 I see all the breakfasts and plus CV Africa, but we look at the second conversation I request asking for an extension of party primaries by political parties. Now the 18 registered political parties in Nigeria under the ages of Inter-Party Advisory Council, I PAC, have appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to extend the deadline for conduct of primary elections, but INEC is insisting that June the 3rd is the target for parties to conduct primaries and pick candidates for their 2023 general elections and that will not change. Now reason for the request is that the Salah holiday, also the foot come in IKT and Oshun state governorship elections and screening of unprecedented large number of aspirants were issues that could hamper timely and strict compliance with the timetable. In the view of efforts required by political parties for screening and selection of quality flag bears, noting that the request for slight modification in INEC's schedule of activities is not without president. Sani said some of the constraining developments were not considered and factored by INEC while the Jewish schedule of activities, earlier INEC Chairman Professor Mimood Yacobu, remind that the political parties of necessity of strict compliance with timeline for party primaries. This morning we have Fester Sukhoyeh who is the National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education INEC. Mr. Fester Sukhoyeh, it is good to have you join us this morning. We also have Uponabong Kataria, a public affairs analyst joining the conversation. Again it is good to have you join us on the breakfast. Good morning Messy, Justin and Nangir. Good morning. Good morning. Alright, so as sort of with Fester Sukhoyeh, can you hear us please? Yes, I can hear you. So the reason why political parties are asking for an extension is that the time allotted them is very short and INEC did not factor all the issues while they were preparing the timetable. What are your thoughts? Well, we factor all issues in preparing our tentative and scale law activities. If you recall, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria signed the Electoral Act 2022 into law on the 25th day of February 2022 and then this following day on the 26th day of February 2022, the Commission released this timetable and scale law activities for the conduct of the 2020 Treasury election. Now nobody appealed to us in relation to this timetable in February. Nobody said anything to us in relation to their inability to operationalize the timetable in March. We didn't hear anything relating to the timetable in April. And now it was just yesterday that the political parties appealed to the Commission to adjust the timetable. But as the Chairman pointed out, we had already, as a Commission, printed the calendar of political party primaries in relation to these primaries. All the registered political parties have submitted the date for the conduct of the Assembly primaries, National Assembly primaries, Governorship primaries, and Presidential primaries. And this is the timetable relating to all the political parties. Not only that, the Commission also went ahead to also produce a guide that will guide the political parties in the conduct of their party primaries and in the nomination of candidates. Now, as far as the Commission is concerned, after today, the timetable for the conduct of party primaries is sacrosanct. This is because if you look at the entire gamut of what is going on today, the conduct of party primaries is only a minute fraction of what the Commission is doing. As you are aware, on the 18th day of June this year, we are going to conduct the Commission's Governorship election. And the conduct of a Governorship election is a huge enterprise, it's a huge venture. On the 16th day of July, we are going to conduct the Commission's Governorship election, which is also a huge burden and a huge issue. Then we have 18 outstanding by-elections to conduct. And you also know that we are conducting the continue of the last registration exercise as of today amid some serious secret challenges in some of the states of the Federation. So we have so much to do. And we have already trained our officers that are going to monitor these party primaries. So changing the co-posts at this point in time will not really, really be feasible. So we've made that position very clear to the political parties. But there's said that they have a document that are going to submit to the Commission. We are waiting for that document. When they submit the document, we will look at the document. But as of today, the timetable is sacrosanct. And we appeal to the political parties to proceed with their party primaries irrespective of whatever decision, the Commission may likely take. But the possibility of changing the co-posts, the possibility of adjusting the timetable is really, really, really not there. All right. Thank you. Let us bring in Open Aboard Incotira into the discussion. Open Aboard, you have heard them, the position of the Independent National Electoral Commission, and from what they have told us, they have their hands full with elections in June, July, and, of course, 18 by election, according to the National Commission. But let's talk about the IPAC right now, the Interparty Advisory Council. Is it a thing of they are not well-prepared or the parties have not put their houses in order? That's why they're looking at an extension, really. I'm delighted to hear from the political parties of the extension. I've just listened to the islander's commission on information. And my views are in sync with these. And I'm very happy and I pray that their own game change. Nigerians are pastures in nature, and largely unlawful. You had enough time to prepare for your camera. Now, you have these people complaining and demonstrating simply because they wanted as to who their successor could be. Most of the politicians have excuses in their account as to who's going to succeed there. And they need enough time to address this issue. Now, it's more or less a percentage. They have failed to consider the nominal effect the extension of time is going to have. They told a good thing on the island. We are talking about in terms of finance, in terms of manpower, in terms of security. And I know that these are all the issues that islanders are taking on that right now to insist that the time to Google stand will remain sufficient. I will implore the island commissioner and by extension the chairman to please ensure that there is no extension. Not even by one hour, not even by one minute. See who has failed to plan, has planned to fail. If they are not ready, then so be it. Any political party that is not on the ballot, so be it. I cannot show the island commissioner that Nigerians are with them on this. You had enough time to plan. What are you waiting for? There is no excuse, you have said. You can't talk about that. You can't talk about security circumstances because you had enough time to prepare for this problem. Why, yes, Kennedy. What is there are? There is no reasonableness in that hesitation, in that trauma. So may I call an island at the body to ensure. Can't go down, excuse me, on this program with the island commissioner of information. I call on them to insist and ensure that the date is sacrosanct. There should never be any change whatsoever because no excuse will be planned anyway. And if islanders should do this, let me also give this as an advice. Advice as an estimate. If islanders should go ahead to do this, then islanders will be achieved open compromise. That is the truth about it. You cannot be pushed around like that. You are a body that is supposed to be independent. And Nigerians are with you on this. You need to not extend the time to do compromise. Do not even extend the time. If you recall, we do not even extend the election date for the presidential election in the sky. And anyway, we are in complete renaissance. A lot of people won't have some meaning into it. As far as the island has been compromised. Why do you want to extend the time? I can't compromise. We only have time to prepare. No extension of this. Let it be sacrosanct. And let us be done with it. Let's also get back to Fester Sokoye. What happens if the party does... I mean, you have the political parties not complying with the stipulated guideline and the regulation meeting the timeline. What will be the implication? Well, you see, this commission is a creation of the constitution and also a creation of the law. Both the constitution and the electoral act 2022 gives the commission the power to issue subsidiary legislation. And we have our regulations. We have our guidelines. And we have our manners. Now, the implication is that the commission can only monitor party primaries conducted between the fourth day of April 2022 and the third day of June 2022. The commission will only give access code to our nomination portal to political parties that conduct valid party primaries. So the implication is that if any political party conducts anything called primaries on the fourth day of June 2022 the implication is that that particular political party did not conduct primaries and that particular political party will not have candidates in the election. So it's as simple as that. Second, even when we give you our access code to our political parties nomination portal for you to upload the list and personal particulars of your nominated candidates if you do not upload at the stipulated time and date we have given in our time table and schedule of activities at that particular time at 6 p.m. the portal will show that and nobody can have access to the portal anymore. The implication is that the political party that failed to access the portal at that point in time has no candidates in the election. It's as simple as that. These things are impeded within the confines and ambit of the electoral act 2022 as amended. And this present commission will enforce the provisions of the constitution and also enforce the provisions of the electoral act 2022 because we are a regulator and we must be seen to be regulating the activities of our political parties. Yes, we agree that there are new provisions in the electoral act 2022 and both the commission and the political parties and all the critical stakeholders are operating the electoral act 2022 for the first time. And that accounts for the reason why if we even went out of our way to produce what we call guide for the conduct of 2023 political party primaries and nomination of candidates for election and we have given this to the various political parties as a guide so that everybody will know what is expected at this point in time. And so we are going to collaborate with the political parties we are going to work with the political parties to make sure that we realize the intent of the time table and also the intent of them all. So I believe that the political parties should like us as pioneers as all of us must be open to it in making sure that we give Nigeria a very good election. Alright, Opunabal, let's talk to you right now. I just want to see their lessons to be drawn or gotten from all of this. It is really shocking. Opunabal, can you hear me? Yes. Yes, okay, fine. Let's talk about consequences and of course lessons to be learned from all indications, 18 political parties. On that the advisory council came out to ask for an extension. What does this really tell of the nation's political space and what are the lessons to be learned? Well, it tells me how our leaders are proud of what they are and that a lot of them believe that they can have their way in anything, especially in the political parties and those in positions of authority. They have the belief that they can have their way in any situation and one of the consequences is simple. They must have learned their lessons. I'd like to insist, remember that then you will learn your lesson that you don't try for saturation that when there is a law, you must obey and go by the law you must abide by it and ensure that you don't fall short of it because the truth is most of our politicians, especially the governor, especially the city council they believe that they have the plan financially and politically to influence the decision and both of them believe that they are broke the law. So what they say is what will win the supreme. So if I had to insist, then they would have learned their lesson that the next day, the next year, for coming to elections either this year or next year or even after the next election, when the time to move out, of course those try to ensure that they go by that time to move are not expected to change in the days of their influence. All right, that's as much as we can take him gentlemen. Many things embarrassed or festous or create national commission information on the voter education of INEC and of course a regular political phase analyst up on a boy in court tire. Thanks for all the thoughts you have shared this morning. Thank you, good morning. Thank you. All right, you have heard from INEC, you have heard from Nigerian, of course an analyst, you know the consequences and of course the implication of all of that. I just feel that an apolitical party should have put their houses in order because of all this politicking, and of course trying to adjust several sections they have so many access to grant that they have actually lost in some of the elections. If you look at the timetable like you know the commissioner had mentioned earlier on, you find that they had taken into cognizant there's no way you have a timetable without the president signing the electoral act and so whatever would have happened would have been the delay, the fact that you had all of that delay going on. So if this political parties were really interested, I mean if you're complaining about the time allotted then you should also understand that the president had taken so much time in you know signing that particular act and making it you know a law at the end of the day, signing the bill, making it an act at the end of the day. But it is what it is, fingers crossed would definitely monitor all of the developments coming through right here and that's the size of our conversation. On the breakfast this morning we'll return tomorrow with more interesting conversations generating different reactions in different spaces. If you missed out on any part of it you're right to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and do subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are at Plus TV Africa and Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. I am Messi Boubo. And I'm Justin Akademi. Many thanks for being upon the show. We'll return again at 7am tomorrow. Bye for now.