The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has urged politicians and parties to focus more on how to realise their electoral goals in 2019 rather than paying attention to unnecessary issues.
Lagos State Chairman of IPAC, Mallam Shakirudeen Olofin, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday.
Olofin was reacting to Thursday’s appointment of Mrs Amina Zakari by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its Head of Collation Centre for the 2019 elections, and to the criticisms it has generated in some quarters.
Olofin, however, maintained that the criticisms that had trailed Zakari’s appointment were unneccessary and mere distractions.
He said politicians and parties should rather spend time perfecting their strategies on winning the general elections rather than being pre-occupied with issues that should not concern them.
“We think the criticisms and controversies that have trailed the appointment of Zakari are unnecessary because it is not within the powers of political parties to appoint people for INEC.
“In a football match, the teams do not decide or bother about who the referee is. It is never done. Rather, they focus on how to win the match.
“The parties should be more focused and leave all these distractions. They should be on the drawing board planning for victory.They should leave INEC and Zakari to do their jobs,” he said.
Furthermore, Olofin said it was unfair to claim Zakari got the appointment because she was the president’s blood relation.
He pointed out that she had always been in INEC where she even acted as the chairman of the commission after the exit of Prof. Attahiru Jega.
Olofin added that IPAC believed Zakari’s appointment was not an aberration as she had also headed the commission’s ICT Department, which he said, was related to her new responsibility.
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