President Muhammadu Buhari last week
appointed Mrs. Amina Bala Zakari as Acting
Chairperson of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) following the
expiration of the 5-year tenure of Prof.

Attahiru Jega who held the office until last
Tuesday.
Jega had upon the completion of his tenure,
handed over to one of its National
Commissioners, Mohammed Wali, but
Buhari has replaced him with Zakari.

Her appointment has since continued to
generate controversy among political
parties and stakeholders, even as the
opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
has condemned her appointment.

The Campaign Against Zakari
The position of the party is premised on its
allegation that the appointee is close to both
the president and his All Progressives Congress (APC).

The fear of the PDP, based on the allegation,
is that her appointment would give the APC,
(which she is allegedly sympathetic to),
upper hand in the various petitions before
the election petition tribunals.

The PDP, other political parties and
stakeholders opposed to her appointment
are of the view that Buhari should have
allowed Wali who was part of Jega’s team to
oversee the conduct of local government
elections as well as other outstanding
governorship elections in states like Edo,
Bayelsa, Kogi and Ondo, arguing that the
idea behind Zakari’s hurried appointment
was to help manipulate the elections in
favour of the ruling APC.

The PDP in a statement issued by its
National Publicity Chairman, Olisa Metuh,
“declared the appointment of Mrs. Amina
Zakari as unacceptable and demands that
President (Muhammadu) Buhari changes
her immediately,”
The statement further stressed that “The
situation in INEC since the PDP government
reformed and granted it operational
autonomy has been peaceful, but Tuesday’s
untidy overruling of Prof. Jega and
appointment of Zakari as acting chairman,
which, we gathered, was influenced by
personal relationship with the Presidency
and one of the new governors of the North-
West, ostensibly to pave the way for the APC
at the electoral tribunals, has completely
eroded public trust in the commission.

Metuh said that his party believed that due
process was not observed in the
appointment of the acting INEC boss and
that Zakari had allegedly shown in the last
elections that “she is manifestly bias in
favour of the APC.”

Presidency, Labour Party PDP
Buhari, through his Special Adviser on
Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in a
statement Thursday in Abuja, however,
noted that “Contrary to Mr Metuh’s
allegations, President Buhari’s appointment
of Mrs Zakari as Acting INEC Chairman was
based entirely on merit, her vast experience
in the internal operations of INEC and the
President’s commitment to affirmative
action in support of gender equality,
because, apart from being fully qualified for
the position, Mrs Zakari was the only
woman among the six Commissioners
considered”, it stated.

It added that, “Due Process was certainly
followed in Mrs Zakari’s appointment. Mr
Metuh’s spurious claims of her appointment
having been influenced by “personal
relationship with the Presidency” and a
Governor in the North-West “to pave the
way for the APC” at election tribunals should
be disregarded by the public.

“The allegations are nothing but falsehoods
contrived by Mr Metuh to unjustly denigrate
a President popularly elected by Nigerians
to undo the damage done to the nation by
years of PDP rule.

“His claim that the PDP has rejected Mrs
Zakari’s appointment is also laughable after
he had admitted that the right and power of
the President to make such appointments
cannot be questioned.

In the same vein, Labour Party (LP) has
chided the PDP for demanding the reversal
of Zakari’s appointment.

National Chairman of the LP, Alhaji
Abdukadir Abdulsalam, while speaking with
newsmen in Abuja on the appointment of
Zakari said his party has worked with her
and is pleased with her pedigree noting that
her appointment was in order.

He said “this is apart from being the first
woman head of INEC appointed by President
Muhammadu Buhari. We have related,
worked and interacted with her at the
commission, and have assessed her
pedigree. We are convinced that the
President made the right decision in
appointing her. This does not make her
partisan, or supportive of any political party,
unless the PDP is not serious about their so-
called opposition. That is not how to do
opposition.

“Opposition is not based on just criticism on
every petty and negligible issue. All the
opposition politics of the PDP are not
reliable, because they are doing it out of
fallacy and jealousy. The PDP appointed all
sorts of manners of people even when
majority of Nigerians believe they were
wrong. On this appointment, we are
supportive and congratulate her. We are
ready to work with her and I would call on
all political parties to work with her to
consolidate the nation’s democracy”.

Conclusion
On her appointment last week, Zakari
assured that the commission under her
watch will improve on past performances,
noting that her assumption is “just a
continuation to what the former Chairman,
Professor Attahiru Jega, has started which
has been at a high level and there shouldn’t
be any problem.

“I have been part of the process: I have
known the problems, challenges and I have
seen the successes. What is remaining is for
us to build on the successes and try to tackle
the outstanding challenges”.

Going by the allegation and counter-
allegation on the motive of her appointment,
as well as her declaration to move the
commission forward, only time will tell
which side of the divide is saying the truth.


Cc:lalasticlala

Source: http://leadership.ng/news/445196/inec-why-the-furore-over-zakaris-appointment

Ok

@OP... What was that your question?

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@OP... What was that your question?