Opposition Political Parties Reject April 4 For NASS Election; Jonathan, IBB Plead For Understanding

Prof. Attahiru Jega and Goodluck Jonathan

Opposition political parties are rejecting Monday, April 4, as the new date for Nigeria’s National Assembly Elections, claiming that it favours only the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Calling the postponement “an unwarranted false start” that has imposed an “unwarranted huge cost” upon the Nigerian people, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties’ National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, said that his party had in the past repeatedly drawn attention to the electoral commission’s preference for contractors, referred by the presidency, instead of adopting an open and transparent process” in the award of contracts.  He believed that if the award of the contract for the needed materials, which led to today’s logistical collapse, had been open and transparent, the situation could have been different.

Rejecting April 4 for the National Assembly election, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), said that date does not permit it to re-mobilize its agents or its logistics. “The only day between Saturday and Monday is Sunday, when banks do not open,” its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said in a statement in Ilorin.

“Where does [Jega] expect us to get the funds to mobilize our agents for Monday's election?” he asked.  “Only the PDP can quickly mobilize such funds. So that date cannot stand, unless Jega is working against the opposition.”

The ACN further noted that the delay in the arrival and distribution of the result sheets was not the only thing that was wrong in Saturday’s election, and that there were many lapses on the part of INEC “which cannot be rectified between now and Monday.”

In the circumstances, the party said the new April 4 schedule was capable only of conferring undue advantage on the PDP, and suggested instead that the election be bundled together on 9 March with the Presidential election, or postponed to April 23 as the last election.

The parties issued their statements as President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, in his country home, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, was expressing the confidence that Nigeria could conduct credible elections.


The President, who addressed journalists following his inability to obtain election accreditation as a result of non-availability of INEC officials and voting materials, appealed to Nigerians to bear with the electoral body.

"If we must do something, it is better to delay and do it well," he said in reference to INEC's postponement of the National Assembly elections to Monday, April 4.

Also today, former military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida, said that the postponement was understandable in view of the short time available to the electoral body to prepare.

In a statement issued by his spokesman, Kassim Afegbua, Babangida said Professor Jega should be commended for his courage in owning up to today’s fiasco.  “He deserves to be encouraged and motivated in the light of our present shortcomings, so that the electoral body would be able to conduct a better election rather than conduct one that would be subject of condemnation and rejection,” he said.

With the late arrival of election materials, it would have been impossible to conduct the elections as scheduled and whose results would be acceptable to the electorates.

“It is our prayer that Nigeria would continue to grow from strength to strength irrespective of our temporary setbacks which are by their very nature surmountable,” Babangida said.