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Dan Nwanyanwu Chairman Zenith Party, Absolves INEC, For The Extension Of Election Primaries

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The Chairman of Zenith Party Dan Nwanyanwu, has said that the 6 days extension given to political parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was a consensus one.

According to him today May,  30th, 2022 in AriseTv Morning Show, he said that all the political parties pleaded with INEC to look at the timetable since they are getting into a new system that will entail long months of campaign unlike before. He stated that the political parties have nothing to loose if they are not infringing on the position of the law. On the other hand INEC also pleaded with the parties to understand it’s own position that a change in any of the dates will affect all the programme of the election. Unlike other meetings held with INEC,  Dan said all the 18 political parties chairmen with their secretaries were present at the meeting.

He said every political party spoke at the event and when it was his turn, he thanked the chairman of APC and PDP for not sending representatives to the crucial meeting. At the end, INEC said that they have made a request.  Nothing was heard from INEC again till the primaries started.

 

Dan said that he was the one who identified the window between 4th to 9th of june because it was time to upload candidates and knowing the enormous work they were to do  like documentation, and not used to the new system since one have to be computer literate. Having to work in states and the difficulties in correcting mistakes which smaller parties are most affected, I called the Inter party advisory Council chairman Yabagi Sani to look through it and INEC was again called and a letter sent for the meeting on Friday last week by 3pm, at the meeting INEC did not seat at their normal seat because we the parties requested for this very meeting. It was at our own instance since that space has to be used.

Is very wrong for anyone to say that this 6 days extension was done to favour APC or any political party.  Zenith party and 7 other parties have gained from the extension. For example today, Zenith Party would have held its governorship primaries but we moved it to 1st of june while the presidential slated for 1st is now moved to the 4th of june.  Is very erroneous to blame INEC or the political parties as no one knows the enormous work we are doing. In INEC we found a chairman who wants to conduct a free and fair election with new modalities. In his words, “We are critical stakeholder in this project,  if there is no political parties, there will not be any INEC” So they cannot afford not to listen to political parties.

Rejection of our 1 to 2 months extension by INEC should not be criticised just because they now gave us 6 days. It might look small but many of us are making proper use of it. There  are in party training ongoing, I am also undergoing training, so people should stop throwing stones at what they don’t understand. There is no connivance with INEC, we are not  going to shift date for the political parties again.

On if he was saying truth,  Mr Nwanyanwu said “I don’t know how to turn white to black,  I have told you nothing but the truth” we are not defending or working for INEC neither are we working for any IPAC member. We cannot work for a party we want to push out. INEC did the extension without any party interest.

On why so much energy was put into getting extension for primaries but non was put on getting INEC to extend the registration of voters both in designated areas and online and why there is no synergy with civil societies, Dan said that they were all working in  harmony because as an astute comrade he knows what it takes. He said as a lawyer,  that since the 80s, he Dan Nwanyanwu has been a crusader for Human Rights and have been fighting for the vulnerable in the society and is still doing so. He said Nigerians should trust and believe in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who are faced to deliver a very free and fair election to Nigerians.

Nelly Agwu is an educationist, a journalist, a Blogger, graduate of History. Very dynamic and a realist. A mouthpiece of the oppressed. Easy going and a Philanthropist.

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