By Kazeem Akintunde
The title of this piece is not original to me. It was coined by my former boss and editor, Simon Kolawole in one of his write-ups few years ago. I find it hard to believe that we are still debating whether the President will assent to the reworked electoral Act Amendment Bill which was sent back to him when the previous one was rejected by our man from Daura. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is torn between the devil and the deep blue sea as the waiting game continues. With few months to the next general elections, we still don’t have a clear-cut road map on how the process will pan out and the relevant laws that will guide the exercise.
Parenting: We have dropped the ball
The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, in December last year, informed his colleagues that the President had decided to withhold assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill 2021, passed by both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Many Nigerians were shocked when the President refused to assent to the Bill due to the fact that they believes there are provisions in the Bill that could strengthen our electoral process. Indeed, the Electoral Act amendment Bill 2021 makes provisions for the usage of card readers; clearly forbids members of political parties from taking up employment or appointment in INEC; clearly defines over-voting, and makes provision for electronic transmission of results. Aside from these, it also makes direct primaries compulsory for all political parties in choosing their various flag bearers.
Mr. President, on receipt of the Bill, promised to consult widely before he would append his signature to the Bill and indeed, wrote to the INEC, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the Federation to seek their inputs. It was not a surprise when Mr. President refused to assent to the Bill sighting various reasons why the Bill could not see the light of day.
One aspect of the Bill that the President was not comfortable with was the direct primaries clause hence his decision to throw away the baby with the bathwater.
President Buhari noted that compulsory direct primaries will lead to an increase in cost to political parties and INEC in the conduct of direct primaries in 8,809 wards across the country; make life difficult for small political parties; overstretch security agencies; violate freedom of choice by political parties and give rise to litigations. The President also noted that it will lead to an increase in vote-buying while also arguing that direct primaries are susceptible to manipulation.
Those were the reasons the President gave for withholding assent but political pundits assert that the real reason Mr. President withheld assent was the supremacy battle between state governors and the lawmakers for the control of the political parties ahead of the 2023 General Elections. Many political watchers are of the view, and rightly so, that it was state governors that put pressure on the President not to sign the Amendment Bill as the Direct Primaries clause was inserted by the lawmakers to take the control of the political parties away from the governors. Though many lawmakers were angry that the president refused to sign the Act into law, the possibility of overriding the President by invoking section 58 (5) of the 1999 constitution was considered, but the lawmakers at the end of the day decided not to toe the combative posture and agreed to rework the Bill to satisfy the President.
Both chambers of the National Assembly went back to the drawing board and came up with a new Electoral Act which was forwarded to the President on January 31st. Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Babajide Omoworare, in a one-page statement, titled, “Transmission of the Electoral Bill 2022,” stated that the Clerk to the National
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