Desmond Mgboh, Kano
One time Minister of Women Affairs Hajia Aisha Ismail has decried the suspension of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections, describing it as a shame.
“INEC has become a symbol of the country’s failure. They are symbol of the failure of this nation,” she exploded in an interview with our correspondent.
She said the suspension was most unfortunate coming a few hours to go, when contestants had invested so much into the elections.
She regretted that INEC had four whole years to plan for the elections and, therefore had no excuse whatsoever to give to Nigerians to justify their failure to excel.
“The fact remains that you have an agency that is supposed to plan for years, taking into consideration what had happened in 2011, in 2015 and learning from it and making sure that these mistakes are not repeated, But they failed.”
”I am just too sad. I kept wondering when we would get it right, when we would be rational, normal and striving as a people. We keep dragging ourselves back at every turn….
“We invested so much to make INEC truly independent, but every four years, they come out as a failure – imagine the time, energy, material and money the country would lose following the suspension of the election?
“It doesn’t matter who is blaming who- government, opposition or anybody. The fact remains that INEC has become a symbol of the country’s failure. They are symbol of the failure of this nation,” she said while insisting that the body should be scrapped.