Mixed Reactions Trail Non-passage of Electoral Bill

Emma Okonji and Nosa Alekhuogie

Nigerians, including lawmakers, have continued to react over the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.

A member of the House of Representative, Hon Henry Nwawuba, however, said he refused to see any power tussle in play with the situation, despite insinuations making the rounds why the President Buhari rejected the bill.

Nwawuba, who spoke yesterday on the Morning Show of Arise News channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, explained that everything would rest on members of the National Assembly when it comes to the process of making laws.

According to him, “It is part of the process that as it goes through the rounds in the House, we expose the law to public dialogue, and then we send it off for access. The Speaker of the House has stated that when we come back in January, we are going to take another look at the Electoral Act, as it is not over yet.”

Reacting to the information that almost 80 senators have agreed to override the president’s refusal to assent to the bill, with the power to override the president’s veto, Nwawuba stressed that the bill was in the courts of the National Assembly, which would come together and take the best decision for the interest of Nigeria, as they decide on what the next steps would be.

He said: “This is a critical piece of the

legislation that is contained in our legislative agenda, and we are determined to see them through. We are going to deal with the Electoral Act by the grace of God when we come back in January.”

A lawyer, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, who also spoke yesterday on the Morning Show of the television channel, cleard the air on the issue of scraping indirect primaries, noting that each party has the right to choose direct or indirect primaries.

According to him, direct primaries support every member of the political party to vote and choose the kind of political party and candidate for a particular election.

“There are many good sides of the bill, and we must not lose sight of those aspects. There are also some aspects the president did not touch, which some find worrisome.

“The timelines have been extended for the conduct of primaries for all sorts of steps to be taken as extended by the law,” Osaze-Uzzi said.

Also, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Kunle Adegoke, who spoke in the same vein on the Morning Show yesterday, noted that there is freedom of political parties to determine their internal affairs, which has been an age-long tradition that has been recognised by the concept of the law up to the Supreme Court.

He further explained that the recent intervention by the legislature to regulate the affairs of political parties actually stems from the fact that the power given to the political parties to regulate their internal affairs have been substantially abused, and this has led to a lot of agitation.

Adegoke said: “The National Assembly knows the constitution that will run in Nigeria which recognises only the legislature to take a final decision in this regard. We can as well pass the Act all over again, and the president will have no other choice. We can’t just say we have the power and we are free to exercise it, we must look at all factors that fit the process we are trying to take on.”