ELECTORAL ACT 2010 AMENDEMNT: MATTERS ARISING
The National Assembly, after many years passed the amended 2010 Electoral Act and passed same to President Buhari for assent. The Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA). notes sadly, that the mandatory 30 days for assent by the president elapsed yesterday with the president not assenting the Bill. The president in a recent interview promised to bequeath Nigerians and Nigeria with a transparent electoral process that will deepen our democracy. No time would have been more appropriate than the President’s birthday. Nigerians had hoped that President Buhari would have given us the Electoral Act as amended as a birthday gift. This hope was dashed disappointingly.
the 2021 Electoral Bill which seeks to repeal the 2010 Electoral Act as amended was supposed to be a means to improve the electoral process in Nigeria. Recall that in 2018, president Buhari failed to assent to the bill as amended then with the excuse that the time was too close to the 2019 General Election. The delay until this time confirmed the fears that the provisions envisaged by the citizens and expectations thereof may be dashed by the actions of the president. Laws are made in the interest and benefit of the people and not for those in power.
The reasoning by the president concerning the provisions on party primaries should not be held unto to truncate the wishes of Nigerians. It may be correct that political parties have the prerogative to determine how their candidates emerge whether by direct or indirect primaries but not enough reason not to sign the bill into law by the president. President Buhari had enough time to return the bill to the National Assembly to restore such powers to the political parties as soon as he received the bill and asked for expeditious amendment if he wished, but he failed to do so.
The Centre for Transparency Advocacy is concerned and at the same time worried that the president seems to be interested more in mundane personal aggrandizement that will benefit a few cabals instead of improving our elections and the integrity of the electoral process across the entire electoral value chain. President Buhari and the members of the National Assembly are accountable to Nigerians and therefore, the aspirations and wishes of Nigerians must subsume any parochial or selfish interest. Importantly, President Buhari and the National Assembly must not be seen as sabotaging the efforts of the Election Management Board and Nigerians by making or encouraging laws that are retrogressive, unproductive, negative and retards the growth of Democracy.
The Centre for Transparency Advocacy is by this release in full support of the calls by other CSOs for the National Assembly in the spirit of patriotism to veto the president and pass the bill into law as a way forward to conducting a free, fair, and credible elections that will stand the tastes of time.
We equally, call on citizens, patriots, the civil society, students, religious and traditional leaders to prevail on the National Assembly to do the wishes of the people as we look forward to 2023 General Elections.
