Nigeria Content Online

Forty two political
parties in the country yesterday expressed doubt about the capacity of
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct
successful polls next year.

The parties made
this known in a letter addressed to the chairman of INEC, Attahiru
Jega, after waiting in vain for officials of the commission to attend a
consultative forum it organised for them.

The letter, which
listed the aggrieved parties, was signed on their behalf by the
national chairman of the Nigerian Peoples Congress (NPC), Ngozi Emioma.

According to the
parties, which national chairmen and secretaries were invited, the
meeting was scheduled to hold within 48 hours of the receipt of the
INEC’s invitation, but that despite the short notice, they honoured the
invitation only to find out that the commission was not in attendance.

“This is
particularly unnerving when it is recognised that the main purpose of
the meeting was to consult with political parties on the issue of voter
education and voters registration, precedent to the 2011 general
elections,” the letter said.

They also noted
that by the timetable of the commission, voters registration will
commence next month, “which makes it wonder if INEC is serious in its
public statement to partner with political parties to reach voters of
all demographics across the country for registration exercise.”

The parties said
that by failing to attend the meeting, the commission has created a
crisis of confidence in the face of the timetable challenges
confronting them in next year’s elections.

“In fact, we get
the impression that the commission and its chairman, Attahiru Jega, are
planning to fail. We wonder at the motive of such callousness. The
commission may well find out that when it calls for similar meetings in
the future, the political parties may not take it seriously,” the
parties said.

“INEC must provide
a written apology to the political parties for the body to be taken
seriously going forward,” the statement said.

The parties also
objected to the manner they were invited to the meeting, saying that
the culture of issuing invitation via SMS or text messages is
belittling and insulting to the political parties. They demanded for
the courtesy of formal invitation.

In addition, they frowned at INEC’s culture of summoning meetings with them in hotels.

According to the parties, the main conference centre in the premises of INEC is large enough to accommodate such meetings.

“Concluding, we no
longer have the patience to continue to suffer the inhumanity and
disrespect that is ever so present in the dealings of INEC towards the
political parties.

“We expect simple
courtesy in our relationship with INEC, except of course, the
commission wishes to head into the 2011 elections entirely on its own
without the support of the political parties. A word is enough for the
wise,” the parties said.

No forwarding address

But responding to
the allegations in a telephone interview, Kayode Idowu, the media aide
to the INEC chairman, explained that the meeting was called off and
that the parties were notified via text messages by the director of
political parties, Regina Omo-Agege.

Mr. Idowu said that
the commission uses text messages because many of the parties have no
functional offices where letters of invitation could be sent to.

On the use of hotels to hold meetings with the parties, he explained
that INEC conference room is not big enough to accommodate all the
chairmen and secretaries.