Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The National Secretary of Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) Chief Peter Ameh, has challenged the newly reappointed chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, to improve on his past records.
Reacting to his reappointment in a chat with Daily Sun, the immidiate past president of the Inter Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC) charged Yakubu to deepen democratic tenets of multiparty democracy.
He advised him not to limit the number of electoral reforms he is pursuing, urging him to open up the Nigeria democratic space to enable Nigerian youths participate actively in electoral processes.
According to Ameh; “For me, I think that continuity is the key issue. I want to congratulate and wish him well. But, my advice to him in his return for second term is to stay away from making so many reforms at the same time.
“There is no country in the world that uses electronic voting based on the challenges that come with it. He should also be magnanimous in seeing how much he can deepen the democratic tenets of multiparty democracy.
“The truth is that deregistration is alien to our democratic culture. Anything that takes away the right of people is against the spirit of the Constitution both in section 39 and section 40. I wish him a very wonderful and successful second tenure.
“He should do something so that posterity will remember him as someone who laid a proper architectural foundation in creating a transparent and credible atmosphere where people without godfather and campaign fund can contest election and win under whatever platform they chose.
“We no longer want to see a situation where people are conscripted forcefully into the already established oligarchy party because they know that somebody will support them. He must open the space to enable young Nigerians to participate in the Nigeria democratic system.
“He must deepen the culture of participation, but it cannot be deepened without multiplicity of party platforms where Nigerians can go. As 200 million persons, 200 political parties cannot be too much. I congratulate him for been the first INEC Chairman to be appointed for the second term,” he said.
Setting a road map for him, Ameh said:
“The challenges before him are to consolidate on conducting a free and fair election and ensure that our elections represent the true wishes of the people.
“The more Nigerians are convinced that their votes will count, the more improvement in voter apathy, which we have been complaining about. Based on his capacity and intelligence, he should endeavour to deepen electoral reforms that will kill the trust deficit many Nigerians have on our election credibility. He must achieve all these within the ambit of our democratic space,” he charged.
