Electoral Bill: Override Buhari’s veto, PDP govs tell N’Assembly

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors have charged the National Assembly to quickly conclude deliberations on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill either by overriding Mr President’s veto or deleting areas of complaints.

In a communique issued on Monday after the meeting of the PDP Governors’ Forum in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, they advised that the option of sustaining Mr President’s veto would lead to a quicker resolution and would deny Mr President the opportunity to once again truncate a reformed electoral jurisprudence for Nigeria.

“An early concluded Electoral Act is vital for credible elections,” the governors stated.

The PDP governors also lamented the continued state of insecurity in the country, the persistent and ceaseless flow of Nigerians’ blood on a daily basis in many parts of Nigeria, the near collapse of the security situation in Nigeria.

They submitted that the strategies to confront terrorists, kidnappers, bandits and other criminals is still a major problem of the APC administration.

“The meeting expressed regrets that Mr President is unwilling, from his recent comments discountenancing the proposals for state policing, to participate in reviewing the structural problems of tackling insecurity in Nigeria and urges Mr President to reconsider his position and consider decentralisation and restructuring of the security architecture as the most viable solution, together with proper arming, funding and training requirements for security agencies.

The governors stated that the nation’s economy has continued to deteriorate and Nigerians have become numb and accustomed to bad economic news as exemplified by the inconsistent and differential exchange rate regime, high interest rates, unsustainable unemployment figures and borrowing spree some of which have not been applied to important projects, and other bad economic indicators.

“In particular, it is clear that the APC Government is a massive failure when compared with the records of PDP in government. The PDP handed over a $550 billion economy (the largest in Africa), but under APC, Nigeria is the Poverty Capital of the world.

“In 2015, under PDP, the exchange rate was N198 per Dollar, it is now under APC almost N500 to a Dollar. In 2015, unemployment rate was 7.3% under PDP, it is now 33%, one of the highest in the world under APC. In 2015, the pump price of petroleum was N87 per litre, it is now N165 per litre and climbing under APC. Debt servicing now under APC takes over 98% of the Federal budget. The tales of woe is endless.

“The PDP Governors noted that the management of our oil and gas resources, the administration of Federation Account remittances have remained opaque, confusing and non-transparent. In addition, the transition to NNPC Ltd under the Petroleum Industry Act has not been properly streamlined to ensure that the interests of all the tiers of government are protected, consistent with the 1999 Constitution,” the communique stated.

The governors urged eligible Nigerians of all walks of life, particularly the youths, to register en masse with INEC to exercise their franchise in the 2023 general election.

It further noted that the next election is a very consequential election that should be used to end the dominance of very youth unfriendly APC Government; a government that had the arrogance to deny Nigerian youths of the use of Twitter, a business friendly tool for the young, for over a year. The youth should empower themselves to determine who leads them.

In attendance are: Governors Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto),  Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Douye Diri (Bayelsa), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa) and Bala Mohammed (Bauchi).

TheStar