2023 election: Electoral Bill needs to be signed to strengthen democracy — Bagos 

By Akande Seth

A House of Representative member, PDP, Plateau state, Honourable Dachung Bagos has the electoral bill should be signed quickly in order to strengthen democracy and its  institutions in the country.

Bagos said that as long as National Assembly is concerned, it has done what is needed and the executive needs to do the right thing.

While speaking on the program Politics Today on Channels Television, he said,  “A lot of resources have come into play because of this electoral bill, a lot of issues, people have had sleepless nights, a lot of disagreements on the floor, and again just like that won’t be signed? It is a serious disservice to the National Assembly and Nigerians that have put in so much effort, pressure and hope on the making of the Bill.”

Bagos urged the President to sign the bill as it would strengthen democracy and help correct a lot of mistakes that had happened in order to make the 2023 elections better than that of 2019.

He said if the president does not sign it, the issues will be raised again. He mentioned that the idea of the new bill was to make sure that positions that would be held in offices in the future will be by competent people who would come to strengthen democracy.

He said he expects President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the bill as they are just few days left, also noting that issues such as insecurity and unemployment are major problems in the country.

Bagos said it is quite unfortunate that the state of the country with the issue of unemployment is unbearable. He made notice of how doors were always being knocked at his office, and several recommendations letters were needed to be written before members could get jobs or different roles.

He said that the Civil Service  Commission needs to do the right thing by taking in people on merit rather than who they know to get the job.

Bagos said the problem was majorly with the executive that has caged the legislature into doing what was not right because the legislatures are with the people on daily basis.

“The people cannot access the executive as they access the legislatures, the legislatures are the ones people are seeing.”

In response to this, Honourable Farouk Aliyu, APC Chieftain said the electoral bill has the backing of people in this country and believes the president will give the right decision especially regarding what the people want.

He said that the president would not hold his assent for no reason as clear thoughts required to be given to the signage of the bill and if the assent was yet to be given, there would definitely be reactions concerning it.

Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, also joined the program, noted he was shocked that the bill had not been given assent despite the president who had in the previous years clamoured for transparency alongside free and fair elections.

He said the electoral bill was to restore confidence in Nigerians concerning electoral process as this will bring about credibility amongst different political parties and elections at large.

Rafsanjani said he hoped the president would not frustrate the efforts made towards the creation of the bill become a waste as true democracy is needed for Nigeria.

He concluded by making note that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC ) had told the country it was ready for the Direct primary elections especially the supervision of results.