Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) have told the National Assembly to drop the contentious direct primaries from the Electoral Act amendment Bill.
They stated that this is the best option rather than overriding President Muhammadu Buhari over the bill.
Jega said this on Sunday at the citizens’ townhall Electoral Bill 2021, organised by Yiaga Africa and partners.
According to him, the country will be better off if it goes into the next election with a new electoral law because it will enhance the integrity and the preparation of conduct of elections.
He said that the Bill contained quite a lot of good things that could enhance the integrity of the electoral process apart from issues of direct primaries because Nigeria has not had a substantive improvement on the electoral law since 2010.
“On direct primaries, clearly the electoral process will have better integrity if we do direct primaries appropriately. Members of the National Assembly know that governors manipulate the indirect primaries and think that if they move into direct primaries they will be able to free themselves from that kind of manipulation.
“However, we need to interrogate this situation very well, so my suggestion is to give INEC the law to begin preparation for the 2023 elections.
“The simplest way to do that is not to override the president but to drop the issue of direct primaries until we can ensure that parties can really hold direct primaries.
“You cannot throw the baby away with the bath water, so let’s not because of the direct primaries miss out on other good things in the law.
“This is so that we can have a law that can be assented to, so that INEC can prepare for the 2023 elections,” he said.
Jega urged the National Assembly to do the needful rather than contemplating overriding the President by removing the contentious provisions.
Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, in his remarks, said that the 36 State Governors are not afraid of direct primaries as being alleged by some Nigerians.
Sule, however, said that what they opposed was a method that could limit the choices of the people.
“In the APC constitution, we have three options: consensus, direct primaries and indirect primaries.
“The option should be left open and that it would not be a surprise that some parties may even adopt direct primaries.
“Governors are happy with the contributions made into the bill and from what I have heard, everyone is saying the same thing, so the issue of the direct primaries should be removed.
“I am not the closest to the president but working with the president all this while, I can say that President Buhari would sign the bill into law once the right things are done,” he said.
The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Akpata, expressed disappointment at how things turned out with the Bill.
Akpata said that everything about the Electoral Bill spelt progress but the right steps needed to be taken to get it right by thinking before implementation.
“I am saddened that everything is not going to work and then we go back to square zero.
“Everything about the bill spell progress for the country. The bill should have been passed long ago.
“The president and the National Assembly being of the same party should have ironed this out to avoid this logjam,” Akpata said.
He advised the National Assembly to take out the provision of direct primaries and transmit the bill immediately to the president for assent.
The Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, said that Nigeria had about 399 days to the 2023 elections and the timely passage of the bill would be in the interest of deepening democracy and national development.
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