Clamour for presidential assent to Electoral Act swells

[FILES] Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari addressing NASS. Photo/Facebook/ MuhammaduBuhariBuhari, who received the bill on November 19, has until December 19 to either give his assent or communicate to the National Assembly any comments, or misgivings that he has towards the bill.

Indeed, some Nigerians across various divides are urging him not to allow the bill to suffer the same setback that the previous one suffered when he refused to assent to it due to some disagreeable clauses. “Many democracies of the world, like the United States of America, go by direct primary; so there may actually be nothing wrong with it, but even with his opposition, he can assent to it and then seek amendments later. We need to move forward.”

Ahmad Yusuf, a human rights activist and expert in constitutional law, said that for the electronic transmission of the election result and the use of technology, the result of the just-concluded Anambra State governorship poll would probably be different. In 2019, the Director-General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, Salihu Mohammed Lukman, supported the direct primaries for selecting parties’ candidates for elections. Lukman worked directly under Alhaji Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, one of the governors vehemently opposing the direct primary mode today.

The pertinent questions Lukman should answer are: what has changed between 2019 and 2021 that he and his co-travellers are suddenly changing their minds? Whose interests is he trying to protect: Nigerians’ or governors’? Why are he and his paymasters now afraid of the direct primary mode? Who is fooling whom in the whole thing?

Hardly was the harmonisation of the two items among 21 clauses agreed upon by members of the Senate and House of Representatives at Conference Committee pronounced that diverse reactions and comments started coming from political parties, civil society organisations, non – governmental bodies and individuals.

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