Electoral Act Amendment bill: Buhari ready for assent, Friday — Sources

…Continuous delay of President to sign bill worrisome — George

By Uthman Salami and Joel Oladele

Indications have emerged that President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to sign into law the much-awaited Electoral Act Amendment Bill barring any last-minute change this Friday.

Sources in the presidency confirmed that the President would be performing his duty of assent to the bill by noon on Friday.

Public anxieties have surged over President Buhari’s delay in assenting to the re-worked bill, as some members of the public as well as some critical stakeholders have already concluded that he was withholding assent again.

Chief amongst the critics was the Opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who had said the delay was a plot by the president to elongate APC stay in power.

While addressing a world press conference in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, alleged that Buhari’s refusal could lead to violence and humanitarian crisis capable of affecting the West African sub-region.

According to him, the silence of the APC and the president “are heightening apprehensions across the country and orchestrating a constitutional impasse that could railroad our democracy into an emergency tenure elongation.”

Earlier in the week, the Civil Society Organisations, (CSOs) gathered at Eagle Square, Abuja to protest over the alleged delay in the signing into law the piece of legislation expected to strengthen the electoral process.

The National Assembly had subsequently retransmitted the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021 to President Buhari on January 31, a second time, having reportedly revised the bill, which he withheld his assent to for some noted reasons.

The President had argued that the National Assembly should provide options for political parties and members choices  in choosing their candidates to stand for elections, but not with single choice of direct primaries.

The President further recommended  consensus to be included along with indirect primaries as options available to political parties in choosing their candidates.

Even though the President is yet to assent to the re-worked bill more than 20 days after it was transmitted to him, he has another 10-day window within which he is mandated to either assent or state reasons for not doing so.

Sources close to the office of the President, however, revealed that arrangements had been finalised for the President to sign the amendment bill into law on Friday, finally putting all anxieties to rest.

The source, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, said “all these anxieties will disappear by Friday afternoon.

“He will be signing the bill around noon of that day.

“I believe he has taken his time so that the Act can be as unassailable as much as possible.”

President Buhari had said the cost of conducting direct primary elections, security challenges, and possible manipulation of electoral processes by political players as part of the reasons for his decision were responsible for his refusal to assent the bill.

Barrister Ochima George, a Senior Associate marble partners Legal practitioner has described the delay by the President to sign the bill as worrisome. According to him, it would have been difficult if not impossible for this current adminstration to ride into power but for the amended electoral bill implemented by the previous adminstration.

In his words, “It is certain that the president is playing the cat and mouse game with the signing of this act. Two months ago, he refused assent on it on the grounds that conducting direct primaries may be very expensive and tedious for the parties.

“That notwithstanding, it is very pertinent to note that this present government came into power on an amended electoral act which provided for the use of card readers which was beneficial to them. I mean, this government rode into power by virtue of the card and their supporters were able to vote for them even though there were allegations of under-aged voters.

“The introduction of the card readers was a shift from the previously known way of conducting elections in Nigeria. With the introduction of the card readers signed by the previous administration, we moved a step further into technological advancement of our electoral process.

“The dilly-dally as regards direct primaries, electronic voting and all that in signing this bill is sad because the excuses should not be there. I believe it’s time for the country to move forward in a better and more advanced way of handling the electoral process. The president should not delay in signing the electoral act because it’s causing alarm to the citizenry.

“However, before I conclude, I think the national assembly also has a part to play by overriding the president. Although that is something we may not likely see as it seems they are rubber-stamped. They rarely oppose anything the current government says. We need to get over this sycophancy in our government and move forward to a very serious executive and legislative check and balances. The legislative shouldn’t be in the pocket of the executive, therefore not taking any action in support of our democracy.

“So, it’s very sad that the president is still delaying in giving his assent to this amended electoral act. We hope that like their spokesman said, this Friday it will be signed but it is very sad that this current government who promised us more credible elections at the end of their tenure has defaulted severally.”