Will President Buhari Now Sign the Amended Electoral Bill?
After crossing the t’s, dotting the i’s and acceding to the President’s request to expand the scope of party primaries to include indirect and consensus options, the National Assembly yesterday...
After crossing the t’s, dotting the i’s and acceding to the President’s request to expand the scope of party primaries to include indirect and consensus options, the National Assembly yesterday transmitted the amended Electoral Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent. But, the question is: Will the President sign?
With all eyes now glued to the Aso Villa; the home and office of the President, the 30 days countdown constitutionally allowed for the President to consult and ponder whether to sign the bill or decline assent as he did before has now commenced.
The debate is still out there in the public on what would be the decision of the President. Some analysts believe the President would have no choice than to sign the bill, having been very specific with the changes he wanted to be made to the first draft. But, there is also a league of skeptics who believe than the President and some principal members of the All Progressive Party’s objection to the bill go beyond the mode of primaries. This group fingers the electronic transfer of election results as discomforting to the ruling party.
Many Nigerians including several Civil Society Organisations have commended the multifarious electoral reforms incorporated into the new Electoral bill and the Independent National Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed his readiness to hit the ground running as soon as the President signs the bill and it becomes law.
Even, if the President declined his assent to the bill, many Nigerians expect the National Assembly to have the political will to veto the bill with two-thirds of its membership based on its conviction that the bill will move the country’s electoral process forward.
President’s Special Adviser on National Assembly, Senator Babajide Omoworare confirmed the transmission of the bill to the President in a statement titled, ‘Transmission of the Electoral Bill 2022,’ it reads: “The Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr. Olatunde Amos Ojo, has transmitted the authenticated copies of the Electoral Bill 2022 to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, on January 31, 2022.
“This was done in accordance with the provisions of Section 58 (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and the Acts Authentication Act Cap. A2 LFN 2004.
“Mr. President had withheld assent to the Electoral Bill 2021 transmitted to him on November 19, 2021. The electoral bill was thereafter reworked by the National Assembly and both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed the same on January 25, 2022.”
The National Assembly last week amended Clause Section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010, which is Clause 84 of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, by inserting the indirect primary and consensus options. Initially, the two arms of the National Assembly had passed different amendments but were able to harmonise to have a common version with the same content.
It is unclear how much consultations the President will indulge in before signing the amended bill. Before declining assent to the first amendment bill, the President sought opinions of the INEC and the National Communications Commission but it was the Minister of Justice’s memo that sealed the fate of the first amendment. He was reported to have advised the President to decline assent.
