All Eyes on Buhari over Electoral Bill

After President Muhammadu Buhari’s fifth denial of assent to the electoral reform bill since 2018, will he finally sign the recently reworked and harmonised Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2021, Louis Achi asks

Given its fundamental importance, both to the integrity of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy and sustenance of political stability, persistent discourse on recalibration of the nation’s electoral governance laws can never be hackneyed.

Though reformation of Nigeria’s electoral system is not really a new sing-song, its necessity has been significantly accentuated by strange developments since the Fourth Republic was birthed in 1999. The fact that the majority of poll results since the nation returned to civil rule 22 years ago cannot be said to have reflected the wishes of the majority makes electoral reforms imperative.

This imperative applies equally both to the upstream arena which addresses legislative modifications and the downstream which focuses on judicial interpretation of the laws. This is because what may seem a ventilation of their private grievances or pursuit of personal aggrandisement by litigants actually transcends electoral disputes which are not mere civil claims. The disputes and claims possess a deeper significance that either validates or rubbishes the nation’s claims to genuine democracy.

The foregoing speaks to the current public anxiety and ripples trailing the harmonisation by the two legislative chambers of the re-ammended Electoral Act Bill following their resumption after the Yuletide break. This is because prior successive legislative efforts on recalibration of the nation’s electoral governance laws, particularly under the Buhari administration, had come to naught.

It would be recalled that President Buhari withheld appending his signature to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2021, because the federal lawmakers had prescribed direct primaries as the only process of producing candidates for general election. Many stakeholders had strongly felt that if the federal legislative assembly had acted from a position of strong conviction, it could have constitutionally vetoed the president and passed the amended Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2021, into law.

Trailing the presidential denial of assent to the Bill, the Senate and House of Representatives approved different versions in the Bill. While the former provided in the re-amended Bill for direct, indirect primaries or consensus as the procedure for the nomination of candidates by political parties for various elective positions, the House of Representatives only provided direct and indirect mode.

Essentially, the bill under reference addresses a swathe of electoral management issues affecting the country’s electoral system and the accommodation of technological innovations to ensure free and fair elections.

Beyond the brouhaha surrounding the lawmakers initial decision to hobble INEC’s adoption of electronic transmission of election results, now rescinded, the sticking point this time around is the legislators’ prescription of direct primaries as the sole mode of picking party flag-bearers.

Incidentally, the move by the lawmakers to change the primary mode of electing political candidates from indirect to direct generated controversy among stakeholders who perceived it as breaching the independence and internal democracy of political parties.

It was against this backdrop that the Bill passed earlier by the legislators on November 18, 2021, was snubbed by the President in December.

Back from their Yuletide holiday and kicking-off the 2022 legislative session, the lawmakers promptly revisited the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2021, which the President had rejected.

While the two legislative chambers re-amended Clause 84(2) and expunged the imposition of the ‘controversial’ sole direct primaries on parties as procedure for nomination of candidates to contest elections, they were divided on accommodation of the consensus option.

While the Senate included direct, indirect and consensus options, the lower chamber which also amended Clause 84(2) in the bill, only approved direct and indirect primaries as procedure for the nomination of candidates by political parties for the various elective positions.

It also approved the recommended Clause 84(3) that, “a political party that adopts the direct primaries procedure shall ensure that all aspirants are given equal opportunity of being voted for by members of the party and shall adopt the procedure outlined below: (a) In the case of Presidential Primaries, all registered members of the party are to vote for aspirants of their choice at a designated centre at each ward of the federation.”

The Clause provides further that, “similar procedure as in (a) above, shall be adopted for Gubernatorial, Senatorial, Federal and State Constituencies.”

The Senate added that, “Special Conventions should be held to ratify the candidate with the highest number of votes at designated centers at the National, State, Senatorial, Federal and State Constituencies.”

Clause 84(4) further provides that, “a political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidate shall adopt the procedure outlined below; (a) In the case of nominations to the position of presidential candidate, a political party shall, (i) hold special presidential convention at a designated centre in the Federal Capital Territory or any other place within the federation that is agreed to by the National Executive Committee of the party.”

At press time, a niggling dimension has surfaced from the House’s angle concerning the steps that the consensus mode must reflect. The new tweak is that all aspirants participating in a consensus option-specific primary must submit a written position supporting the candidate. Some sources say this was the sole handwork of the House’s Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.

In the penumbra of a general election, will Buhari get off his high horse and give assent so that 2023 polls will benefit from an updated and modernised electoral management template? Any further delays will evoke memories of what happened in 2018 when successive denials of assent to the Bill dragged till he told Nigerians that the 2019 general election was too near for him to sign the electoral bill into law. Not again!