LINUS CHIBUIKE
THE Central Management Committee of the Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria has announced the appointment of 14 Executives to run the business of the Council, in line with the vision of creating the sound and dynamic political environment needed to put Nigeria on the right political trajectory for development.
The Council said it took the pain to institute large-scale changes in order to properly position IPAC as a viable inter-party organisation in order to help develop an enviable political culture in the country.
The Acting President, IPAC, Ralphs Nwosu, in a statement he personally signed on Saturday, said running away from the toxicity of the Nigeria challenge, caused by the unscrupulous tendencies of a few vested interests, would only make the situation worse.
He listed the newly appointed executives to include: Director, Legal and Strategic Communication – Chief Chukwudi EzeObika; Director, Institutional Strategy and Politics – Alhaji San Turaki; Director, Organisational Redesign, Systems Strengthening & Optimisation – Dr Emeka Okengwu; Director, Business & Investment – Hon Abayomi Runsewe; Director, Education and Training – Barr Eunice Atuejide; Director, Coalition, Collaboration Initiatives – Otunba Niyi Dada; and Director, Monitoring and Evaluation (Democracy & Government in Action) – Rev. Olusegun Peters.
Others are: Director, Diaspora Relations – Alistair Soyode; Director, Voting, Electoral Processes and Systems Optimisation – Chief Razak Eyiowuawi; Director-General – Chief Mrs Georgina Dakpokpo; Adviser, Inter-Agency Relations, Security and Intelligence – Alhaji Musa Takai; Adviser, International Relations and Best practices – Barr. Godson Okoye; Adviser, Civil Society and Public Relations – Mark Adebayo; and Chief of Staff – Chief Barr Emeka Igwe.
Nwosu, in the statement, titled, “Towards a more effective, robust and resilient IPAC”, said, “The fact that our electoral management body, political parties and governments at all tiers and levels, and by extension, the nation’s democracy, are in a comatose state has become common knowledge.
“The nation is now regarded as a failed or failing state. Failed or failing, it behoves patriotic persons in Nigeria to seize every opportunity and every moment to make positive contribution towards its good health. We all need to think beyond ourselves and be ready to come out of our comfort abodes.
“Running away from the toxicity of the Nigeria challenge caused by the unscrupulous tendencies of a few vested interests will only make the situation worse.
IPAC was conceived by political parties in Nigeria and a few international and democratic agencies helped birth it into life with funding from USAID and European union.”
He said ever since it came to life, some interest groups within INEC had struggled to control and/or own it, “as if INEC is a political party.”
Nwosu, who is the National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress, stressed that IPAC was a council of political parties set up to enable convergence of ideas and code of conduct for smooth and harmonious coexistence of parties; and to minimise extreme hostilities between parties.
He added, “INEC as the nation’s elections management agency is supposed to midwife the electoral processes, the sine-qua-non of all democracies. This agency has been wobbly, overbearing, ominous agenda chasing, unfocused and pretentious.
“Otherwise, how does one explain that an agency registered 67 parties in an election year, that is more than twice the numbers of parties that existed 20 years prior? Still, the same INEC remains in contempt of reinstating 23 political parties following an Appeal Court judgment.
“The same INEC’s failure in its election management functions results in congestion of the nation’s courts. In spite of the huge budgetary allocation to INEC yearly, the election quality and general outcome of all elections in the country remain depressing and subjected to unending adjudication in election tribunals across the country, high courts, appeal courts and the Supreme Court, at high cost to the Government, political parties and candidates.”
The Nwosu-led IPAC said while some political party leaders had decided to opt out of IPAC because of the meddlesomeness, it would strongly encourage everyone to come together to block any sinister agenda aimed against proper flow of Nigeria’s democracy, especially now that youths were charged to bring their sophisticated knowledge, creativity and voices into nation building challenge.
“It is for the current leaders of political parties to ensure that INEC in its effort to protect the status quo does not create barriers to scuttle the aspirations of the youths and all other stakeholders,” it said.
