By PETER ANOSIKE

An African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain, Nelson Ahamefula Akuma, has described as worrisome the appearance of Prof. Joash Amupitan at his screening in the Senate chamber with an All Progressives Congress governor.

Speaking while reacting to the development, he said by that act, the newly-confirmed Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman has shown partisanship and lost credibility.

According to him, we are now in an era of impunity, where anybody can do anything and get away with it.

Akuma said that Nigerians should rise and condemn the action of the new INEC chairman because he sent out a very bad signal.

He said that what Nigerians had expected was somebody who would restore the confidence of the people on the electoral body, but that what happened had further killed their morale.

On some of reforms that the new INEC chair promised to undertake, Akuma dismissed them as mere propaganda .

According to him, Amupitan’s first impression is nothing to bank on, adding that there is no second chance to correct a bad first impression.

His words: “I was shocked to see the governor of Kogi State accompanying Prof. Joash Amupitan to the Senate for screening. How does anybody interpret that. Whether we want to believe it or not, it shows clear partisanship. It is like you being in a football club and going to the stadium for a match and seeing the referee of the match travelling in the same bus with your opponents’ team and you still expect transparent officiating in the match. So, it is a very dangerous signal. Amupitan is not the first INEC chairman that has been appointed in the country. Why didn’t the state governors of Profs. Maurice Iwu, Attahiru Jega and Mahmood Yakubu accompany them to the Senate chamber during their screening? What it shows is that there is no more decorum in the country. We have crossed the Rubicon in impunity and there is no more going back.”

He appealed to Nigerian voters to get ready to vote and change the monster that is currently dominating Nigerian body politics.

According to him, if things continued to remain the way they are now in the country, sooner than later, Nigeria would into a banana republic.

“The only thing that will save this country is a democratic rebellion of the Nigerian people. There is no more hope in the Nigeria’s electoral body. What we need to do is to unite and massively vote out the government in power. If not, sooner than later there would be no country to call our own,” Akuma said.