ZAP also commended Buhari and Prof Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC National Chairman, and his INEC team, for their commitment and preparedness for the general elections.
The Secretary of ZAP, Dr Steve Igweze, told newsmen in Enugu on Sunday that the sequence of these events had rekindled the confidence of millions of ZAP members nationwide on the electoral process.
According to Igweze, “we cherish the opportunity the holidays offered to our dear undergraduates to massively participate and decide who presides over our affairs in the next four years, so as to avoid mass exodus of youths abroad.”
He said: “President Buhari, accordingly, has patriotically thrust their future and their destiny in their hands.
“The President has gone ahead to free our undergraduates to massively participate in the elections by granting them holidays.
“With over 70 per cent of the age grade between 18 and 50 years dominating the 93 million registered voters; Nigerians youths cannot blame ethnicity, religion or sundry fault lines if they fail to vote for the candidate with verifiable better character, more competence and no history of looting.”
The secretary noted that in addition to the 2022 Electoral Act, a progenitor of electronic transmission of results, which we dubbed Vote-Rigging-Vaccine (VRV), President Buhari had assured the world of his commitment to free, fair and transparent elections.
“President Buhari has gone ahead to set up a Transition Council, headed by Mr Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
“All these moves and more not mentioned, shows his (Buhari’s) preparedness to midwife a credible election and hand over seamlessly,” he said.
On Prof. Yakubu and his INEC team, Igweze commended the commission’s tenacity, diligent planning and robust defence of two phase elections at the National Council of State meeting last Friday.
He said: “We commend INEC Chairman for his resistance to anti-democrats cum Election Results Deniers; whose intent is to muddle the general election and cause confusion.
“They were least concerned about how cumbersome it is to count and electronically transmit five different results to the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal.
