By Desmond Ukandu (Group Politics Editor)
The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), the umbrella body of registered political parties in Nigeria, has congratulated Professor Mahmood Yakubu on his re-appointment on Tuesday as INEC Chairman.
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, forwarded his name to the Senate for approval. The parties also commended President Buhari for reposing confidence in the INEC boss by renewing his tenure for another five years.
In a statement on Tuesday by IPAC's National Chairman, Dr Leonard Nzenwa, conveyed the warm congratulations by the parties to the INEC Chairman. The parties described Yakubu's re-appointment as a "welcome development and a blessing to the polity. It stated that "only few helmsmen at the Commision have been able to achieve respectable results like he has done during his first tenure.
Recounting that Prof. Yakubu mounted the saddle of INEC four months after the exit of his predecessor, Prof. Attahiru Jega, who presided over the crucial 2015 general election that ushered President Muhammadu Buhari as president, the IPAC chairman praised the INEC chairman’s remarkable digitalization programme which has transformed the way elections have been conducted in the country in the last four years.
He said the success of the Edo and Ondo 2020 Gubernatorial Polls are clear examples of the positive technology and digitization trajectory which Prof. Yakubus’ first tenure gave to Nigeria.
According to Nzenwa, the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), is urging Prof. Yakubu to continue with his reform initiative in the Commission on the electoral process. IPAC, he stated, is equally requesting the INEC boss to put his foot down to ensure that the votes of Nigerians count in all elections in the country going forward.
The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) however calls on all stakeholders to work and support the re-appointed INEC chairman's effort to make all polls in the country to be inclusive, fair, free and credible.
"It is remarkable that Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu's re-appointment is the first time an INEC chairman is re-appointed in the history of Nigeria", Nzenwa observed. NNL.
