consent of its founding members and holder of the original certificate of registration.
“INEC did the conversion without asking for or sighting the original certificate of registration of the NNPP.
“This simply means that anyone can approach INEC and change the logo and color symbols of APC, PDP, LABOUR, and others just like that.”
He did, however, say that the NNPP remained dedicated to working with Tinubu to provide full support to the incoming INEC leadership and that he hoped Amupitan would not be sidetracked while carrying out his duties.
