Amid allegations that she is a relation of President Muhammadu Buhari, and the controversy that trailed her appointment as head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Collation Center for the 2019 general elections – a move seen as part of the plot to rig the elections – Mrs. Amina Zakari has formally spoken out publicly to deny any family relationship with the president. In an interview with the BBC on Saturday, Mrs. Zakari discounted the allegation as a distraction: “President Muhammadu Buhari is my President as [he is] everybody else’s President. He is not my cousin; he is not my uncle as is being claimed.” She recalled that she had been part of INEC when Jonathan defeated Buhari in the 2011 Presidential election and challenged anyone who had any evidence of wrongdoing against her to come forward with evidence.
Zakari explained that she had done her job diligently over the years without scandal or blame. Zakari also pointed out that she was first appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2010 and served as a Special Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo prior to that. “I have been on this job since 2010 and this same President [Buhari] lost an election and the people that complained have worked closely with me. They have not in any way accused me of any wrongdoing over the years and I have done my work diligently,” she averred.
“I was in charge of political party monitoring for four years – from 2010 to 2014. There was not a single scandal to my name and nobody can claim to have paid me or asked me to do anything wrong. And if they have, I would love them to come forward and prove it to the nation and to the world at large because this is getting into a global dimension.”
Zakari said it was impossible for her to influence an election monitored by thousands. “I don’t think I should worry about this because I am one single person out of 16,000 staff, of about a million ad hoc staff that will run the election. I can’t see how I can get powers to influence an election as a single individual. I have done my job conscientiously over the years as a patriotic citizen of Nigeria,” she said. “I don’t think I should be distracted now that elections are coming forward. I will continue doing my work. I will continue serving my country to the best of my ability with the best of intentions.”
Since INEC announced her appointment last Thursday, the main opposition PDP rejected it, insisting that she is related to Buhari and therefore would not be an impartial arbiter in the general elections. The Presidency and INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu have separately denied the allegations. In a tersely worded statement ornamented with harmful grandiloquence, Garba Shehu, senior special assistant on media and publicity, accused the PDP of publishing a mendacious press release, in which it made equally baseless accusations regarding Zakari, about her neutrality and integrity in next month’s election. Shehu explained that Zakari was first appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan and was only reappointed by Buhari. “What is even more curious about all the fuss coming from the PDP is that they, as a ruling party picked Mrs. Zakari, judging her by her own merit and made her an electoral commissioner.
“President Buhari and Commissioner Amina Zakari don’t share a family relationship. An inter-marriage occurred in their extended families, so the imputation of blood relationship between the President and the electoral commissioner is a simple lie. “She served so well with distinction as can be verified from the records that President Buhari approved the recommendation that she be reappointed, as he did other PDP nominees for second-term of four years. PDP, therefore, has no moral right to keep harassing this hardworking mother unless they have a hidden agenda. By this statement, the PDP is guilty of scoring an own goal and two, of harassing an innocent citizen on the basis of a lie, pure and simple,” Shehu said.
In a related development, the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has urged politicians and political parties to spend time perfecting their strategies on winning the general elections rather than paying attention to unnecessary issues. The Lagos State Chairman of IPAC, Shakirudeen Olofin, said that the criticisms trailing Zakari’s appointment were unnecessary and mere distractions.
“We think the criticisms and controversies that have trailed the appointment of Zakari are unnecessary because it is not within the powers of political parties to appoint people for INEC. In a football match, the teams do not decide or bother about who the referee is. It is never done. Rather, they focus on how to win the match. The parties should be more focused and leave all these distractions. They should be on the drawing board planning for victory. They should leave INEC and Zakari to do their jobs,” he said.
