President Muhammadu Buhari has declined assent to the 2021 Electoral Act Amendment bill, stating that signing it into law would cause trouble among the political parties in the country.
It was gathered that the letter of rejection of the bill by President Buhari which had been sent to the Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan would be read today at the plenary.
According to a source, the President refused assent because the parties have their various constitutions that indicate that primaries should be conducted either directly or indirectly and until such provisions are amended, asking parties to pick candidates through direct primaries would mean forcing the parties to conduct primaries through direct means which according to President Buhari, amounts to abuse of the constitutions of the parties.
It was further learnt that other reasons President Buhari gave include high cost of monitoring the primaries of various parties across the country; marginalisation of small parties; possible litigation; security challenges of monitoring direct primaries, violation of rights of citizens; and possible manipulation of the primaries.
The source said, “With these reasons, the President has returned the bill to the National Assembly, asking the lawmakers to look at the clause that has to do with direct primaries by political parties, work on it and return the document for assent.”
With these, the governors, Attorney-General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami; and those opposed to direct primaries have had the upper hand in the push to get President Buhari to withhold assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Meanwhile, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said President Buhari’s refusal to assent the bill was part of a plot by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the 2023 polls, adding that the APC-led National Assembly does not have the capacity to override the President.
According to him, APC leaders are worried over the provision of electronic transmission of results, which would make it difficult to rig election and not direct primaries.
Efforts to get the APC to speak on the issue, last night, did not bear fruit. However, a member of the Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, CECPC, told Vanguard that the party is yet to see the President’s letter and would issue a detailed response later.
There are indications that the Senate will be turbulent on Tuesday as Senators take a decision on the issue.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, on condition of anonymity, a Senator said, “We have the number to override Buhari’s veto but with Senator Lawan as President of the Senate, it will be difficult because he operates the Senate as an extension of the Presidency.”
On his part, Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South), has urged the National Assembly to extricate itself from what he described as public odium and disrespect by going ahead to override President Buhari, noting that the National Assembly has to convince Nigerians it is not a rubber stamp assembly.
Urhoghide said: “We must be reminded that members of the National Assembly are truly the representatives of the people because every Federal Constituency and senatorial district seat is allocated to a segment of the Nigerian people who are their constituents. The members of the National Assembly consulted with a cross-section of their constituents to reach an informed position on any matter of national interest and development.
“The issue of direct primaries in our electoral process has been well canvassed, elucidated, and argued by both chambers of the NASS, and inputs were taken at public hearings from across the spectrum of all critical stakeholders.
“Both chambers passed the bill with some little variations in some sections which consequently necessitated the setting up of a Conference committee of five members each from both chambers. At the end of all the deliberations, direct primary was agreed upon.
“The convincing force being that it will ensure total inclusiveness in ensuring internal democracy within the parties in the election of party officials or party administrators at congresses and convention and party flag bearers at party nominations.
“The bane has always been that the greater majority of party members do not have the privilege or right to choose the party’s candidates in elections. Hitherto, it was the exclusive preserve of the power holders or deep pockets who would always want to control the party.
“The time has come when only popular candidates within the party should be thrown up for general elections. General elections in this way will become easier and less cumbersome for parties to win since they have truly popular candidates.
“As we speak today, the whole world has become a global village. Nigeria should endeavour to revolutionise its electoral system to avert bickering and unnecessary disputation that comes with nominations or party primaries.
“In Chile, Gabriel Boric, a 35 years old former student activist has won the run off in the Presidential election because he was truly popular and supported by the people. Less than two hours into counting of the ballots, his much older opponent congratulated him and urged all his compatriots to support his incoming government.
“Nigeria must take a queue by allowing genuine inclusiveness, particularly our young people, who are in excess of 60 per cent of our population. All the devious designs to exclude them will not help us.
“I urge my colleagues in the National Assembly to do the needful by vetoing the bill and make it law. This is not the first time it is happening in Nigeria.
“The NDDC Bill of 2001 was vetoed by NASS under President Obasanjo, who was a PDP president. The NASS should extricate itself from public odium and disrespect by going ahead to override President Buhari who is APC. History stares NASS in the face if indeed it is not a rubber stamp.”
Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Ben Kalu said that the House would meet on the matter Tuesday (today).
“The House has not met after the expiration of the 30 days (of sending the bill to the president for his assent). We will be meeting for the first time on Tuesday. It’s then we will know if there is any communication and what the communication says. We will meet over whatever communication that we receive. So, until the House sits, I have nothing to say to you,” he said.
