Protest in Kwara over Proposed Amendment on LG Electoral Bill

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

Hundreds of youths in Kwara State yesterday staged a peaceful protest to the state House of Assembly over the proposed amendment to the Local Government Electoral Bill 2023.

The Executive Bill was for the state “lawmakers to amend the Kwara State Local Government Electoral Law, to change the number of days for notice of election and other related matters.”

The bill among other things seeks to extend the period for the conduct of local government elections in the state from 90 days to 360 days.

The bill has already passed a second reading at the state House of Assembly on October 19.

However, the public hearing on the bill, which came up yesterday at the Assembly complex, witnessed opposition from hundreds of youths, who staged a peaceful protest against the hearing on the bill.

The affected youths, who trooped out in large numbers into the Assembly complex, advised the state lawmakers to step down from the hearing in order to bring peace and development to the people at the grassroots.

They added that the bill,  if passed into law, would allow the state Independent Electoral Commission to shift the local government poll till 2025.

But after a few hours, normalcy returned as the stakeholders presented their divergent views on the proposed amendment on the bill.

In his submission, the Deputy Coordinator of Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), Mr. Lanre Osho, prayed for the Assembly to step down the passage of the proposed amendment of the state Local Government Electoral Law.

He said: ‘’We pray that they reconsider it in the future after the local government election must have been conducted by the Kwara State Independent Electoral Committee (KWSIEC) using the subsisting law with 90 days’ notice of election period. Or for the Assembly to pass the proposed amendment of the Kwara State LG Electoral Law, provided that the commencement date of the law would be sometime in 2025 after the next (anticipated) LG election.

’For clarity, if passed into law, it should not affect the next LG election but should affect future elections after the next (anticipated) election. The legislature has the power to set the commencement date of a law to a future date in the public interest.”

Also, Mr. Abdullahi Abdulrouf from the Law Department, Al-Hikmah University, said a critical look at the amendment was an attempt to unnecessarily prolong local government elections in the state.

He said the present law was already in order, and questioned why a longer period was needed for the conduct of a local government election that only concerns local governments and not the country at large.

Meanwhile, the Chairman, Kwara Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mr. Ahmed Lateef, said the union aligned with the proposed amendment but has some reservations.

Lateef said the number of days for the period of election should be brought down to 180 days instead of 360 days’ extension from 90 days, rather than needlessly prolonging the conduct of the election.

He said this is because there has been public yearning for local government election in the state, and that it was an aberration to have the Transmission Implementation Committee (TIC) to continue the administration in the local government areas of the state.

On his own, the state Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Olusegun Adewara, criticised the hastiness in the passage of the bill, which was first presented to the Assembly on October 18.

He said it was surprising that such sensitive bill would pass all the stages it passed through within nine working days.

Adewara urged the lawmakers to stay action on the bill and ensure proper consultation and submission from all stakeholders, as well as do due diligence on it.

Also, the Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Yakubu Danladi-Salihu, in his response to all the comments of the stakeholders at the public hearing, said the opinions of all stakeholders would be looked into and considered for action.