Electoral amendment bill: 73 Senators sign to veto Buhari’s rejection

…Declares  rejection fallacious

…Buhari should be commended for standing with Nigerians —Fayemi

By Uthman Salami and Seth Akande

Senator George Sekibo has hinted that 73 signatories of serving Senators have been collected for the purpose of vetoing the Electoral Amendment bill which President Muhamnadu refused to sign after passage by the National Assembly.

Sekibo said lawmakers have begun to move against the president for refusing the Electoral amendment bill.

He said, “Why will Mr. President said he doesn’t want Direct Primary. The country is not a limited liability company. The Senate ought to override him. We have the power to do that. This is what section 58( 4&5) said. The Constitution has given us the power to do so. And we will use that power to do it.

“Some people are saying that all Senators must be present to vote but our gives us three methods of voting; voice vote, through the signatures and the third is Electronics. We can use anyone if we had the 2/3 on signature. We will take it.”

However,the spokesperson of the Senate Sen. Ajibola Basiru has declared the reasons for Buhari’s refusal to sign the electoral Bill into law as presumptuous and totally fallacious following the communication of the president’s rejection of the bill to the Chamber yesterday.

The Senate spokesperson stated this while appearing on Channels Television programme “Politics today.”

Also, members of the National Assembly have begun move to jettison and override the president’s withheld assent of the electoral bill.

While speaking on the programme, Senator Ajibola Bashiru said the National Assembly would approach  the issues “Not out of any sense of egotism or having sense of power tussle with anybody,” but that they will consider it based on “Rational arguments, counter arguments that maybe be canvased incase whatever reason the president have given.”

He said the argument of the president on cost-burden “presumptuous is totally  fallacious.”

According to him, “There is nothing that is given that primary elections must be conducted on the ward bases. it could as well be conducted either on quarterly bases or local government bases.

On the argument that smaller political parties should be considered, Senator Bashiru said smaller parties may decide to even organize their direct primaries at state level.

Addressing the argument of the president over of security, Senator Bashiru said security should not affect the conduct of elections, questioning that “Because we have security challenge, then we should not even hold 2023 elections?” equating “The argument to the level of absurdity.”

The Senate spokesperson further added that “Choice is part Democratic right, but choices must be within the framework of the law that have been set up by the necessary enablement.” He added that the National Assembly majority would decision upon it at the appropriate time.”

He said the Senate would decide “Either we abandon the entirely process which I think would rather be unfortunate considering the resources that have gone into the effort or we accede to the argument that Mr President had canvased or we totally remove anything that has to do with nomination.”

Speaking further on the programme “As far as I am concerned, the feedback I have as spokesperson of senate based on survey we have conducted was that one of the best decision that Nigerian National Assembly has has taken is adoption of the direct primaries and this have empirical record.”

Senators collect signatures as 73 serving senators sign to veto bill owever, the Chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum who is also the Governor of Ekiti State has said the Governors careless of the mode of the primary, but that fair chance should be given to all.

According to him, “The bill doesn’t matter to any Governor whether you have Direct mode or an indirect mode,” saying the President “has not objected to Direct Primary neither has he endorsed indirect primary. He has only said be fair to all. Let all options apply.”

Speaking further, Governor Fayemi said “What you decide should be determined by your own local peculiar circumstances be mindful on issues of security, finances, and internal democracy.”

He said the President should be  commended for the courage of standing with the people. “He is not affraid of whatever mode you want to use. He is not someone you need to lecture on pros and cons of either processes. What is important is to ensure that whatever process you choose in your particular circumstance still provides a the process that is as free in a manner as possible.”

He noted “There is no completely a free process. At least, there’s something that is called substantial complaint in electoral law. If it meets substantial complaince, all of us should be happy with that. We should not really dwell too much on this.

“There has been this exaggerated expectations that Direct Primary is going to provide all answers to whatever electoral challenges that we are facing.”