A civil rights activist and founder of Maka Odimma Ndigbo, Nze Kanayo Chukwumezie, Friday, advised the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Joash Amupitan, to write his name in gold by ensuring free and fair elections in the country’s electoral system.
Nze Chukwumezie stated this in an interview with NEWSNGRin Enugu.
According to him, “The country has spent hugely on electoral reforms and upgrades that we are supposed to get things running smoothly with our elections. But rather we are below the option A4 standard which would not have cost us the great fortune we expended on electronic upgrades which we never allowed to function optimally.
“The challenge before the new head of INEC is to uphold the independence and sovereignty of the electoral umpire. There is a need for total compliance with existing electoral guidelines as well as further electoral reforms. Transmission of results should be right from the polling units. Actually every vote should be recorded directly at INEC with our added technology to collaborate with the results coming in.”
He regretted that Nigeria’s democratic experiences had been declining. He also warned against any ploy to make Nigeria a one-party country, and charged the three arms of the government to rise to their constitutional mandates to save the country’s democracy.
Quoting him, “He who pays the piper dictates the tune. But as long as the player of the piper is not the one holding the instrument, the piper can choose to play the appropriate tune. The fact that there are no longer functional checks and balances in our political landscape with the way the executive seem to control the legislative and judicial arms of government makes it easy for the President to appoint and pocket the ombudsman of electoral umpire.
“But someone can decide to uphold a good measure of integrity and not accept to be rubbished. This is the choice of the new INEC Chairman, Professor Amupitan.”
He also called for a census to ascertain the accurate population of Nigerians. In his view, “When this is adequately captured, we should then ensure that Nigerians in the diaspora vote from wherever they reside as long as they are registered with the Nigerian embassy there and their citizenship status firmly established.”
Leave a Comment