…As NUJ passes vote of confidence on Jega

By Henry Umoru

ABUJA – AHEAD of tomorrow’s National Assembly elections, over 30 registered opposition political parties under the aegis, Nigeria Political Summit Group, NPSG, yesterday warned the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega against shifting the polls again.

Meanwhile, the National President, Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Mallam Garba Muhammed, has expressed confidence in the ability of Jega in conducting a free, fair and credible election.

According to NPSG, any further postponement of the elections would expose Nigeria to national and international ridicule, just as it said it would present the country as unserious one, adding that Nigerians of voting age who are registered voters should go out en-masse to participate during the National Assembly election.

Addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, spokesperson for the group, Alhaji Yusuf Buba, Chairman, Advanced Congress of Democrats, ACD, said even if there were isolated problems in some areas, the electoral body should go ahead with the elections, adding: “If for any reason INEC is not prepared for election in some isolated areas, election should go on as scheduled in all other states of the federation that INEC can manage the election without hitches.”

NUJ hails Jega

Speaking yesterday at a one-day capacity building workshop for Nigerian journalists on election reporting and the public presentation of a book, “Source Materials on Election Reporting for Nigerian Journalists,” the NUJ National President, Mallam Muhammed who noted that the explanation by Jega as the basis for shifting the poll was very satisfactory, stressed that it was better for the electoral umpire to shift the election if the outcome of the election will not be credible.

Muhammed who urged all the parties involved to see the voting exercise as a sacred historical responsibility, however, frowned at the failure of donor agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, to provided support for NUJ, adding that even when they carry out the training for journalists, the NUJ as a body was not carried along by the donor agencies.