Founder of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Dr Boniface Aniebonam, has endorsed President Bola Tinubu’s nomination of Professor Joash Amupitan as the next chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Speaking in Lagos on Sunday, October 12, Aniebonam described the appointment as a step toward rebuilding the credibility of the electoral body, which he said had suffered from years of public distrust.
He noted that the National Council of State approved Amupitan’s nomination on October 7, pending Senate confirmation, and urged the nominee to begin work immediately after assuming office.
“The first task for Amupitan is to change the battered image of INEC and restore the trust of Nigerians in the umpire,” Aniebonam said.
“INEC’s image has been so eroded over the years that the first task before Amupitan is righting the wrongs of the commission and re-creating confidence in it.
“Amupitan needs to study the commission thoroughly and correct issues currently before it that Mahmoud ignored,” he added.
Aniebonam said the President’s decision reflected his willingness to reform institutions and strengthen Nigeria’s democracy.
“President Tinubu and the Federal Executive Council must have seen Amupitan’s capacity before nominating him
“What we need in Nigeria at the moment shall be leaders who can take informed and hard decisions, if we must reinvent the Nigeria of our dreams,” he said.
Citing the NNPP’s past experiences with INEC, Aniebonam criticised the former leadership for disobeying court orders related to the party’s internal leadership crisis.
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“For the immediate past leadership of INEC to ignore subsisting court orders and directives to upload the NNPP’s new national executives was a shocker and very shameful to constitutional democracy,” he lamented.
“What could have stopped the former INEC boss from obeying the court orders should be looked into. These and many more are part of issues that can erode a people’s confidence in an institution.
“Amupitan has the choice to either follow the path of past INEC chairmen or write his name in diamond,” Aniebonam stated.
He further condemned actions by some INEC officials whom he accused of unlawfully altering the party’s logo and colours without the approval of its founders.
“It is still like a daydream to us that some bad eggs in INEC connived and changed the logo and colour of NNPP symbols without the consent of its founding members and holder of the original certificate of registration,” he said.
“INEC did the conversion without asking or sighting the original certificate of registration of the NNPP.
“This simply means that anyone can approach INEC and change the logo and colour symbols of APC, PDP, LABOUR, and others just like that,” he noted.
Aniebonam urged Amupitan to prioritise respect for judicial rulings and transparency once confirmed.
He also assured that the NNPP would cooperate with President Tinubu’s administration to ensure the success of the new INEC leadership.
“We remain committed to joining President Tinubu to give the new INEC leadership maximum support, and we pray that Amupitan will not be distracted in carrying out his duties,” he said.