Lawmaker advises INEC to prepare for new challenges in 2019 elections

A Lagos lawmaker, Prince Adebisi Yusuff on Saturday, advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be ready to face new challenges in 2019 general elections and address them accordingly.

Yusuff, representing Alimosho Constituency I in the Lagos State House of Assembly, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

According to him, INEC needs to foresee possible areas politicians may want to scuttle the process to prevent the exercise from being free and fair.

“Efforts should be made to make the elections free and fair. INEC has to be very smart and be ahead of those who may want to cut corners.

“INEC should be fair and be prepared to face new challenges. The elections will be interesting and memorable.

“INEC must take into consideration the security situation now and plan adequately. It is now that INEC has to start not tomorrow.

“About card readers, I don’t think there is an alternative to them, but the card readers must be updated regularly to ensure optimal performance,” he said.

On the multiplication of political parties, the lawmaker said some of the newly registered parties were “dead on arrival” because they could not even produce a local government counsellor.

Yusuff, who is the Chairman, Ad hoc Committee on Public Accounts (Local), expressed optimism that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would survive the current challenges facing the party.

He said that the incumbent government had been doing its best to build on the achievement of the previous governments.

The lawmaker said that the government had achieved a lot within three years in office.

He, however, commended Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State and Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun for their achievements in the area of employment creation, agriculture and infrastructural development.

Yusuff also advised politicians to shun all tendencies to resort to falsehoods, blackmails and backstabs as well as violence as the elections approach.

“Politicians should desist from creating make-believe stories to tarnish the image of their rivals. I want to advise my co-politicians not attack one another.

“We should outgrow campaigns of calumny; focus on developmental issues and what we can offer people if elected.

“Those who want to re-contest elections should not abandon their responsibilities for campaigns now.

“This is the best time for them to work and serve the people that gave them the mandate to serve. If they do otherwise, it is worse than armed robbery.

“If politicians abandon their mandates now because of electioneering campaigns, it is worse than robbery,” he said.

Yusuff said that politicians also planning to buy votes with money would be disappointed, saying “Nigerians are getting wiser and enlightened now’’.

On the menace of Fulani herdsmen in the country, he advised the security agencies to use their intelligence network to unravel the problem.

“It is not about the President, I believe that it is another penetration of Book Haram into the system,” he added.